Smaller Bands Cancelling Tours Because of Gas

Singer-guitarist, 23-year-old Steven Garcia has been budgeting and planning out the tour that his Houston band, Something Fierce, has planned for this summer and their third summer tour. The dates have been booked and they were ready until he ran the numbers. He told the Associated Press, "Once I ran the numbers it was a 'There's no (expletive) way' kind of moment."

After much deliberation and grumbling from the bookers who'd scheduled them, they had to cancel their tour. Bands cramming into creaky and full vans to play during the summer at dive bars and house parties is a summer ritual for independent bands all across the country trying to get exposure, reported the AP.

The $4 a gallon gas has become a large part of what touring bands are concerned about. The $2,500 that they would have spent to go to Vancouver, Canada and back would have been too much to take. "There's no way we could sustain a blow that big," he told AP.

Some west coast bands are even traveling to the east coast because the cities are closer together and it's better to have venues closer together if one of them doesn't pan out. Bands are also getting into smaller cars and touring together when they can to save, reported AP.