On Tour With: wars — When The Horn Blows

Rugby five piece wars head out on tour this January and February in support of their EP ‘As Within /// So Without’, which is set for release the 25th January via A Wolf At Your Door Records. We had a chat with them about tour essentials and their plans for the live set.

Are you excited about the tour? What is the best bits you look forward to when hitting the road?
Playing live is sort of the ultimate goal for us really. We relish that time we get to spend out on the road playing shows and meeting people, much more than we do when we’re locked away sorting things out behind the scenes. It’s so easy to forget that feeling of putting everything you have out onto a stage - so yeah, we’re super excited to be getting back to playing a few shows. I think the thing we look forward to most is that point when you’re a few days in, and you’re right into the swing of things, your daily routine is worked out, you’re confident in the set you’re playing… at that point you get to just relax and focus on the enormity that is playing shows every night.

What the main tour essentials you pack and why?
So long as I’ve got the Nintendo Switch and the laptop you can take me anywhere. Fortunately the days of cramming the van full of crisp-sandwich paraphernalia are basically behind us, so as long as you’ve got stage clothes and daily clothes and something to at least create the illusion of being fresh each morning, you’re good to go.

What is your best tour experience?
In 2017 we went out with Still Remains, a band most of us grew up listening to. It was mad to get to see our childhood come to life on stage every night and play alongside them as well. They were also the best dudes, and we made some friends for life.

What is your worst tour experience?
We don’t really have any horror stories of tours - only the ups and downs we all go through. As is the way with developing bands, sometimes your tours fall to bits in your hands. A few years back we tried to arrange a short run with some friends of ours, and everything that could have gone wrong seemed to. One band split up days before we were supposed to head out, which caused promoters to become flaky about what was going ahead and what wasn’t. Which meant turning up to empty, locked up venues, nights with no promoters at all, and a lot of expense that we couldn’t afford to cover. These things happen and they’re learning experiences, but I’ll be glad if that never happens again.

Who has the most disgusting habits on the tour bus? And what is it?
He’ll kill me if I name and shame, but let’s just say there’s one of our number whose diet has quite an impact on the rest of us when we’re locked in a van with them for hours at a time.

What can we expect from this tour? Is there anything new in the set list?
Yeah, we’ve wiped the slate clean for this run, and are putting in all the new ones and a few surprises too. Our EP launch on the 25th we’ve got a longer set and we’re playing some tracks from the album we’ve never done live before.

If you could tour with anyone, who would it be and why?
Everyone would say something different here but I know we’d love to travel back in time and play alongside Define the Great Line era Underoath.

You can catch wars at the following live dates -

Jan 25             Leamington Spa         Zephyr Lounge
Jan 26             Huddersfield               The Parish
Jan 27             Manchester                 Satan’s Hollow
Feb 02             Leicester                     The Shed
Feb 03             Bridgwater                  Cobblestones
Feb 16             Northampton              Black Prince
Feb 17             Witney                         Fat Lils
Feb 22             Luton                           Live at Harvey’s
Feb 24             Southampton              Joiners (supporting Area 11)
Feb 27             Birmingham                Asylum 2 (supporting Area 11)
Feb 28             Cardiff                         The Globe (supporting Area 11)