Today, NYC pop trio Parlour Tricks begins their U.S. tour. On Monday, they’ll be in St. Louis to perform alongside Electric Six and our own Superfun Yeah Yeah Rocketship! It’ll be a fun, noisy way to begin your week.

The band was kind enough to let us into their pre-tour prep world. Check out this rad playlist that the gals listen to when packing up. They also shared some exclusive photos of what it takes to survive and thrive on the road:

 

1) MERCH: New shipments of merch = van Tetris. 9 times out of 10, we underestimate how much merch we need and end up having a shipment sent to us somewhere on the road. But taking too much in the first place automatically means less space for humans in the van….It’s a gamble.

2) GIANT PELICAN CASE BASS RIG: Brian says — “Due to my total inability to keep track of things separately, I decided I needed one big case with dedicated slots for each thing. Plus, I like using old gear, and no matter how careful you are, something inevitably breaks a little every time you load and unload the van. Take care of your gear and it takes care of you.”

3) SPD: Terry says — “This little box of joy allows me to play many different sounds and samples – without it, I’d have to travel with much more equipment. So instead of a van full of drum gear, we have a van full of merch and the girls’ suitcases…”

4) MEDICINE: Multivitamins. Hand sanitizer. Advil PM. Last tour we basically had a pharmacy that lived in the van, and it was a game changer. Pretty much any ailment, we had a cure at the ready. These are three of the essentials. Also bandaids. We always have bandaids.

5) MICS: Lily says, “We have three chrome Telefunken mics, which we treasure. We’re like Gollum about these microphones. Our preciouses. They travel together in a Pelican case along with their clips and extra XLRs. The mics can be mysteriously finicky and sometimes a venue’s XLR won’t fit one of them for no discernible reason, so we have extra cables just in case.”

So now that you know what it takes for Parlour Tricks to get on the road, won’t you step out on Monday and catch their set at The ‘bird? If you still need convincing, enjoy this NPR-endorsed video for the band’s snappy single, “Broken Hearts/Bones”: