Article on eco-friendly tours (mentions PJ)

aqua ames

http://www.startribune.com/457/story/751879.html

Last update: October 18, 2006 – 8:47 PM

Rockers get on the green bus
Environmentally friendly concert tours aren't just for hippie acts anymore.
Chris Riemenschneider, Star Tribune

When British band Gomez pulled into town Monday for a gig at the Fine Line Music Café, it was literally riding one of rock's hot new trends: a biodiesel tour bus.
The environmentally friendly vehicle -- coupled with other eco-centric initiatives such as organic-cotton T-shirts and a ban on plastics backstage -- is a new thing for Gomez but an increasingly common sight at rock concerts.

"You're seeing it more and more," singer-guitarist Ian Ball said. "Rock bands across America are driving around lost at 3 a.m. trying to find the nearest [biodiesel fuel] pump so they can make it to the next gig -- and save the planet."

At the Lollapalooza festival in Chicago, fans earned tickets for food and drinks by turning in plastic cups and bottles at recycling centers. At the Bonnaroo fest in Tennessee, one stage was run entirely by solar power.

Even that roaming punk-rockathon the Warped Tour went green this summer, using low-emission trucks and recycled products.

"It was pretty weird being backstage at Warped, drinking out of recyclable aluminum water cans and eating with corn-plastic forks," said bassist Matt Taylor of the Minneapolis band Motion City Soundtrack, one of this year's Warped headliners. "It was punk rock in its own way, because I think it made a strong statement."

Sebastian Davin of Dropping Daylight, another local band that performed on Warped, said the forks "didn't work very well, but we would joke that if the food sucked one day we could just eat the fork."

Got BioWillie?

Many top-tier acts have used low-emission tour vehicles and recycled products for years, including the Dave Matthews Band, Pearl Jam, Jack Johnson and Bonnie Raitt.

Country icon Willie Nelson's pioneering use of biodiesel has produced plenty of one-liners about his green-burning bus (he's a notorious marijuana user), but his interest is no joke. He even lent his name to a line of fuel made from vegetable oil: BioWillie.

What's new to the road this year is the opportunity for less well-off acts to follow eco-friendly tour practices, which can be costly. A gallon of high-blend biodiesel often runs more than $3 (it's around $2.70 locally now), and organic products can cost twice as much as conventional items.

In Gomez's case, these costs were offset by a corporate sponsor, Clif Bar. The energy-food company started its own sponsorship program, GreenNotes, offering bands an unspecified amount of money in exchange for pledging to tour with certain environmental standards.

"It's a great cross-pollination," said Chris Baumgartner, sustainability director for Music Matters, a Minneapolis-based marketing company that connected Clif Bar with Gomez. "Clif Bar customers find out more about Gomez. Gomez fans can get exposed to Clif Bar. And people concerned about the environment can applaud them both."

So far, touring with this extra consciousness has created some challenges for Gomez.

"We have noticed it costs more, and it definitely requires a lot more planning," said drummer Olly Peacock.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, 554 of the nation's 170,000 U.S. gas stations -- and only two in the Twin Cities -- sell high-blend biodiesel, which typically is 99 percent vegetable-derived.

Gomez didn't know about Minneapolis-based biodiesel distributor Sundays Energy, which has delivered fuel to artists such as Pearl Jam, the Indigo Girls and String Cheese Incident in recent months.

"A lot of times we waive delivery fees in exchange for free tickets," director of operations Kate Hallet said. "The bands' bus drivers especially love us."

But there have been upsides to Gomez's initiatives beyond the obvious saving-the-planet benefits. Bell said that "instead of the crummy backstage deli tray or Subway sandwiches," the band has enjoyed eating all-organic food.

"We're eating healthier and even drinking better," he said.

Drinking better?

"Yeah. Organic wine, instead of worse stuff in plastic bottles. That means we've been a lot more civilized onstage."

For local concert professionals, catering to eco-friendly tours can be a challenge. The notorious contract riders of old -- like Van Halen's demand for a bowl of M&Ms with the brown ones picked out -- have been replaced by requests for organic honey or reusable dinnerware.

"It can be a problem when it's some vague anti-corporate demand like 'No Dasani water,' " said veteran promoter Sue McLean. "But for the most part, these requests are getting easier to deal with, and they're things we should probably be doing anyway."

One popular Minnesota band, Cloud Cult, has followed strict environmental policies for years. It has a biodiesel van and is active in the NativeEnergy program, a key cause of the Dave Matthews Band. Participants figure out their carbon-emissions totals during a tour and then offset them with donations to develop alternative fuels.

"It's a lot easier than many bands think," said Cloud Cult singer Craig Minowa, who tries to shy away from "sounding like some preachy folk singer" when it comes to environmental causes.

"In this case, a band's actions can speak loudly," he said. "And it's a lot easier for a band or any entertainer to bring some limelight to [eco initiatives] than, say, some organic farmer."


Chris Riemenschneider • 612-673-4658 • chrisr@startribune.com

©2006 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.

keeponrockin

When I saw Bonnie Raitt (amazing show by the way) she mentioned something about using Bio-Diesel.