TO PLAN Dashboard Confessional’s 2022 tour with Jimmy Eat World, which begins Feb. 27, the veteran emo band’s tour manager, Jack Funk, started making calls in late December to fill two buses with 12 musicians and hire a production crew. Even at the last minute, this process was, in normal times, routine.
Not this year.
“It’s a nightmare,” he says. “I started talking to people: This guy’s busy, this guy’s busy. Everybody wants money. And rightfully so — they’re in demand. But we’re not Bon Jovi. We can’t afford it.”
In late January, with barely enough time left before the tour started, Funk found the final crew member, a front-of-house engineer. “It’s really stressful,” he says.
For touring stars, venues and promoters, everything is anxious in 2022. The pandemic…