Bandsintown, a site that tracks music acts and keeps users up to date on when their favorite acts are coming to a venue nearby, has released its annual Top 10 of the heaviest touring acts on the road. American Aquarium, an alternative country act from Raleigh, NC takes the prize for 2014 with 206 gigs played as of publication.
Saving Abel still hits the stage plenty considering their relative success in the rock scene. That band came up just short of Aquarium, playing 204 shows. Those were the only two acts that managed to crack 200 gigs for the year.
The 1975 came in third with 195 shows played while the rest of the Top 10 was dominated by EDM DJ's, starting with The Chainsmokers at no. 4 with 192 shows played. Steve Aoki (186 shows), DVBBS (185) and Quintino (179). Not to take anything away from the very busy years those guys put in but we got a chuckle out of the comment left on the article at Digital Music News: "You should get more points if you're dragging a drum set around to all these tour dates."
Your correspondent has alway had the idea that smaller punk acts were the busiest of tourers and the list gives some credence to this idea. Ska outfit The Toasters logged 189 gigs while hardcore act Being As An Ocean played 187 dates.
The only act we haven't mentioned yet is multi-instrumentalist Zach Deputy, who got on the list with his 180 shows.
However a different methodology, proposed by Songkick, actually places The 1975 at the top due to the distance the band travelled while playing its shows. The band put 155,171 miles on the odometer with its 2014 itinerary.
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