Packing lists and kits explained

Every band has a story about the gig with no kick pedal, or the vocal mic that was "definitely in the bag". The problem is never that nobody knew what to bring; it is that the list was in someone's head, and that person assumed someone else had it.

expert.band keeps three connected lists: what the band owns, what a kind of show needs, and what this gig needs and who brings it. This article explains each and how they fit together.

The inventory: what the band owns

Gear starts with the inventory: every item the band owns or regularly brings. Each entry has a name, a category (Microphones, Cables, Stands, PA, Lights, Consumables, Merch), the quantity you own, and notes: a serial number, where the item lives, who owns it if it is personal gear the band relies on.

The inventory is shared and visible to every member, which answers the question "do we have a spare DI box?" without a message. The honest quantity is what you own: if the band owns four SM58s, the inventory says four, and no gig can plausibly need five.

Put consumables in too, with a note on where to buy them: batteries, gaffer tape, strings, drum sticks, spare fuses. Those are the items most often missing at 8 pm.

The thinking behind what to list, shared versus personal gear, and loss prevention is in running a gear inventory.

Kits: what a kind of show needs

A kit is a saved list of inventory items with quantities for one type of show. Build kits once, from the inventory:

• Acoustic duo: 2 vocal mics, 2 DI boxes, 4 XLR cables, 2 stands, the small mixer, 2 speakers, 1 power strip.
• Full band with own PA: everything, including subs, monitors, the drum mic set, 2 power distributors, the lighting bar.
• Full band, venue PA: instruments, in-ears, DI boxes, cables, no speakers.
• Festival, backline provided: cymbals, snare, pedals, guitars, personal cables, a spare of each.

Kits are templates. Changing a kit does not change packing lists already created from it, so a checklist you built last week stays as it was. Deleting an inventory item removes it from kits and packing lists; deleting a kit leaves existing checklists untouched.

The most useful kit is often the one per venue you play regularly: the Tuesday jazz club needs a fixed, small set, and the kit remembers it.

The gig checklist: what this gig needs and who brings it

Every gig has its own packing list. Open Packing on the gig page and either apply a kit (all its items land on the list with their quantities; items already on the list are not duplicated) or add single items from the inventory.

For each line set:

• Needed: the quantity for this gig, which can differ from what the band owns.
• Who brings it: a participant of the gig, or unassigned. Only participants (the line-up for this show) can be assigned, so mark the participants first.

Members see the items assigned to them on the gig page, on their phones. While loading, tick each item as packed; the list shows progress ("14 of 19 packed"), what is still missing and whose it is. After the gig, the same list in reverse: untick, reload, and nothing is left in the venue.

Print checklist gives a paper version, and the printed gig sheet (times, address, line-up, setlist) includes the packing list, so the sheet on the dashboard has everything.

A worked example

Saturday wedding, 7-piece, own PA, 90 km away.

1. Thursday: the leader marks the 7 participants and applies Full band with own PA. 31 items appear.
2. Quantities adjusted: 2 vocal mics become 3 because of a guest singer; the lighting bar is removed because the venue has lights.
3. Assignment: the drummer brings the drum mic set and stands; the bass player, who has the van, brings the PA, subs and cables; the keys player brings the DI boxes and the merch box; the guest-singer mic goes to the singer. Consumables to whoever is passing a shop.
4. Friday evening: everyone sees their items on the gig page. The keys player notices there are only 3 DI boxes in the inventory and 4 needed, and asks in the chat. One is borrowed.
5. Saturday, loading the van: the bass player ticks items as they go in. "29 of 31 packed": the gaffer tape and the guest mic are still missing. Two minutes to fix, before the van leaves rather than after.
6. 1 am: same list, in reverse. The merch box was under a table; the list said so.

For the categories and per-person thinking behind a good list, see the band packing checklist, and for the van itself, packing the van.

Who can do what

The band leader and managers build the inventory and the kits, and create and assign the gig checklist. Members see the inventory, see their own assignments on the gig page, and tick items off. Anyone at the van can tick.

What it does not do

• No barcode or serial scanning; the serial number is a note.
• No valuation or insurance register, though the notes field holds a serial and a purchase date if you want a starting point for gear insurance.
• No reminders about packing. The checklist is on the gig page and the gig sheet; nobody is texted about their DI boxes.
• No assignment to people outside the band. A hired engineer bringing the PA is a line assigned to the member who arranged it, with a note.
• Personal instruments are usually not on the list. Nobody forgets their guitar; they forget the spare strings.

Setting it up in 30 minutes

• 10 minutes: walk through the storage room or the van and type the inventory. Twenty to forty items for most bands.
• 10 minutes: build two kits, your most common show and your smallest.
• 5 minutes: mark the participants of the next gig and apply a kit.
• 5 minutes: assign everything to a name. Unassigned items are the ones that get forgotten.

Do this today

• List every item that has ever been forgotten at a gig; put those in the inventory first.
• Add consumables with a note on where to buy them.
• Build the kit for your next show type and apply it to the next gig.
• Tell the band that their items are on the gig page, and ask the person loading the van to tick as they go.

Full reference in gear and packing and gigs. Kits and checklists are part of every plan; start the 30-day trial.