With gas prices at an all-time high this summer, many bands cut back on touring during what is usually prime concert season. Traveling shorter distances and sticking to big cities, bands without the luxury of a label suffered under the weight of record-breaking gas prices.But with a now official U.S. recession, gas prices have fallen almost 57 percent from $4.114 a gallon in July to $1.773 on Friday.So cheaper gas means more vans packed with amps, guitars and hung over musicians will be hitting the pavement, right?Not necessarily. For one thing, tours have to be booked a couple months in advance, so unless gas prices stay low through the spring, there won’t be major overhauls to tour dates until the summer.”The gas drop didn’t affect our immediate plans because they’ve been booked for a while,” said Josh Nee, political science senior and drummer for Man Plus Building and We Landed On The Moon!. “But we don’t have to be so strict with getting from point A to point B. We get to be a little more touristy and look around each city.”Nee said We Landed on the Moon! has had its winter tour dates booked for about a month and a half. The band will travel up the east coast, going as far north as Toronto. “It’s going to be very useful if gas is still low then, but it probably won’t change our tour much,” he said. “It just makes it easier.”Local band Streamline is spending the winter recording its next album and plans to tour in the spring when the record is finished.Guitarist Brad Ourso, University alumnus, said if gas prices stay low the band would make an extra effort to play towns they wouldn’t have been able to before.”We would save maybe 30 to 40 percent more,” Ourso said. “It’s that significant of an impact when you’re driving around a huge van.”But Ourso does not expect prices to stay as low as they are now.”I don’t think we’ll have that luxury because prices will be back up by then,” he said.America agrees. Americans are not changing their gas-saving tactics in reaction to a failing economy and in expectation of gas prices rising again, according to the Los Angeles Times. “Everybody’s kind of assuming that gas is not going to stay this low,” said Nee.He said the cost of all commodities go down during a recession, including gasoline.”Once the economy gets bustling again, the prices will start creeping back up,” Nee said.Regardless of gas prices, up-and-coming bands have to tour to survive. For a band city hopping in a van each night, gas is going to be a major expense even with low prices. “You’re going to pay a lot of money for gas regardless,” Nee said. “Gas is one of those expenditures that’s going to get you either way.”—-Contact Lauren Walck at [email protected]