If you don't have a bus, touring can be brutal, especially now that gas prices have basically put the occasional night in a cheap motel beyond the financial reach of most independent and underground acts still taking to the road. The web has made it a little easier to hit up folks you don't know for a floor on which to crash, but there's not really any central, organized community of fans and bands willing to open their doors for some poor, tired travelers they really don't even know.

Oh, wait. Yes there is.

Better Than The Van is a new social network dedicated to hooking up touring acts with places to stay. Users are encouraged to sign up in order to widen the network, but any group planning a tour can plug in some information, and get a list of members in various cities, if there are any.

(No members listed for Tampa, St. Petersburg or Gainesville came up on my search ... come on, people!)

The site's blogs, members and moderators help keep people honest - if you've got cat poop all over your floor or lampshades made of human skin, it will come out, and you will not be allowed to lure unsuspecting musicians to infection or injury. Fear of the unknown is about the only thing I can see keeping this great idea from becoming a vital, successful component of the DIY tour experience. As somebody who's hosted traveling bands, and been given a place to stay while on tour, I can say that the good experiences vastly outnumber the bad ones - most douchebags generally won't go through the time and trouble of having a bunch of strangers come to their houses, just so they have a captive audience for their douchebaggery. Plus, there was the time that one band brought their itemized tacklebox full of drugs ...