Great songs, energetic live shows and a faithful, growing fanbase are important for keeping a band going, but Spitalfield vocalist/guitarist Mark Rose says bands often overlook smaller details, which can kill a band’s momentum and potentially its career. One detail in particular is the band’s home away from home.

“We try to maintain our van as much as we can,” Rose says. “You know, if there’s a problem with the brakes, getting them replaced right away. Tire blowouts are pretty common, especially on the trailer.”

Rose says a lot of bands have problems with their touring vehicles, but those problems usually aren’t a constant nag.

“They kind of come and go. Weather is a big factor,” he says. “They seem to come in packs actually; like, we’ll have a whole bunch of problems on one tour and then get through a few tours without a problem at all.”

The amount of hassle can sometimes depend on what region of the country a band is touring in, Rose says.

“Down in the Southwest where it’s super hot, the van overheats a lot and up in the Northwest near the mountainous areas, its just hell on the breaks,” he says. “The East Coast is pretty much the best place for a van to be because the drives are fairly short, ’cause most of the cities are a few hours apart and, other than rain and cold, it’s not as bad there.”

Rose says a long stretch of highway in Wyoming, which recently claimed the life of Bayside’s drummer and put its bassist in the hospital, is a prime location for accidents.

“The place that their van flipped – right outside of Cheyenne – is a very common spot for bands to get in accidents,” he says. “It’s a really dangerous stretch of highway with really bad winds and a lot of black ice.”

Spitalfield’s current tour, which began Nov. 4, will take the Dave Grohl-influenced emo-rock band on a trek through a much less treacherous region of the country, which, he says, the band has visited a few times in the past.

“We’ve played most Midwest colleges at some point – sometimes in tour form, sometimes just random shows here and there,” he says. “This is two weeks of headlining dates with some bands that we wanted to bring out.”

Rose says one of the band’s most enjoyable tours included dates in a handful of European countries during its most recent trip abroad.

“The U.K. portion, which would be Scotland, Wales and England – all those shows were sold out in advance, roughly 5,000 tickets sold for those eight shows, so that was wild,” he says. “Being in Germany and Holland definitely was a new experience for us and I think, for our first time there, it was pretty good. We were there with Silverstein.”

Rose says the portion of the tour in Europe went well, even though the band hadn’t had much publicity there. The band, he says, will hopefully be returning to get its name out in greater capacity.

“I thought we were received pretty well. Of course, most people did not know who we were,” he says. “So now the key is to get back there sometime within the next year and try to build upon what we started. Overall, it was great, you know, sharing a bus with some of our best friends and playing music in other countries is pretty intense.”

Who: Spitalfield,Plain White Tees, the Audition, Dropping Daylight

Where: House of Bricks, 525 E. Grand, Des Moines

When: 6 p.m. Friday, Nov. 25

Cost: $10 in advance, $12 day of show