Gear theft is a sad reality of the touring life, but despite its many, many months on the road, Miami-birthed Torche had been lucky enough to avoid a major incident -- until this past Friday. The band is currently on tour with Circa Survive and Coheed and Cambria, a package that stopped at Chicago's Congress Theatre that day. The band loaded its equipment into its van after the show, and sometime that night, some lowlifes completely cleaned it out.
Among the stolen loot: Steve Brooks' beautiful black Les Paul Custom, Jonathan Nunez' First Act bass, a slew of pedals and cables, and of course, a laptop, an iPod, and some digital cameras. Disturbingly also gone, though, are the band members passports -- an extra-stinging blow, considering the tour was scheduled to continue on into Canada. Coheed and Circa Survive have gone off to continue the tour, while Torche has been forced to drop off those foreign dates.
Meanwhile, the band, which completely supports itself off no-frills touring, is trying to soldier on by collecting donations and borrowing gear. Donations can be sent via PayPal to [email protected]. Hit the jump for a statement from the band's label, Hydra Head, as well as a list of everything stolen (just in case you're going to be around a Chicago pawn shop any time soon.)
Here's some of what Hydra Head had to say about the incident on its blog:
When we woke up this morning there was a frowny face text from Stevo saying Torche's van was broken into overnight while in Chicago, and piles of shit was stolen....needless to say, it hasn't been a good day for them. We're getting a full listing from them of what was stolen, but the quick rundown is that equipment, guitars, laptops, passports, personal belongings and, sadly, more was taken. They are out with Coheed and Cambria this month, and unfortunately had to cancel tonights show in Detroit, and are also forced to cancel the Canadian dates as well due to passports having been stolen. While C 'n C is in Canada Torche is already sorting out potential DIY gigs in the states...tentatively for Vermont, Providence, and Wilkes-Barre, PA. We will have updates on these (presumably) basement shows the second we get them from the band...(which pretty much means we'll have an update for you an hour before they play the shows;)
Many of you have emailed us and the band about donating to help the band through this stretch. You guys are all sweet and thoughtful, THANK YOU. The band ain't livin' large, and although this Coheed tour is a chance to play in front of a shitload of potential new fans, its still a very hand to mouth touring commitment for them. That's the round about way of saying that these boys could use any love right about now. And also, Ricky could clearly use a shirt.
Donations can be paypal'd to [email protected]
And here's a list of everything that was stolen:
Custom Electrical Guitar Company bass w/hardcase #220
First Act custom bass w/hardcase serial number # JN-0901002
Black Gibson Custom Les Paul w/SKB hardcase (has chip on the top L
side of headstock, visible neck repair on top side of the neck, may
have missing paint opposite vol and tone knobs if sticker was removed).
Custom woodfinish guitar w/hardcase
Acoustic 370 Bass Head
2 x SKB PS25 pedal boards
2 x Boss tuning pedals
MXR Phase 90
Boss DD5 pedal
Boss guitar EQ pedal
Custom 3 way amp selector (metallic blue)
Fulltone OCD pedal
Aguilar Tone Hammer pedal
Boss Bass EQ pedal
Shure Beta 57
Misc Mogami, Monster, and George L's cable
Suitcase style 7 space guitar stand
Black iPod Touch
Black Compaq Presario laptop
Nikon Blue Coolpix camera
Sony CyberShot camera
Garmin 205W GPS
Black Luggage containing: tubes, guitar strings, instrument cables,
speaker cables, tuning pegs, surge protectors.
