Favourite Halifax band
Wintersleep played the
Pemberton Festival this weekend - but they had to do it with gear borrowed from other bands, because their van got broken into and cleaned out in Baton Rouge, Louisiana the night before.
The group played a gig at the
Spanish Moon along with
Wolf Parade, and after witnessing a "crazy domestic dispute" - while they were waiting for a cab, a woman pulled up, dragged her guy out of the car and started beating on him, then got back in to the car and floored it with the guy on the hood - the band members headed back to their hotel, where they had an hour to kill before heading to the airport for their 4:30 a.m. flight to Pemberton.
They had last-minute showers and got packed up, then went back outside.
"I headed out to the van, noticed the shotgun door open, and thought, ‘Oh shit. Everything is open,'" recounts drummer
Loel Campbell in an interview with CBC Radio 3. "I looked in the back and realized, ‘Hey, most of our shit isn't here.' Then it started sinking in."
Gone were several guitars, much of Campbell's drum kit, a Fender Precision Bass and other small items.
"I just walked back to the hotel room with my hands on my head, defeated. I'm sure tears were brewing. And I had to say, ‘Hey everyone, we just lost $10,000 dollars worth of gear between now and 45 minutes ago.'"
The group realized they had no choice but to "suck it up" and catch their flight to Pemberton, where they played on gear cobbled together from other bands. Campbell says the show went relatively well - even though he even had to borrow drumsticks.
"They even stole my f*cking sticks. I could not believe playing one of our biggest shows ever, I did not have a set of sticks," he says. "Someone found me this really thin pair. I just grabbed them and flipped them around and used the butt end for the whole show."
Since the theft, the group has filed a police report and sent out a MySpace plea for help from Baton Rouge locals who might spot their gear.
So what can other fans of the band do to help?
Says Campbell only half-jokingly, "Make donations."
