Last night, Pond played the Doug Fir, and while in town, the Australian band’s van was broken into. Their sound guy—who is also Tame Impala’s sound guy, as Pond also shares members with that band, who are also from Perth—had his bag stolen which held thousands of dollars of gear and equipment. Perhaps worst of all, it contained hard drives that had live recordings from the tour that were going to be part of Pond’s next album. This is irreplaceable; no pawn-shop payday will come close to the immaterial value of those recordings.
This is sickening, awful news, for artists to come this far from home and be robbed while in our city. If you know anything at all, or have any info about how to recover the bag that contains these belongings, please contact the band at the email address of hello at spinningtopmusic dot com and no questions will be asked. They’re even offering a cash reward—that’s how important the stolen items are. Here is the post that Pond put on Facebook earlier today:
Hey Portland!! We had a pelican bag of gear stolen from our van ..
If ANYONE knows ANYTHING we’re willing to offer a CASH REWARD for any information – we’re desperate for the hard drives as they have countless hours of music and effort stored!!PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE spread the word and talk to your mates and let us know how you go ..
(Ps. no questions asked for anyone with any info or esp if they can come up with goods)
This happens to bands all the time. So sad but bands need to be more vigilant. They need to buy one of those armored humvees
It was broken into at the Doug Fir? Where exactly? There are different street cameras around there.
Portland’s Pond was better.
For those of you aspiring to be a professional journalist, it might be wise to learn the difference between theft and robbery.
Awful. My car was broken into last night. It was parked by Alhambra at 50th and Hawthorne.
@matt Caldwell how are bands supposed to be more vigilant? It’s unrealistic to expect bands to not be in attendance at the show they’re playing. The Doug Fir really ought to let bands park their vans in the parking lot; this isn’t the first time it’s happened, it won’t be the last.
@ Robert Mannering, basically people just need to stop leaving bags in the open areas of vehicles. The time it takes to break a window and grab a bag is only a few seconds, so the risk is virtually nil while the payoff is potentially high. Doug Fir and other venues need to be more diligent in explaining this to their scheduled acts and provide a safe storage area if the band does not have a secure bus.
Welcome to Portland, where the PPB doesn’t really give a shit about property crimes.
That’s messed up but people need to realize these are tough times, there are broke people on the street, homeless folks without a pot to piss in, there are ex cons with all kinds of theft and robbery skills and they don’t give a F about your stuff, they will pawn it or trade it for dope or money and never look back, you can’t anyone because the good thieves look just like you and me, normal everyday folk, it’s not safe to leave your vehicle unattended in some places, if you have a car alarm they will skip yours and move on to next possible victim unless you have valuables laying out sop they can do a quick smash and grab, go on youtube and search “slider thieves”, thieves are very creative and if you don’t guard your stuff they will take it..
As a former road warrior, I would also suggest paying someone to sit in the van for your set if you can, a trusted bar employee or friend of the owner, for example. You can let them sit there for a couple hours, for $20, which could save you a heckuva lot money down the line. I know a lot of bands are on tight budgets so this may not be an option. Unfortunately, then, the only alternative is never leaving anything in your van worth stealing. It sucks, it’s inconvenient, but I have had gear stolen twice — including an entire p.a. — and learned the hard way that there’s always someone watching for an opportunity to rob you blind. The key is to never ever give them that opportunity. There simply is no other way to protect yourself — thieves tend to do nothing but look for such opportunities, so they’re betting at ripping you off than you are at not getting ripped off. It’s also a good idea to not play venues that don’t provide some sort of camera or physical surveillance of the lot where you’re parked — make sure you ask about that before getting booked there. Every club should have at least two spots reserved for a performer’s vehicles, or some sort of alternate security, say paying a neighbor for a lot or someone’s driveway. There are ways around this, but too many bands AND clubs are lazy about this until it’s too late.