Show goes on for Seattle’s Ivan and Alyosha after all their gear and trailer are stolen on tour
Jun 18, 2013, 12:12 PM | Updated: 1:18 pm
(Ivan and Alyosha image)
They say the show must go on, and up-and-coming Seattle band Ivan and Alyosha are doing the best they can after having all of their gear and their trailer stolen at a tour stop in Atlanta last week.
It was a huge blow for the band, enjoying its first taste of success with its acclaimed new album “All The Times We Had.” But the response has been overwhelming, as companies, family, friends and fans have jumped in to help donate gear and money to get them back on the road and the stage.
“It has been a crazy week in more ways than one but we’ve been inundated with calls and emails and Facebook and Twitter,” guitarist Tim Wilson told me when we caught up on the phone this week. “That has been humbling so it’s turned a bad situation into a positive thing.”
Rhapsody donated $10,000 while Amazon donated $5,000 soon after hearing the news. Even their church kicked in some money to help.
“We’ve been kind of overwhelmed by the support and the response to this,” Tim said.
The band discovered their van and trailer were stolen just a few hours after parking it across the street from an Atlanta Best Western, where they were catching a few hours of shut eye before hitting the road for their next tour stop. At first they thought it was towed, but then learned to painful truth.
“We eventually found the van ditched about 10 miles away, but the trailer was gone,” Tim said. “It was a total loss as far as merchandise and musical equipment was concerned.”
Along with all their instruments and amplifiers, they also lost thousands of dollars worth of T-shirts, CD’s and other merchandise they had just bought from their label.
“Some of the items are insured, some of them are not. A lot of them were vintage gear that we have that was probably stupid to bring on the road and it was honestly stupid to not have insurance for all of that stuff but you kind of never think it will happen to you.”
All told, it’s about $40,000 worth of stuff accumulated over a lifetime of hard work. The band has launched a new fundraiser on Pledge Music to help replace as much as they can, and are offering free downloads of the album on Noise Trade in hopes of raising a few bucks there as well.
“It’s honestly a little uncomfortable to accept help from other people because it requires admitting that you need.”
Still, the band is soldiering on. While they had to cancel one show, they borrowed a trailer and some gear from friends in Nashville and are using the donations to help keep their tour going. After their own headlining tour wraps up at the end of the month, they’ll head out for a series of shows supporting Brandi Carlile, before returning home to play Bumbershoot Sept. 2.
Related: Ivan and Alyosha visit KIRO Radio for a live performance and interview