The international rock band’s first US tour is a moment to be celebrated and a sign that years of hard work have paid off. But just days after their American debut, members of Singaporean emo-rock band Forest experienced a new rite of passage for some touring American musicians when they stayed overnight at a hotel in California.
A few hours later, when I returned to my rental van, I realized I had been robbed.
“In Singapore, we kind of joked about it. Oh, your band is only legal when your stuff is stolen,” said 36-year-old bassist Darrell Lazer. “Then it really happened.”
Forrest and the Oklahoma band they toured with, Ben Quad, hardly the first A musician on tour in America is robbed. (In 1999, Sonic Youth famously Lost an entire truckload of gear ) But for a band coming from a safe country like Singapore, the experience was still a shock.
Chris Martinez, 29, of San Diego, said it was “the worst luck I’ve ever had.” He discovered the band many years ago while on a business trip to Singapore.
The robbery raised concerns among fans of both bands, who were able to purchase replacement instruments with donations of over $9,000. They didn’t miss a show and ended the tour on a high note with a sold-out concert at a bar in Queens on Tuesday.
“They seem to have gotten over it,” said Martinez, who donated $200 to the band’s crowdfunding campaign after learning of the robbery. “Keep a positive attitude and try not to let it bring you down.”
The May 1 robbery left Forrest unrealistic for a cross-country tour he had spent months planning and had been looking forward to for years — entitled “Ride the Loser, Go to Walmart.” It was an early game. It happened a few days after the tour started in Seattle and hours after the show in Oakland.
When the weary musicians from both bands stumbled into the Hampton Inn in Hayward, Calif. around 1:30 a.m., they left their gear in the 15-passenger rental van they shared on tour. They parked next to security cameras as a precaution, but to no avail. When I returned to the parking lot shortly after 11:00 am, I noticed that some boxes containing guitars, basses, pedals, clothing and merchandise cash had fallen. Sales were stolen.
The theft was the latest in an area of California on the rise in property crimes such as shoplifting and car break-ins. Hotel management told the band that security camera footage showed no theft. A location tag on one piece of equipment appears to indicate the stolen equipment was brought into an Oakland apartment, but police said there was no easy way to retrieve it.
“The police told us, ‘Unless we go to the pawn shop, we can’t do anything,'” said Ben Quad lead guitarist Edgar Viveros, 27. The pawn shop they called said it wasn’t.
Instead of canceling the tour, the band decided to continue playing with borrowed equipment. They also set up a crowdfunding page, and he was surprised to see $6,000 raised in about four hours.
Imre Griga, a 23-year-old fan from Columbia, Missouri, who attended three of the band’s tour dates this month, said in an email that the robbery was “a bit heartbreaking.” “I think the whole community felt that Forrest deserved better for their first tour in America.”
Within days, both band members were playing on new instruments. We continued working a bit longer without the pedalboard that Ben Quad usually uses to play samples between sets, such as the theme from the movie Austin Powers. However, an alternative was eventually found.
Hometown in Singapore, robbery stories, and fan support, made a headline. Some readers commented on their own experience being robbed in the United States. Others wondered how all three members of Forrest could be so naive when they all had day jobs and toured on vacation.
For Forrest, this is not the first time he has toured abroad, having performed in the Asia-Pacific region for many years. But on his first trip to the United States, he loved watching the desert, trees, and snowy mountains roll past the window of his van.
They also kept a list of the “funniest things” they’d seen, like people fighting in a convenience store or a Seattle woman who threw her bag down three flights of stairs in a subway station. The band’s drummer Niki Koh, 31, said she particularly enjoyed visiting shops selling “everything you can’t find in Singapore”, including guns, knives and hunting gear.
“It’s a culture shock,” he said in a video interview from Kansas City, “but at the same time, it’s very interesting.”
