18 December 21 - 27, 2023 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents L ane had just finished playing a local show in Dallas and loaded her gear into her van. It was late July in 2021, and she drove home but didn’t unload her gear. The next day, she woke up, went to work at a guitar store, followed by her second job at a record store. It was while she was work- ing at the record store that she’d gone out to her van to grab her Jazzmasster only to dis- cover it was gone. “I was dumb enough to leave my gear in my van,” Lane said. “It is the dumbest thing that you can do.” Lockjaw lead guitarist Rick Perry knows the feeling. He has heard his share of stories about gear theft over his more than three de- cades shredding guitar locally as part of heavy metal bands Warlock, Gammacide and Warbeast. Perry knew the steps to keep his gear pro- tected. He always locked the gear trailer when he was traveling with the band and parked it in view of their motel room window. He’d also never leave his guitars in the back- stage areas, especially at smaller venues. Smaller venues around North Texas such as the Revelers Hall in Dallas don’t have a green room like the larger venues where musicians could lock up their gear, said Jason Roberts, a musician and co- owner of the Revelers Hall. Nor do they hire security to watch the band’s instru- ments. Musicians, Roberts explained, are usually expected to keep up with their own equipment. And while gear being stolen from a small club wouldn’t be unheard of, Roberts said they usually don’t have to worry about it at the Revelers Hall since the musicians are of- ten playing trumpets and trombones, not necessarily the most sought-after items for a quick flip. Roberts did have an acoustic guitar stolen from the Hall. It was a cheap one that he had on display in the front window. “Someone threw a rock through the window and walked away with it,” Roberts said. Something similar happened to Perry. About a year before Lane’s guitar theft, Perry had left his gear in his hatchback in front of his house after a rehearsal one night. He woke up the next morning only to dis- cover his passenger-side car window had been shattered and his pedal board was gone. “It wasn’t a huge thing,” Perry said. “I definitely felt violated. They had broken the window, and it turned out to be a bigger has- sle than anything getting that fixed. I defi- nitely learned my lesson and always bring my stuff inside now.” Perry figured the thief only got about $60 each for the five pedals zip-tied to the pedal board. The theft stings a little more when the gear is valued. In 2018, the Stone Foxes, a fairly popular band from San Francisco, had their van and trailer filled with gear — val- ued at $60,000 — stolen from the parking lot of a La Quinta Inn in Grand Prairie. “You know what it feels like when your heart sort of drops?” The Stone Foxes’ key- boardist Elliot Peltzman asked the Observer in early June 2018. “I walked around the entire hotel and thought, ‘Oh sweet lord in heaven, these guys better be going to get gas.’... “All my closest friends are in bands,” he continued. “This isn’t rare. It happens rela- tively often. The police don’t solve it.” Lane knows that feeling Peltzman de- scribed. She no doubt felt it shortly after she discovered her Jazzmaster and pedal board were missing. She checked her van’s secu- rity footage only to realize it had reset after 24-hours and erased the images. “I had just missed the window (to save it),” Lane said. She also checked the security footage at the venue where she played, the record store where she discovered the theft and a third place she had visited. None had captured the crime. Lane figured the theft happened over- night while she was at home. She had hosted parties and music videos there. “A lot of people were privy to the ad- dress,” she said. L ane filed a police report. She also started checking Facebook marketplace and pawn shops within a 300-mile radius. She also posted about it on social media: “ATTENTION PLEASE: MY JAZZMAS- TER, MY JC-120 AND MY PEDAL BOARD WERE STOLEN FROM MY VAN. PLEASE LET ME KNOW ANYTHING.” Desperate to find her gear, Lane also in- cluded her cell phone number with the post. “I got harassment calls,” she said. “Some guy that we couldn’t identify claiming to have my gear and claiming to do terrible things, messing with my guitar and pedal board. That was really painful.” Lane was hesitant to start a GoFundMe page. Her friends, fans and band weren’t hesitant to help and support her. In early August 2021, Rosegarden Fu- neral Party reminded fans on social media that it was Band Camp Friday, which meant that 100% of sales profits would go to the artists. The band mentioned that they’re original plan for the record release didn’t in- clude releasing singles, but since Lane’s gear was stolen, they decided to release their sin- gle “Chaos” from their new record for $5 but only on that day. “Leah’s gear could not have been stolen at a worse time,” the band wrote in the Aug. 5, 2021, Facebook post. “We have two short tours in September and October coming up, as well as a recording session to finish our record.” As journalist Matt Wood wrote in the Ob- server’s “How Dallas Musicians Try to Win the Ongoing Battle of Gear Theft,” “There’s a spe- cial place in hell for those who steal people’s music equipment. The crime not only robs someone of sentimental belongings, but also a potential source of livelihood from people who (typically) can’t afford to lose it. Often getting by from gig to gig with a cheap van or trailer, musicians can be easy targets for thieves.” They’re not always easy. Brother Moses drummer Corey Dill took action when he and guitarist Moses Gomez caught a couple of thieves trying to steal the gear from the band’s tour van shortly before their Oct. 19, 2021, show at the Deep Ellum Art Co. Dill did what Dallas police don’t recom- mend. He chased after one of the two men who’d broken into the van. He didn’t get shot, but he did find himself in the hospital after they ran over him, according to an Oct. 19, 2021, Observer report. “It’s totally devastating and heartbreak- ing that this ended up happening over something so petty,” Brother Moses vocal- ist James Lockhart told the Observer. “I think Corey did exactly what any of us would’ve done in that snap moment and try to stop them.” Part of the reason is because it’s so diffi- cult to get your gear back. It took 50 years for Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page to find “Black Beauty.” An airport em- ployee had stolen the guitar in 1970 and kept it under his bed. After his death, his widow sold it to someone for $5,000 who would later return it to Page, as Guitar World re- ported in an April 2021 article The Stone Foxes didn’t have to wait 50 years to find their equipment. The police found it a year later, “burnt to a crisp in the desert, never to be seen again,” The Stone Foxes co-founder and drummer Shannon Koehler recalled in a November 2022 inter- view. Like Dill, Lane continued chasing after her gear, checking guitar stores and pawn shops, scouring Facebook Marketplace. She said she was on high alert as she scrolled through the images posted online, analyzing details, searching for a sign, or possibly a clue that would lead her to her gear. But there was no clue to be found, only suspicions. “That kind of leads me to believe whoever would steal that gear was doing so to be a jerk,” Lane said. “It’s not like they tried to sell it.” L ane never found her Jazzmaster. Instead, she replaced it with another one. And while the police report didn’t help, her fans and friends’ love and support did. The brands sold at the guitar shop where Lane works also helped her to re- place the stolen gear. “I was really lucky that all of these brands and friends supported me,” she said. Other musicians haven’t been so lucky. So far this year, Dallas police have taken 89 re- ports about stolen gear, as of Sept. 30, ac- cording to Dallas police data. Posts about stolen gear can also be found in the Facebook group “Gear Scumbags Have Stolen.” In a May 14 post, a group member shared a post by Mark “Monkey- boy” Dannells from The Burned Over, a modern Baphometal band, who had shared photographs of his stolen gear along with the serial numbers and described what had been stolen: a standard black Don Grosh Electrajet, 2002 Gibson ES-333 Mahogany with James Tyler Pickups, a stingray white Ernie Ball Music Man and a Kemper Power Rack Amp with custom mojotone amp shell and 65 2x12 cabinet. “STOLEN GEAR ALERT. Well, after an amazing night opening for Kenny Loggins, some lowlife piece(s) of shit stole our gear trailer,” Dannells wrote in an April 29 Face- book post. “All my gear is pretty unique, so in the off chance anyone in the North Texas area sees it in a Pawn Shop/Guitar Center, it should be easy to identify.” Lane said that in her 10 tours with Rose- garden Funeral Party, she never once had her gear stolen on the road and offers sev- eral recommendations on how other musi- cians can keep their gear from being stolen. For example, she suggests that you leave the gear trailer at home, as well as the roof mounts and bumper cages. She called them a “beacon that says steal me, break into me.” Besides securing the van like “Fort Knox,” Lane also recommends that you take the most valuable, stealable gear — the gui- tars, snare drums, keyboards and pedal boards — inside the motel room with you in- stead of leaving it in a vehicle parked near the motel room window. “Those kinds of precautions,” Lane said, “can get forgotten, and you’re more likely to get stuff taken from you.” The band also doesn’t stay in major cities when they’re on tour. If they’re playing in New York, Lane said that they’ll stay outside of the city in an unassuming motel. “No matter how fun the party sounds, it is a bigger bummer to lose your gear,” Lane said. Mike Rosati The Stone Foxes lost a lot of gear when their van and trailer were stolen from a Grand Prairie La Quinta parking lot. Gear Today, Gone Tomorrow from p17
