Spinner

Saint Motel Get Robbed En Route to CMJ Music Festival

It's not often you hear about a heist with a happy ending -- at least, for the victims -- but that's the way that it may end for Los Angeles indie rockers Saint Motel. Their van was robbed in Chicago on Sunday, in broad daylight, while the band was taping an in-studio television appearance. Luckily, they were actually using their main instruments and equipment at the time, allowing them to remain operational and to continue onwards without delay. Among the lifted items: iPods, a laptop, a guitar, a bass and some dirty laundry.

Frontman A/J Jackson tells Spinner that not only was the robbery just an annoying setback, all things considered, but that he actually thinks Chicago's finest will be able to recover their property. "We have a pretty good feeling that the police will catch the thieves," he says. "They have the getaway car on surveillance tapes and were able to make out the license plate."

Talk about a lucky break. And on the subject of lucky breaks, Saint Motel hopes to find even more of them in New York City where they just arrived for CMJ. "We had our first interview at 10:00 AM ... and we made it here with a few hours to spare," says Jackson. Let this be a lesson for would-be thieves: you can steal a band's electronics but you can't steal their thunder.

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noMOREtv4u

Luckily, they weren't robbed of their anonymity.

October 21 2009 at 8:37 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Bonnie

To MarksAlot I would then imagine Janis Joplin, Jimmie Hendrix, etc. Would not have suffered a loss if they were burglarized? Shame on you.

October 21 2009 at 8:06 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
itPaysHowMuch

weren"t nothin in there but old depends

October 21 2009 at 7:46 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Rique

Hey, it happens. That's just part of touring. I've been in a few touring bands and people have even tried breaking in while one or two of us would be asleep in the van. I was even walking out to it one morning so to wake our guitarist and tell him it was his turn to shower, he had some dude at gun point (yeah he carried a registered piece, a mlot of my friends did and still do, if you have over $50K in equipment in the trailer, as well as the cash box with a couple thousand in it, you might too), -lol f*cking Cleveland. Ipods, psp's, phones, cash, etc -have all disappeared within a second of someone taking a leak and forgetting to turn on the alarm.

October 21 2009 at 7:41 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Daryn

I never even heard of this Band?

October 21 2009 at 6:22 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Daryn's comment
Walt

Well...if you never heard of this band...I guess that means they don't exist

October 21 2009 at 7:28 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
lanman

probably didnt find any talent

October 21 2009 at 6:14 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
ele9999

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_GaGa

October 21 2009 at 4:24 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Dorothy Pflueger

My supply was accidently thrown away by my son who thought it would be bad for me... Please please please can you send me this free trial again? I promise I will let you know my success story when I try these. Thank you so very much... Dorothy

October 21 2009 at 4:00 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Chuck

Man, what kind of low-life trash that would steal from a band? Luckily, my band has never been burglarized, but we've definitely played with bands that had equipment stolen. One of them, Apollo Sunshine, had their entire trailer stolen from them. This ruins some band's careers, as they're poor enough as it is already.

October 21 2009 at 3:13 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Gus Smalley

Glad this incident didn't screw up your tour fellas! Karma will side-swipe those thievin bastards if the cops don't get them first. I had the chance to see SAINT MOTEL in concert last March in Austin during the South By Southwest Music Festival and I highly recommend their music to anyone who likes any type of music whatsoever. A/J is a seriously talented singer-songwriter who makes ridiculously catchy music but certainly not your run-of-the-mill Top 40 Pop Charts garbage. Plus he seems like an all around good dude. I only went to see them because I was SOOO impressed by A/J's other band - LETTERS VS NUMBERS. Standout tracks from LVN are "Heresy", "I'm Not Human", "Dreamers and Nonbelievers" and "Flasher" from his previous album, SOON. I just got the new album 3 days ago and already I'm in love with "The Deep Dark", "If I Don't Make It Home". I take my music very seriously and I wouldn't waste my time writing about this if I wasn't sure you would think it's great stuff. Yeah - YOU.

October 21 2009 at 7:59 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply