WICKER PARK — New York-based hardcore band Go Deep said their stolen van has been returned, but all of their band gear and equipment is still missing.
Band members Kris Kneale and Danny Rico played a show at the Livewire, 3394 N. Milwaukee Ave., on Tuesday and had planned to continue their tour when the van was stolen sometime Wednesday, they said.
They parked the green 2001 Ford van in Wicker Park Wednesday afternoon, and when they got back at 7:30 p.m., the car was gone and there was shattered glass on the street, they said.
According to police, a report had been filed for van theft in the 1800 block of West Evergreen Street.
Gone with it was thousands of dollars worth of equipment, which the band members and their friends are scouring Chicago to find, especially in pawn shops. A list of the missing gear was posted on the band's Tumblr page on Thursday.
Rico said Thursday that he also lost the only copies he has of a solo album he's been working on for six years.
"We are feeling generally sick," the band wrote on Tumblr.
On Thursday evening, someone who came across the band's blog post found the van along Oakley Boulevard near Clemente Park, Kneale said, and a mutual friend gave them a call.
"Pretty wild," Kneale said in an email.
Other than the broken window, the recovered van was in OK shape, he said.
The band has been forced to cancel its remaining tour dates — they were scheduled to play Thursday in Toledo, Ohio, before moving on to Toronto and Ottawa in Canada. Go Deep will, however, play a May 27 show in New York City, likely with borrowed instruments.
Even with the van back, "the expensive and irreplaceable stuff has been taken," he said.
Meanwhile, they've set up a Paypal and said friends and fans have been supporting them as they hunt for the missing items. A crowdsourced fundraiser might be in the cards; the band has no insurance on its gear.
Go Deep is certainly not the first band to have its stuff stolen while playing a gig in the city. In January, the band Brass Bed had their equipment stolen in Wicker Park, and a number of supporters donated enough money to make up for the most of the loss.
In 2011, Portugal the Man had $80,000 of equipment stolen after it played Lollapalooza, and the equipment was later bought at a swap meet for $1,000. California band FayRoy's stolen equipment was found by a guitar vendor last year, and Athens, Georgia-based bands Vincas and The Powder Room experienced a similar van break-in last November.
