Bermuda Search Party - CRAZY TOUR STORIES

In this Crazy Tour Stories segment, the indie pop band, Bermuda Search Party, shares one of their stories from being on the road. You can check out the story below:

Cilantro, lime, and shared trauma - roadside tacos never hit so hard before!

As a young band, you hear many stories of accidents on the road — smashed windows, broken down cars, damaged gear — stories that consistently occupy a small amount of space in the back of your mind, right next to the thought, “But I’m sure that would never happen to us!”

We were one week into our most recent cross country tour - a trip that was taking us all the way from our hometown of Boston to the Seattle and back, with many stops along the way. As a small indie band, our means of touring consisted of our humble passenger van and 5x8 trailer carrying all of our gear. We had just played successful shows in West Virginia, Memphis, and Asheville, and it being early on in the tour, our spirits were still quite high! We were making our way from Little Rock Arkansas to Austin, TX to play at this year’s SXSW festival — our first year as an official artist!

One hour into the long eight hour drive, something flew in front of the car in front of us, causing them to brake quickly, which in turn caused us to brake quickly. Unfortunately for us, the Chevy Silverado behind us did not get the memo. After a loud bang and a heavy force that rocked us all forward, we knew this eight hour drive was about to become a lot longer.

The collision on the highway ended up totaling our trailer and smashing our vans back door and window - but miraculously (almost) all of our gear had remained fully intact thanks to our hard cases, and more importantly, no one was injured. But even with our gear and van mostly in tact, we were still stranded in the middle of a highway in Arkansas with no way to transport our gear to our next show, or even home for that matter. Things were looking grim and complicated.

And that’s when we saw her — the most beautiful sight for a gaggle of hungry tired, and slightly traumatized musicians on the side of the road: the taco truck.

After eagerly giving our business to the sweet woman in the food truck, with tacos in hand and sitting on the curb waiting for police to arrive, we began spinning our gears. After considering all our options, we decided to do what can be so difficult to do when you’re in a hard place: ask for help. From the side of the road, we shared with our fans what had happened, and set up a GoFundMe to help us buy a new trailer, repair the van, finish the tour. We hoped that eventually insurance would be able to cover the expenses caused by the accident, but also knew that that process could take weeks if not months, and that we could not afford to cover the immediate expenses alone.

What started as one of the most downhearted days of tour quickly turned into one of the most hopeful, as messages and support from fans, friends, and family began pouring in, and within a day we had raised enough money to rent a U-haul trailer to get us to Austin, and to buy a new trailer when we got there.

When people ask us what our high and low points of that tour were, I’m inclined to tell them that I think they are one and the same. As much of a scary setback as it was to get into our first accident on the road, to be reminded of the strength and love of our community because of it was a truly beautiful moment for us as band, and was a reminder for us that we could not and would not be where we are today without the people around us who continue to support us.

That day we learned: true strength is in community, the most precious cargo we have is each other, and shared trauma makes for great taco seasoning.

Keep up with Bermuda Search Party on Instagram, TikTok, and their website.