Jesse Labelle – TOUR PRANKS

In this Tour Pranks segment, the country artist, Jesse Labelle, shares some pranks that have happened on tour. You can check out the feature, after the break.

“Dude, Where’s my Trailer?”
-Jesse Labelle

In all of the tour pranks I’ve had the pleasure of being involved in through my days on the road, my very favorite prank has to be one that was inflicted on me and my band during my very early touring days back in 2011 in Vancouver, Canada while on the Much Music (Canada’s MTV) cross country Pop Rocks tour.

I had just released my first album in Canada and was slotted as direct support for Faber Drive who was headlining the tour. They, of course, had a tour bus, while my band and I toured across the country in our little van, with a trailer attached. An important part, if not THE most important part of this story, is that the trailed carried ALL of our gear behind the van, the van itself basically being our home with far too many blankets, pillows and empty coffee cups and McDonald’s wrappers for there to be any room for instruments.

Upon arriving at the venue, as on any other day after a long drive, we parked in the loading dock and head into the venue to use the facilities and check out the stage. The headliners had already sound-checked and had gone to the hotel to rest up while the other supporting acts took their turn. Probably a half hour after we arrived we were told that we would need to unload for our sound check. I had the keys to the trailer so I went outside to start the unloading process.

The trailer was gone.

I was so shocked and unable to comprehend the gravity of what was actually going on that I nearly tried convincing myself that the van I was standing in front of must have been someone else’s identical van that just looked like ours. I really wanted to believe that I was just confused and had forgotten where we parked it. As I went back inside to grab the band, the situation worsened as the fact was that the van was ours, and the trailer with ALL of our drums, guitars, wires systems, computers, banners, EVERYTHING, was gone.

Chaos and screaming and a lot of vulgarity ensued. The entire front of house staff and everyone in the venue wound up outside by the scene of the crime as if some fire drill had taken place. Fearing the worst, a decision was made to call the police.

Not even one ring in, I was told to put my phone down.

Now keep I mind that I had a feeling this may have been a prank, but how does someone unlock and steal an entire trailer, never mind move it and HIDE it in plain sight?

The answer is, the headlining band had completely emptied their giant trailer behind their tour bus, and moved our trailer inside of theirs and locked it upon us. GENIUS!!!!

Tensions instantly melted and a very high level of respect was given to the pranksters for such an epic and masterfully planned and executed prank. Id challenge any band to try and top that, but then again, maybe not..man was I stressed that day, but man, WHAT A PRANK!

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