Sons Of The East - CRAZY TOUR STORIES

In this Crazy Tour Stories segment, the indie folk band, Sons Of The East, shares one of their stories from being on the road. You can check out the story below:

Our tour has seen its fair share of wild moments—people getting left behind at festivals, vans towed, and one van completely totaled after we hit a kangaroo at 100 km/h on a quiet stretch of highway in Queensland, Australia. But the craziest experience by far was getting robbed in the heart of Brussels during our 2022 European tour.

After a fun show, we parked the tour bus outside the venue for the night. We hung out, chatting and winding down until everyone eventually retreated to their bunks. At 5 a.m., our tour manager woke us up with the words, “Everyone get up—we’ve been robbed.” Dazed, we scrambled out of bed to find the bus doors wide open and most of our bags missing. We couldn’t believe it—people had actually gotten onto our tour bus while we were sleeping. It was creepy.

Luckily, our tour manager had AirTags in her bags, so we quickly tracked them to a street just around the corner. We called the cops, but unsure how long they’d be, we decided to take matters into our own hands. As the sun started to rise over Brussels, we marched to the location, only to find our suitcases dumped and ransacked—clothes and belongings scattered everywhere, with anything remotely valuable gone.

But there was still one AirTag left to track. Following its signal, we arrived at an apartment complex where loud music, voices, and laughter echoed from the balconies above. As we got closer, the chatter died down, the music stopped, and the balcony doors slammed shut. We were convinced—these were the people who’d stolen our stuff. Thankfully, at that time, the cops showed up with a warrant to search the building. They tore the place apart, hauling out armfuls of stolen bags, phones, computers, watches... it was wild.

After over an hour of watching the search unfold, the cops finally emerged with almost all of our belongings. The only significant items still missing were a camera and, to my personal dismay, my packing cube of freshly washed socks and undies (worth their weight in gold on tour). We thanked the officers for their help, packed up what we could, and made our way to the next show—shaken, but relieved to have it all behind us.

Moral of the story: If you're on a tour bus, you're a target. And seriously, stuff as many AirTags in your gear as humanly possible—maybe even put two in your socks and undies bag.

Keep up with Sons Of The East on their website, Instagram, and Facebook.