We Demand Parachutes - CRAZY TOUR STORIES

In this Crazy Tour Stories segment, the pop punk band, We Demand Parachutes, shares one of their stories from being on the road. You can check out the story below:

Last year we had a chance to play a festival in Toronto, Canada, called North By Northeast. It was at the end of a New England run and we went up as a team and stayed in a beautiful Airbnb just outside of the city for the weekend of the festival. The house we rented was a gorgeous manor with a pool, hot tub and back deck. We were excited to kick back and relax before playing our first international show.

Shortly after our arrival at the house, we were sitting in the kitchen when a series of loud metallic banging noises compelled us to go check on the back deck. Up above the deck, where the roof of the house met the wall, there was a raccoon slapping the heck out of a drain pipe. At first we all thought this was hysterical, and pulled out our phones to film. The racoon, however, was undeterred by our presence on the deck and continued to hit and hang off of the drain pipe. It became obvious that the animal was in distress. Without a moment to react further, the racoon and the drain pipe both fell off the house, bouncing on the railing and into the grass. This was a pretty rugged 15 foot drop.

Upon further inspection of the downed debris, we realized there was a smaller racoon trapped inside the piece of the gutter that had fallen off the house. Now we didn’t know how long this raccoon had attacked the pipe, as we had just checked in, but the baby inside appeared to be in rather rough shape. This pipe, like the house, was tremendously well built and did not enable an easy extraction. We began searching the property for tools to open the drain pipe. Finding none, we grabbed a series of kitchen utensils in an attempt to get water to the tiny animal wedged inside. Once we determined the baby could not be pushed, pulled, or delicately cut out, we elected to call animal control.

Fortunately the rescue team arrived quickly, and after a series of questions about provincial nuances that we were completely unable to answer as foreigners, they whipped little Fred (our name for the baby raccoon) off to the clinic.

We played a great set that weekend, and made a ton of new friends and fans, but we made sure to call animal control again the following day and check in on Freddy. They kindly informed us that despite severe dehydration and a few bumps, he was expected to make a full recovery.

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