The world of music isn’t exempt from its own horror stories. As with any high energy industry, the risks are ever-present and possible injury is just around the corner.
In recent weeks, punk favourites PEARS and The Riverboat Gamblers have suffered such incidents, the former seeing Zach Quinn severely fracture his hand and wrist in a jump and the latter witnessing vocalist Mike Wiebe mistime a trust fall from a bar resulting in a collapsed lung and fractured ribs.
With the US still not celebrating widely available free healthcare and insurance companies continuing to evade the music industry, both bands have welcomed the support from their dedicated fanbases, covering their medical costs through Gofundme.
“Now, as many of you may NOT know, we, as a band, exist in a perpetual state of debt, and the line we walk to stay functioning is razor thin,” Quinn noted in a post to the funding website, before almost 150 fans donated the required $3,750. “I can’t explain how much it means to me,” Quinn recently followed up in a humble Facebook post. “We’ll find a way to thank you,” he concludes.
“I’m really overwhelmed ya’ll. I just didn’t plan on any of this. I’m so touched and it’s all happened so fast,” Wiebe has posted to Riverboat Gambler’s support page, having raised almost $15,000 at the time of writing. “There is a chance there might be some money left over and if so I’ll want pay that forward to others who are going through a rough time. When I do that I will update this page again and tell you where that went and it will just remind you how fucking awesome you all are and that you put good things into the world. You people are great and I love you.”
Both bands are hoping to get up and running in the very near future.