After being involved a serious van accident earlier this week, Silent Planet have launched this GoFundMe to attempt to help recoup some of the costs. While the band initially commented on social media of the crash yesterday (November 03rd), they have since issued a more elaborate statement on their condition and situation.
As of press time, the group have already managed to blow past their original goal of $40,000 USD, with the campaign having raised over $65,000. In a rather classy moves from their peers, Noah Sebastian, who fronts Bad Omens, appears to have donated $3,000 to Silent Planet‘s cause.
Other musicians from the scene that appear to have have donated include We Came As Romans drummer David Puckett and Spiritbox vocalist Courtney LaPlante and more. The Ghost Inside drummer Andrew Tkaczyk also chipped in a considerable amount, and is no stranger to Silent Planet‘s situation, having been involved in a horrific life-changing bus crash back in 2015. He and his bandmates also received financial aid from crowdfunding amid the aftermath of that crash.
Silent Planet frontman Garrett Russell‘s statement on his own band’s accident can be read below:
“Early this morning, while driving through rural Wyoming, our driver hit a patch of ice and our vehicle spun and flipped, rolling off the road.
Each of us awoke at different moments after the crash, yelling for each other, scattered wherever the crash had flung us upside-down. We were relieved to find that we were all conscious and alive. Most of the group was miraculously unharmed. I (Garrett) found that blood was streaming from my head. Using whatever we could find laying around the van, we clothed ourselves pressed the wound to stem the bleeding until first responders came.
I was rushed to the hospital where they stopped the bleeding, took MRI’s, and stapled my head wound back together.
As I write this, the hospital is releasing me, finding no evidence of brain damage and telling me to monitor the concussion and get the staples taken out next week.
Everyone in the band is feeling it, but we are extremely fortunate to all be able to walk away from this crash… and not have to bury a friend.
Over these last hours we’ve received innumerable messages of support, and we just want to say thank you for your concern. We’ve been touring for 10 years, and I suppose we should be thankful that this is our first (and hopefully last) wreck of our history. The conditions were gnarly on this infamous road, and on my way back from the hospital I’m seeing countless other cars they have slid off the road.
To put it plainly: We just want to get back on tour as soon as possible – because we love playing shows and shows are our only form of income. We are going to miss our show in Salt Lake tonight, but we are already devising plans to hop back on the tour.
Insurance will cover my hospital visit, but it looks like we are out an entire van and trailer. We are hopeful that the majority of our trailer contents are in tact, but no one has been able to open it yet.We are thankful to be alive, but also contending with the fact that this is going to put us in a seemingly impossible financial situation. Only a day into tour, we’ve yet to generate any income from this tour, and are still financially in the red from our recent tour in Australia last week. So we’ve decided to swallow our pride and ask for help. If you are interested in helping, you can grab a shirt or a ticket or check out the Gofundme that we have set up.
For the last decade, we’ve toured the world as a small band with a DIY approach. Our van is more than a vehicle to us – it’s our home where we sleep in parking lots every night all throughout the continent. We are hoping to generate enough funds to at least rent vehicles to get to the next show and continue to tour for the next month.
Silent Planet has always aspired to be more than a band, but also a community where people can bring their joys and their struggles to a place where they are seen and supported. And now, I guess we’re asking for your support in a new way. For the first time ever, we are opening a gofundme to try to continue to move forward as a band. With past issues we’ve used merch sales to overcome setbacks, but this is by far our most daunting and immediate challenge yet.
If you made it to the end of this, thank you for reading. I hope it all makes sense, to be honest my head is still throbbing and everything is kind of spinning. But please know that we love this community and are truly indebted to the radical hospitality we’ve been shown over the years. Take care, tell your people you love them, and be consumed.”
The aforementioned tour with The Plot In You, Cane Hill and Avoid will run as follows:
11/05 Roseville, CA – Goldfields
11/06 Pomona, CA – Glasshouse
11/08 Mesa, AZ – Nile Theater
11/10 Dallas, TX – South Side Music Hall
11/11 Houston, TX – Warehouse Live
11/13 San Antonio, TX – Rock Box
11/15 Tampa, FL – Orpheum
11/16 Atlanta, GA – Masquerade (Heaven)
11/18 Greensboro, NC – Blind Tiger
11/19 Baltimore, MD – Baltimore Soundstage
11/20 Philadelphia, PA – TLA
11/22 New York, NY – Gramercy Theater
11/23 Boston, MA – Paradise
11/24 Toronto, ON – Opera House
11/25 Pittsburgh, PA – Mr Smalls Theatre
11/26 Detroit, MI – St. Andrews Hall
11/27 Columbus, OH – The King of Clubs
11/29 Cleveland, OH – Beachland Ballroom
11/30 Chicago, IL – Bottom Lounge
12/02 Milwaukee, WI – The Miramar Theater
12/03 Minneapolis, MN – Amsterdam
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