Ramming Speed’s Van Broken Into in Italy

Life as a touring musician is far from easy. Forget the endless drives, stomach-destroying fast food and scummy promoters -- one of the most constant, looming fears of anyone who tours for a living -- or at all -- is getting equipment or a vehicle stolen. There have been a rash of incidents just this year (remember poor Torche?), and now the plague has spread overseas and hit some of Boston's native sons pretty damn hard.

Beantown thrash/crust/grinders Ramming Speed are currently pounding the pavement on a massive European tour, and all was going just dandy until earlier this week. Their van was broken into in Florence, Italy, and all of the band's money, passports and personal effects were stolen. Drummer Jonah posted an account on the band's Facebook page explaining the situation and shedding some light on how the band plans to recover. Instead of asking for donations, Ramming Speed will be creating a limited-edition merch pack and selling them to fans in hopes of raising enough money to cover their heavy losses.

Jonah added, "If anyone wants to send us $20 or $30 (add an extra $5 if you're outside the U.S.) we'll hit you with that, a pair of Ramming Speed sunglasses (while supplies last) and a copy of our new '5 Years' tape (containing unreleased and live songs) as soon as we get home and have time to put it all together."

As far as what design we'll see gracing that T-shirt? "Since this all just happened, I'm honestly not sure what the shirt will have on it, but I can see it pretty much going one of two directions. Either A) something brutal like a big upside down cross, or B) something retarded like Rambo eating breakfast at waffle house while a dolphin jerks off rainbows onto his pancakes, but the rainbows are made out of alligators and they all have chainsaws for feet. Those interested can send the money to Orders@TDBRecords.com. Please put 'F---ed in Florence' as the subject and your address and shirt size in the message," Jonah asked.

There you have it, folks. Dig deep and do what you can to help out one of the hardest-working bands in heavy metal make their way back home -- and get a bad-ass T-shirt while you're at it!.

The band plans to continue their European tour as scheduled, wending their way through Italy, Austria, Germany, Eastern Europe, including Czech Republic's Play Fast Or Don't Fest, and ending in Germany at the end of the month. Dates and more information is available on their Myspace.