Philly: Rock and roll and ripoffs

For 99.5 percent of the rock bands on tour, life on the road is not easy:

Economic realities dictate it. Unless you're an arena-filler, one-night-stand budgets seldom accommodate tour buses, which can cost $1,000 a day. The vehicle of choice is the 15-passenger Ford E-150 van, driven by a road manager and occasionally pulling a trailer, which is parked outside of lower-cost hotels.

Where thieves lie in wait. Those vans sitting in surface lots are easy marks.

There were a bunch of thefts in 2006. Kyle Riabko and Easily Amused lost its van and trailer from the lot of the Holiday Inn at Ninth Street and Packer Avenue in South Philly. Around the same time, Luce was relieved of its van and trailer from the lot of the Microtel near Philadelphia International Airport. How about Film School, whose van was parked at the Comfort Inn on Columbus Boulevard; some lowlife broke a steering-wheel lock, hot-wired it, and drove it through the security gate.

Over the last week, Philly has gotten a black eye yet again.

In Friday's Inquirer, cops reporter Allison Steele and I describe the latest bands to be ripped off here, Kill Hannah and Mae, which were victimized at that same Holiday Inn. Police have acknowledged that thefts are a problem, especially among the South Philly hotels, and vowed to step up patrol. A spokesman from the Holiday Inn said that the hotel has a security guard and that thefts were uncommon.

Mat Devine, lead singer of the Chicago-based Kill Hannah, said the group's van and 14-foot trailer were parked "five feet from the front door" when they were stolen Wednesday.

If you're in a band and have a Philly theft story, e-mail mklein@phillynews.com.