SACRAMENTO, Calif. — On the back of a 10th studio album, post-hardcore rock band Dance Gavin Dance was set this spring to kick off a major U.S. tour from their hometown of Sacramento.
On April 13th, days before the tour was set to begin, the band announced the sudden death of longtime bassist, Tim Feerick.
"After he passed, I mean, we were all devastated," bandmate and friend Andrew Wells told ABC10.
Wells said the band considered canceling the tour to grieve.
"I think our fans, they love us enough to know that if we would have canceled the tour and and said 'no, we can't,' they would have understood," Wells said.
Feerick's mother, Bernadette Alaniz, said she was the one who discovered he had died in his Sacramento apartment of a suspected fentanyl overdose.
"When we couldn’t get ahold of him one day we knew something has to be wrong," Alaniz said. "I just wish I could have him back."
After discussion with Feerick's mother, Dance Gavin Dance decided to continue with the tour and dedicate in his memory.
"I know Timothy wouldn’t want them to not play, you know?" Alaniz told ABC10. "They were sweet enough to ask us, is that OK? And we said yeah, go on tour."
Longtime friend of Wells and Dance Gavin Dance Sergio Medina took over on bass on short notice. The band invited Alaniz and other family members to Swanfest in Sacramento on April 23rd, where the tour began. Fans shouted, "Thank you, Tim."
"It was hard not to cry, you know, when people were chanting his name," Alaniz said.
