Alex DeLeon hasn’t been sleeping well, and though he’s been away from Las Vegas for the better part of two months, it’s not because he’s homesick. The 18-year-old frontman for local pop-rockers The Cab simply can’t get comfortable in the back of his band’s van after living though a terrifying traffic accident last month.
“I’m super paranoid,” DeLeon says. “Every little bump, every little jerk … we hit a pebble in the road, and I’m opening my eyes.”
In the early morning hours of February 1, traveling through Wisconsin, The Cab’s van hit a patch of black ice and flipped, inflicting painful—but not life-threatening—injuries on the group’s five members and destroying a portion of their gear. Nevertheless, armed with new equipment and a van donated by Decaydence/Fueled By Ramen label-mates Fall Out Boy, The Cab missed just one show, returning to the stage (some of them on crutches) February 3 in Kansas City.
“I had to get 15 staples in my leg, I sliced the back of my knee on glass, which the doctor said just missed a major artery, and I bruised a bone in my foot, but we didn’t want to disappoint our fans, so we took a day off and got back out there,” DeLeon recalls. “We’re all very fortunate to be alive, very grateful and happy to be walking and talking right now.”
Next month, The Cab will celebrate that return to health in the best way possible, with the release of debut album Whisper War, scheduled to hit shelves on April 29. The band has been playing cuts from the CD all along its largest tour to date, “The Really Really Ridiculously Good Looking Tour” with bill-mates Cobra Starship, We the Kings and Metro Station. “Kids have been reacting pretty well and singing along, surprisingly,” DeLeon says. “We don’t have any songs released, but fans record the songs at our shows on digital cameras and throw them up on YouTube. It’s a really cool feeling when kids are singing the words, ’cause you know they care enough to watch the videos over and over to memorize them.”
The Cab will wrap this tour leg with another significant milestone in the life of any young band: an appearance at the South by Southwest music conference in Austin, Texas. The quintet plays Spiro’s Amphitheater March 15 at 9 p.m., and DeLeon doesn’t sound like a kid with a record deal already in the bank as the date approaches. “I’m nervous for it,” he admits. “There’s so many industry people there, you never know who’s gonna be watching you. You could play a horrible show and screw yourself and not even realize it, or someone could be there and really like you, and you could be set.”
After South by Southwest, The Cab gets 11 days off, then it’s back to work—the “Long Hair We Don’t Care Tour” with We the Kings, Valencia and Charlotte Sometimes, which will keep the Las Vegans on the road into May. And that’s just the beginning, according to the sleep-deprived but contented DeLeon. “We’ll probably be touring for the next year and a half, almost straight through. It’s tiring, but we love it. We’re having the time of our life.”