Five days after being electrocuted onstage in Bangkok, Thailand and rushed to a hospital, Calling guitarist Aaron Kamin returned to his spot aside his fellow band members for a gig in Melbourne, Australia on Tuesday (April 9). Kamin is in “great spirits and doing fine,” a band spokesperson said.
Kamin received a jolt while soundchecking for a show on April 4-the sound equipment was “a little old and beat up,” according to Calling frontman Alex Band’s post on the group’s official website (thecallingband.com). Band says that for a brief moment following the incident, he feared the worst. “Me and the band were about to cry cause we thought Aaron was dead, but he wasn’t, just badly hurt,” he says.
Band continues, “We carried him out into another room, ’cause the venue was already filled with press who had just seen what happened. Aaron was pale as a ghost and had gotten the strings of the guitar melted in the palm of his hand and fingers. He was bleeding pretty bad.”
As for the actual moment of electrocution, Band says he’s never seen anything like it. He writes: “Aaron set down his electric guitar and picked up his acoustic, and for that brief second he became that bridge. Physically unable to let go, he was electrocuted with 220 V instead of our meager American 120 V. Our guitar tech saved the day by unplugging Aaron’s acoustic and pretty much throwing him to the ground.”
With Kamin now healing and back on stage, the group can joke about the incident. “He shall now be known as ‘Milk Toast,'” Band says.
Kamin’s accident was not the first setback for the guitarist on the tour. He was forced to missed the Calling’s two shows in Japan just days earlier due to the death of his “grandmother/best friend,” Band says. The Bangkok show was to be the first by Kamin on the five-show tour.
The Calling ends its overseas jaunt Thursday (April 11) in Syndey, Australia. The tour is in support of its debut album, Camino Palmero, featuring the single, “Wherever You Will Go.”