Bad luck literally struck the alternative rock band Hum last weekend when a speeding car broadsided the band's van, derailing their trailer and their tour. |

The quartet from Champaign, Ill. announced Tuesday that the traffic altercation has incapacitated their only set of wheels and forced the band to cancel all but two dates on the current leg of their North American tour. Hum will take to the friendly skies for a show this Sunday in Boston, and will assemble some sort of caravan to reach the Marcus Amphitheater in Milwaukee on July 5, when they will open for the benevolent Smashing Pumpkins.

"The Milwaukee concert is such a huge show, and it's so close to home that the band just decided to make do," the band's spokeswoman, Gina Orr told JAMTV on Wednesday.

Hum's tour was brought to a halt during the early morning hours Sunday in Winnepeg, Canada. While a crew member drove the band and its equipment toward Edmonton, Alberta, a car slammed into the Hum procession and pushed the van and its trailer into a light pole. Though the light pole slammed down on the van's roof, no one was injured and the band was able to patch the vehicle together enough to get it home to Champaign.

In a morose case of irony, Hum's former opening act, Promise Ring, was also involved in a dangerous car crash last February. As previously reported on JAMTV, two members of the Milwaukee-based indie rock band were hospitalized after their van hit a patch of ice and lost control outside Omaha, Neb.

Guitarist Jason Gnewikow sustained the most injuries with a broken collarbone, two cracked upper and lower vertebrae, a bruised lung and a collapsed lung. With a twinge of ominous foreshadowing, Promise Ring was forced to cancel a chunk of dates with Hum while the band members recuperated.

Damages to Hum's van and trailer have not been formally assessed yet, and Orr said she suspects Hum's equipment also sustained some wear and tear. However, a no fault traffic law in Canada is keeping the band from pressing charges against the driver.

Though Hum is left with a free summer schedule, the hometown heroes have not yet decided whether they will reschedule dates affected by the crash. Frontman Matt Talbot is taking August off to tie the knot, so the group may not brave the road again until the fall, Orr said. (Anni Layne)

Hum has cancelled the following tour dates:

• June 16 -- Re-Bar, Edmonton, AB
• June 18 -- Starfish Room, Vancouver, BC
• June 19 -- RKCNDY, Seattle
• June 22 -- Satyricon, Portland, Ore.
• June 24 -- Great American Music Hall, San Francisco
• June 25 -- Coach House, Santa Barbara, Calif.
• June 26 -- The Roxy, Hollywood
• June 27 -- The Casbah, San Diego, Calif.
• June 28 -- Rockabilly's, Las Vegas
• June 29 -- Gibson's, Tempe, Ariz.
• July 1 -- Liberty Lunch, Austin