The Junior Varsity has been through a lot of rough times since it signed a deal with Victory Records. But despite the stories of stolen equipment and harsh nights of drinking, synth player Nick Dodson says the band’s spirits haven’t taken a hit yet.

“On our last tour, somebody actually stole my laptop from the venue while we were playing in Cleveland, Ohio,” Dodson says. “Somebody just grabbed it and ran, so it kind of sucks. But, yeah, we got broken into a lot when we were recording our album out in Maryland.”

Dodson says the band has had numerous things stolen, particularly when the members were in Maryland recording their album.

“We played in Baltimore, went down there, did a few things. We got broken into like four or five times when we were down there and it was on a very well lit, like, main road,” he says.

“We’ve had shirts. We’ve had a few CDs, bass cabs, two iPods. We’ve had an actual desktop computer, bags of clothes and a passport stolen.”

Dodson says bands getting robbed has become a huge problem.

“I know good friend of ours, Houston Calls, actually got their van entirely stolen,” he says. “They found it ditched and empty and gutted for the most part. The cops ended up finding it and stuff. It seems to be something that happens more and more often recently. So we’ve talked security, like the door man and stuff like that and we’d be cautious.”

Dodson says the biggest frustration with losing equipment to criminals is that venues don’t help compensate bands.

“When I got my laptop stolen, I tried talking to the venue and he was like, ‘Sorry, I can’t help you out, but our insurance … blah, blah, blah’… and all this bullshit, so that was a big bummer,” he says. “I was hoping they’d maybe at least be able to help a little, but they definitely didn’t do anything. They didn’t even try and do anything.”

Dodson says the frustrations of touring are all worth it, especially when the band members feel like their music is connecting with the audiences at shows.

“We’re not selling hundreds of thousands of records by any means, so it’s still kind of rough sometimes,” he says. “But it’s just a lot of fun, playing shows. When kids know the words to the songs in different cities you’ve never been to or whatever, it’s really encouraging.”

Dodson says his personal favorite show happened when the band played for a sparse crowd in Pennsylvania.

“I’d probably go with Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania,” he says. “We had a day off, so we decided to try to hop on this show last minute and there weren’t that many kids. There were only 15 or 20 kids, and those 15 or 20 kids were cool as hell, and enjoyed themselves instead of just standing around looking like assholes.”

Dodson says the other enjoyable aspect of touring is the funny stories that accumulate from what goes on when The Junior Varsity isn’t on stage.

“I’d say one of the best definitely involved [bassist and vocalist Asa Dawson] waking up in another person’s car – a complete stranger’s car, covered in T-shirts,” Dodson says.

“We’ll call it a rough night. It was on our first tour ever and our van [messed] up real bad, so me, [guitarist Andy Wildrick] and Asa slept in a parking lot of a venue we played at. So the van was messed up and there was a little mechanic’s shop down the way, so we’re like ‘OK, you guys go. We’ll sleep in the van and take it to get fixed tomorrow.'”

Dodson says the incident happened mostly because of an abundance of alcohol consumption on Dawson’s part.

“The bartender ended up giving us beer for free,” he says. “Asa drank and he got way, way drunk, and the next morning we woke up and he wasn’t there. We walked to the police station. We walked all around this town looking for the guy. So we start walking back to the parking lot where we had parked and he was getting out of some car. He was completely bamboozled as to how he had gotten there and it was hilarious just because he woke up in another person’s car. He didn’t have a shirt on. He had some camo shorts and a hat. I’m sure if the person who owned the car would have come to the car, they would have been quite distraught.”