The band’s lead guitarist and vocalist is referring to the night in 2013 when a semitruck spun out on a patch of black ice and smashed into the band’s tour van. Fans responded by filling La Luz’s PayPal account with donations, and local artists directed proceeds from their own shows to help recoup the equipment the band lost in the near-fatal collision.

For a moment, the band members contemplated not telling people they were moving at all. “But after a while it was like, ‘You know what, guys, that would be really rude if we just left and didn’t tell anyone,’ ” Cleveland says, laughing. So drummer Marian Li Pino crafted a letter to La Luz’s fans, which the band edited together and then posted to Facebook on December 22. “Beloved Seattleites,” it began, “In early 2016, we will be moving to sunny Los Angeles.” La Luz’s two back-to-back New Year’s Eve shows at Neumos, the last on a long U.S. and European tour, would also be their last as Seattleites. (Cue the inevitable L.A. Luz jokes).

“It’s a trip to be home—even though I know it’s not about to be home,” Cleveland would later tell the rapturous crowd at the first of the band’s final two nights, “but we are really excited to see all you guys here.”“Why?” a remorseful young fan next to me woefully asked her face-painted friend. “Why do they have to leave?”

In the past couple of years, as a noticeable chunk of Seattle’s music community has shipped out, the dominant narrative in town, as countless messages scrawled in the streets and news headlines remind us every day, is one of impending doom for those trying to make a living making art. “Seattle Is Too Expensive for Artists Who Help It Boom,” declared the latest, a KUOW story from a few weeks ago. Fans wondering why their favorite bands are leaving town find a ready culprit in such stories: gentrification and overdevelopment.