PT Burnem invited me to join him for his second tour of Europe. I’ve dreamed of touring other countries since I started, but I was never able to make it happen. Bringing the whole line-up was out of the question, so Colin volunteered to perform all the duties of every other member of Height With Friends. Our friends Sasha and Xena booked most of the tour and drove us from town to town. We played in Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Hungary, Croatia, Poland and France. Touring the US is like touring Candy Land compared to Eastern Europe, and they sacrificed a lot to make this happen for us. They braved potholes, corrupt cops, troublesome border crossings, parking tickets, twelve hour drives and sleepless nights, all while being pleasant company. I had never seen people go through so much to make a tour a reality.
We got to play for some of the best audiences of our careers, especially in Eastern Europe. Having some level of respect and excitement granted to you before you perform is awesome. People seemed to assume you were going to be good until you proved otherwise, instead of the other way around. I usually left the shows impressed with the work the promoters had done, and with the energy the audience had given to us. They were aware that they were not passively watching youtube on their phones, but seeing human beings give their all right in front of them. The first world could learn a thing or two about how to act from these places.
Here’s a short clip of us playing in Bryansk, Russia…