You're listening to Radiotopia Presents from PRX's Radiotopia.

The following podcast contains a few F-bombs that may not be appropriate for all listeners.

No musician will tell you touring is easy, but I love to travel.

One of the benefits of being in a band, for me, is that you get to

go places you wouldn't otherwise. Not just the glamorous ones. London, Madrid, Tokyo, those are on

everybody's wish list. But if you're on tour, each of those are just one night's stop out of many,

many stops.

When you pull into Preston, England, or Huelva, Spain, or Misawa, Japan,

it's pretty obvious you're not there to take in the sights.

But my partner, Naomi, and I, have had some of our most memorable shows for good and bad in those very towns.

A few albums ago, we found ourselves on tour in Europe with a gig in a place we'd never been

invited before. For obvious reasons, it had been at war all through the 90s, Belgrade, Serbia.

As we drove out of Italy and into what had once been Yugoslavia,

the landscape and language became increasingly less familiar.

And then we hit the border with Serbia.

Our cell phones went dead.

Our GPS went blank.

We had to resort to old analog touring habits to find the venue. Look for a payphone and a coin.

The voice we reached gave us directions.

Take the big bridge over the river. On the other side,

look for the bombed out building. Make a left.

The venue, when we found it, was in a student center,

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