Welcome to Europe! 

I write this next tour diary as we are driving through the Polish countryside on our way to Warsaw.  It feels like an eternity since I was in the states just earlier this month.  12 shows, 7 countries, 75,000 fans later  – and this roughly marks the half-way point for the European leg of the Macklemore & Ryan Lewis world tour.  15 days in, and a sense of camaraderie has spread throughout the entire team: catering, production, video, lighting, FX, drivers, security, band, etc. We are all learning our routines, and growing as a giant entity.  In a sense, it almost feels like summer camp. We now have a shared story.

After our stint in the UK and Ireland (and upgrading fully to arena venues), we have spent the last week traveling throughout mainland Europe.  For me it has been an incredibly transformative experience since Europe has always held such an air of majesty, adventure, and history in my mind. Our first stop in Europe was Brussels, the capital of Belgium, and the de facto capital of the European Union.  We played at the Vorst Nationaal arena, and unfortunately due to our scheduling barely had much time to explore the elegant capital. After Brussels we traveled north into the Netherlands and played in Amsterdam, and then into Switzerland to play in Zurich.  All of the cities were beautiful, but my experience in each felt a blur and rushed.  Almost seemed to be a shame in fact.

Towards the end of last week, we arrived in Paris, and it was the most inspiring location that I’ve seen so far.  We played two shows at the Zenith in eastern Paris, which thankfully gave us a day and a half to explore the city. Walking around a city so robust in culture and the arts as Paris is awe-inspiring – unfortunately due to the nature of how we are traveling, we have been reduced to flash-tourism. You try and fit as much as possible, in as little amount of time as possible, before you have to be back at the venue for soundcheck. In the matter of seven hours I got to see Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, Champs-Elysees, Musee d’Orsa, the Louvre and more – however, the problem with this is that it is merely skimming the surface, and seems artificial and almost cheapens the entire experience.  In a rush, it is almost like having a voracious appetite, trying to take pictures of everything, trying to capture it… but not REALLY experiencing it.  I guess I could say that my first trip to Europe could be likened to an all you can eat buffet with a time limit.   With that, the real take away is that I will just have to come back to Europe again, and do it right.  Give it the time it deserves to truly enjoy it.

Our experiences on stage, as opposed to the outside world, continued to get more and more intense – as the audience sizes increased, and the scope of the venues widened. As a performance we are finally coming into our own.  One thing that is always interesting to witness night after night, is the reception of the audience to the subject matter that Macklemore presents, since it is not necessarily safe or fluffy.  It is genuine, to the heart, honest subject material.  Between civil rights, heritage pride, sobriety, and other topics, in every country – no matter how different each country was – they all embraced it. Even when we are talking about legalizing gay marriage and displaying an enormous two-story Irish Banner in front of a Dutch, French, English audience – they are all receptive.  And in the end, that is the most beautiful thing I’ve experienced thus far in this tour.