I arrived in KC to drum once more for Majstory. We were playing a big Serbian festival (“Serb fest”), where groups from Joliet, Omaha, and Kansas City all gathered together and celebrated, Serbian style.

People ate and choirs from all three cities sang.

We were set up in the corner.

Then, we were ready to start. People were still eating so we began with the ballads and such, but it wasn’t long before we busted out some kolos (like the Serbian equivalent of a jig or reel).

We played for hours, and there was much dancing. Then after an adventurous night with crazy drunk people people visiting our hotel, we were ready to play again in the morning.

Highlights from this gig:

• A bed!
• Good times playing Serbian music.
• A guy thought I was Serbian! I was sitting at a table finishing my beverage and a guy leaned over and said, “Blah blah blah blah. Blah?” At least, he may as well have said that because I only know a few words of Serbian, and he didn’t use either of the words I know. So I replied with a cheerful “Dobro nam doshli!” which means something like “hello” or more literally “good life to you.” I let him look confused for a second before apologizing and explaining that I’m not actually Serbian and had no idea what he said.
• A crazy drunk dude that kept calling everyone ‘crazy’ and ‘nuts’, then laughing at the sound of his own voice. I think he laughed at the sound of his laughing too. It was a textbook example of the “feedback loop.”
• Some delicious Serbian food, unfortunately not including roast lamb this time but still pretty good.
• I learned how to ask “Where is the bathroom?” in Serbian. This adds to my prior Serbian knowledge of “ice” and “What’s going on?” The cool thing is I can now synthesize addition sentences; now I can say things like “What?” and “Where is Iliya?” and even “What is ice?”

NEXT: I finally get a much-needed break back in Omaha, but fail to get any rest during it.