Joliette
SPB: What foreign country has been the most fun to play?
Joliette: Our favorite country to play shows in has definitely got to be Switzerland. It’s such a beautiful and fascinating place. Despite its relatively small size, we’ve been lucky enough to play in several different regions -- including Davos, high up in the Alps. There’s this really cool punk rock band from Zürich called Überyou whose members have become close friends of ours over the years. Every European tour, we look forward with childlike excitement to the moment we play in Zürich, because it’s always a guaranteed good time with those guys. (Fun fact: we actually met them on a tour in Cuba back in 2015.)
During our last European tour, we had a couple of days off after our show in Zürich. It was late summer, the weather was still glorious, and our dear friend Vico (Überyou’s bassist) suggested we go for a swim in the river. We were diving off a platform that was about 7 or 8 feet high, and spirits were high-- we were having a blast. But then we noticed some locals jumping from a nearby bridge, which was at least 25 feet tall. Naturally, we decided that we needed to jump from there too.
Jopo, our guitarist, opted out of the first round. He found the height... a little too intense. But the rest of us climbed up, took the leap, and it was exhilarating. So exhilarating, in fact, that we immediately went for a second round-- and this time, we convinced Jopo to join.
Here’s the thing, though: when Jopo jumped, he made the rookie mistake of looking straight down mid-air. The water hit him square in the face with full force. When we all came up from the river, he looked a bit dazed. A few minutes later, we noticed blood around his upper incisors -- and that’s when he realized his superior labial frenulum had completely detached from where it was supposed to be.
Fortunately, nothing too serious came of it… except that it will never grow back. But hey, you haven't really toured Europe properly until someone loses a body part, right?
