Another sweaty house show

A few weeks ago my girlfriend and I went and saw one of our favorite bands play at a dirty sweaty house show, this weekend we went and saw one of our favorite friends play with his new band at a dirty sweaty house show.

My friend Justin was the first friend I made here in Austin and the dude is awesome. He’s a really great friend so when he invited us to come see his new band at a house show we where onboard. Cut to Saturday night as we walk up to a house a few blocks south of campus and are greeted by some acquaintances that I knew from school.

One of them, who I had had a couple of classes with last year, was really excited to see us and told us that it was some guy’s birthday and the party was western themed. I thought that was strange seeing as he was wearing nothing but a few plastic grocery bags and some duct tape…but I went a long with it.

We hung around in the house for a while and chatted with some friends until it was time for the band to play. The music was pretty good; in fact I was surprised by how well they played for it being their first performance. I would go into more detail but this isn’t about the music, it is about something I never thought I would see.

Towards the end of the performance things started getting weird. There was a few guys collecting money for another keg and they where barely clothed. There was the very drunk birthday boy dancing around with nothing but a “Come and Take It” flag wrapped around his waste. And there was someone flinging glow sticks around on strings.

In a matter of seconds all of these things combined into one of the most insane moments of my life. The band started jamming louder and the glow sticks where flying when all of sudden the birthday boy fell on to the ground and exposed himself to us. The band kept playing and the glowsticks kept spinning…but the genitals didn’t move. They just stayed there on display in front of everyone to see for what seemed like minutes. The flashing probably only happened for 3-4 seconds but for those of us in the front row it is an image we will never forget.

Dolphin free

In talking with people I have realized that most, if not all, of us have unexplainable memories from our childhoods. Strange things. Hazy scenes from movies and TV shows that don't quite make sense after all these years. One memory that never escapes me is playing Ecco the Dolphin for my Sega Genesis.

Yes, some Sega executive thought it would be a good idea to make a game about a Dolphin swimming through the ocean.

Yes, my parents saw the box for the dolphin game...and bought it for their 5 year old son.

What terrible ideas! (Sorry mom, I know you read this)

To top off the weird/uninteresting concept of the game the developers made it brutally difficult. I never got past the second level. But I've been told that the game starts to get really weird strange! The dolphin starts flying into space to fight space jelly fish. Weird stuff. There was even two sequels.

Someday I'd like to give Ecco another shot...not today though.