Two Delightful Surprises, Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Rollergirls, And Pabst Blue Ribbon

On Saturday I arrived in Nashville still a bit shaken by the horrific accident. I was road weary. In it's infinite wisdom my GPS decided it was an ideal time to send me not to the hotel but rather on a tour of the nearby ghettos. Nashville has some pretty scary neighborhoods. I came to discover that a GPS and a reliance on one's instincts combine to form a powerful navigational tool. However, by the time the epiphany rescued me I'd worked up quite a lather. Good fortune... where are you? As it turns out, in the parking lot of the hotel. The Music City Chevy Show was in town!

Finally, mercifully, I pulled into the parking lot of my hotel to discover it teeming with antique cars. All of them Chevy's (my brand of choice). I love antique cars. Especially ones dating from the 1950's when chrome was king and wild colors commonplace. The bigger the fins the bigger the goosebumps! Now, during the course of my life there have been numerous challenges. However good fortune always seems to be lurking around every corner. It turns up in numerous forms and while sometimes tardier than preferred has proven to be quite reliable. This was just such a occasion. I was having a bad day... needed a boost... and got it! I checked in, dropped off my luggage and accompanied by a radically improved demeanor hit the car show.





On this road trip I've gorged on hot dogs, burgers, and barbecue. I've also picked up a few tchochkes along the way. However, until Saturday I had yet to suckle at the teet of women's roller derby. My hunger was burning!

Frankly, there's something titillating about women with nom de plumes such as Maulin' Monroe (uniform #36DD), Trailer Thrash, Killah B. Killed, Whip Lashes, 5 Scar Jeneral, Erin Breakabitch, Moxie Knockout, and Jabba The Butt... all skating around a flat oval track and beating the crap out of one another. Oh man, it was just great!

After the match some of the athletes/coolest chicks on the planet posed for pictures. Below is Happy Al with Lady Fury (in the bandana), Happy Al with Rambo Sambo (in the helmet), and Happy Al with the tasty trifecta of (from left to right) Powerhouse, Union Jack-U-Up, and Slayla. They were all really sweet and were greatly appreciative for the support of their fans.





The second mood enhancing surprise was discovering that one of my very favorite Rockabilly bands, the Nashville based Hillbilly Casino was playing at a local club that night. In my pre trip research I checked their web site. They were on a European tour and had no performance of any kind listed on the days I'd be in town. Before scooting off to the car show I took a quick peek at the site. Suddenly Saturday was packed with adventures! When my assignation with the Nashville Rollergirls came to an end I drove to a club called Foobar on the outskirts of the city. I didn't miss a note! In fact, the two opening bands had yet to play. This gave me a chance to do a little people watching and say hello to the band. Nic Roulette is Hillbilly Casino's lead singer and resident wild man. Were such a thing possible he could be the Red Bull swilling, feral spawn of Jerry Lee Lewis and Iggy Pop. Geoff Firebaugh is the mohawked, upright bass player. He looks scary as all hell but is a really cool, approachable guy... and he's got three kids. I'd seen the band at NYC's Rodeo Bar about a year and a half ago. During their last song of the night Nic lost a contact lens. He can't see a thing without them. It could have been a disaster. In the ensuing eight days the band had eight gigs in eight different cities. Their had to be six or eight people crawling around the stage looking for the damn thing... but I found it! They thanked me publicly and Nic gave me a free T-Shirt. We reminisced about the incident before they put on another roof shaking performance that night in Nashville.

There was a sign laying on the bar that said "PBR $1" (the initials stand for Pabst Blue Ribbon beer... a hipster staple). I stared at it. I rubbed my eyes. I shook my head and made a sound not unlike a turkey gobble. Figuring it was too good to be true I ask the tattooed, cutie patootie bartender to confirm. She did and I was Happy Al once again.

Hillbilly Casino wrote a song about the perils drinking too much Pabst Blue Ribbon. Check out the kick ass track "PBR."