The game itself is simple for rules but complex for implementation and strategy, which makes for an excellent combination. Vague rules [sidebar: like offsides in soccer] just complicate things. Plus they offer an excellent tutorial on their website/online program.
The event started with Savage Aural Hotbed which is a band that seemed to imitate The Blue Man Group and Stomp! But less Vegas and Broadway-worthy. It was too loud and just not my style. If you've walked near a construction area and someone drives by with their bass booming, you've pretty much just heard SAH.
The savage aural assault music continued until past 7pm, the official start time of the bout. Eager for the bout to start so the "music" would cease, I was acutely aware of this transition of 2 bells into the Dog Watch. When the Hotbed was put to bed, the two announcers came out and started to pump up the crowd. At this point I must admit that I was already past 'getting pumped up' since I had been there for over an hour and it felt like I was at some NASCAR event. [sidebar: sorry NASCAR fans, but I don't get it. Racing around in a circle isn't what I would call a sport, I call it traffic]. Eventually this enthusiasm transference gave way to a derby tutorial, which was FANTASTIC since they did it slowly so everyone could get the basic premise down. It wasn't overly long and gave great tips on what to watch for during the jams.
Eventually the bout began, and it was sweet. Good action, great skaters, and the announcers (same ones at the start) were really good commentators. They explained what was going on and, at least one, was a former player (maybe still plays, I'm not sure) so they knew the intricacies.
As the first half ended, the halftime show began. At this point I wished upon any shooting stars that might be overhead that the PA system would break. Koo Koo Kanga Roo, which is two guys that do dance party music (I grabbed that reference from the North Star Roller Girls website to be nice) got up on the stage and began yelling into the mics so loud that I could barely understand anything. At the time I thought I heard them say that we were responsible for saying "L M N O P" at a certain point in the song. Maybe it was the glass of wine I had [sidebar: yes they sell wine at the bouts - and it was pretty decent!] but I thought I couldn't have heard that right. Soon enough they start "singing"/yelling into the microphones, sure enough it was a song that was the alphabet. At the right moment they pointed the mics to the crowd that assembled near the stage and wanted everyone to yell "L M N O P." In writing this blog I wanted to provide a Youtube link (here) and I finally was able to understand what they were singing. There were some other songs, which I'm not bothering to verify, that seemed like they were about cruising in a minivan and a dinosaur stomp. Some guy behind us said that he should just go write a song about Legos or something, another responded, "I never thought I want the other band to come back, but I do. Enough of this kid's hip hop." Now I'll own that I've never done huge parties, I don't really do concerts and maybe it was just bad acoustics and / or I'm just a big fuddy-duddy, but I almost left early. I get that putting together live performances is tough and scheduling all that is an effort, so kudos to those that do the work, but I really hope that this is not indicative to every bout. I know some around me were commenting on if they would return if this was the norm. For if it was, it just isn't their thing.
Never before in my life have I ever wanted to just watch a zomboni drive around in circles in peace and quiet.
Eventually the bout resumed and I finally got to watch my friend skate. I'm going to try and go to the next one if I can Feb 18th, but I really hope that the bands are better or perhaps I'll just have to go back to hoping that the North Star Roller Girls get that streaming video back so I can use the ol' mute button.
By the way, if you wanted to, you can watch the Dance-A-Long Video to LMNOP. After reading all this (if you made it this far) you're probably thinking the same thing that the only comment to this video says, "wtf am i subscribed to..."
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