Wednesday, January 12, 2011

An Epic Tale of a Journey Cover Band and a Brewery Tour

On a cold, gloomy January night, a magical thing occurred. For one night only, a band was resurrected from the 80's and wanted to appease the Gods of Rock by playing one more live show in Fort Worth. That band was the one and only Journey....or so I thought.

The band playing did in fact play Journey songs but they were actually a Journey Tribute Band named Escape. They played at a place called Spencer's Corner, a place that I have never heard of before. I assumed it would be either a small hole in the wall kind of bar or a fairly large venue that has been hidden from me for some time now.

As Paul, Katie, and I walked up to the place, it looked enormous (that's what she said, sorry but I had to make that joke). But when we walked in, it was just a rectangular shaped bar with with pool tables on the left, shuffle board on the right, and a bar/grill in the back. There was no stage in sight, so the three of us didn't know where this band was going to play. Paul quickly went to the bathroom while Katie and I explored the place, and this is where we discovered the infamous 70's Party Picture Staircase.

The staircase was actually in plain sight, but apparently my duo and I just didn't see this awesome staircase in all of its glory. The pictures that covered the walls of staircase were from what appeared to be the best wet t-shirt that has ever happened in mankind's existence. Some of the pictures were pretty racy, but it is a bar and they have to assume that everyone in the establishment is at least 21.

Katie and I eventually found our way to the stage a grabbed a table in the back that was close to the bar and bathroom. This was the perfect location because we got a great view of the band that was right in front of the bar and when had to go to the bathroom, we only had to walk about 7 feet away, if that at all.

Around 9:45, the Journey Tribute Band came on to play and I started to laugh hysterically. These guys did not look like anything that I imagined them to be. Just look at them in the picture below.

I did have a good time trying to figure out which "famous" actor that each member resembled the most. Lets start on the far left. This guy reminds me of the fat guy from Better Off Dead/Head of the Class/Goodburger. According to Katie, the next guy is just some creepy guy from any bad movie or one of the guys on How to Catch a Predator. The guy in the middle is the lead singer and according to Paul is Nathan Lane's fatter weirder brother. The next guy is the lead guitarist but he definitely reminds me of Karl from Die Hard or whatever character he played in Witness. The last guy on the right is the drummer and was great as Johnny who had to "sweep the leg" in The Karate Kid.

To be honest, the band was awesome. Even though the band had a weird look, they sounded just liked the original Journey. Especially the lead singer. The guy was pitch perfect to Steve Perry. If you closed your eyes, you could have sworn that it was Steve Perry at was singing up there. It kind of seemed like Steve Perry finally got a day off from working at his local convenience store and decided to start singing for shits and giggles.

Overall, the concert was great. Of course they sang almost all of their hits like "Don't Stop Believin", "Lovin, Touchin, Squeezin" and others as well. Right in front of the stage was a small area for people to dance and man did the completely wrong type of people used that dance floor to their full advantage.

At first, it was a couple of hot girls that were dancing with each other and then the atrocity began. A lady in her mid to late 30s who dressed up like a teen whore then strutted her way up to dance floor and tried to show her moves. She looked like she was having a seizure up there with all of her stomach rolls getting jiggy with it as well.

Once people saw this lady bust a move of the floor, all of the other horrible dancers took a cue from her and started to dance with her. This had to be the most horrific natural disaster since the earthquakes in Haiti, even though our seismic waves may have been higher here due to the large people shaking their booties at once.

After a couple of hours of $2 PBRs and$3 wells, it was time to go and head to downtown Fort Worth to the Library to meet up with Katie's sister Alex and a couple of her friends. While I was there, I also met up with my friend Cristina for her little brother's bday party which was really everyone watching this kid take a ton of shots. Obviously he had a great time until midnight when he threw up all over the place.

We closed the Library down at 2 am they girls wanted to go home but Paul and I wanted to go and get something to eat. Then it was all you can eat pancakes at the one and only iHop. 10 Pancakes later, it was time to go back to P and K's house to meet up with the girls to play some Goldeneye on the Wii, watch a little bit of Jersey Shore, and get some sleep before the big day at the brewery.

The next morning wasn't that bad, it wasn't the best morning, but it wasn't the worst. The girls decided not to go to the brewery so it was just Paul and I that were meeting the rest of the group there.

Have you ever had one of the days were you have absolutely nothing planned or have to do so you just end up at a brewery and participate in an impromptu pub crawl with some friends. Well that is exactly what happened to me on Saturday. From 1 to 6, Paul and I did alot of responsible consuming alcohol time that day. The brewery was great and so were the many different watering holes after that. But all good things must come to and end because I did in fact have something to do that day. I had a surprise goodbye party to go to and I needed to get ready for quickly since it started at 7 and I only had an hour to get home, shower, get dress, and make it to the party on time. That portion of the night will be coming soon in the next blog.

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