A Night of Bears and B-List Celebrities
There is strange, there's surreal, and then there is being in a club on the Sunset Strip watching four spandex clad big haired rockers channeling Poison circa 1987 singing Def Leppard's "Pour Some Sugar On Me" with a headbanging Billy Ray Cyrus of one hit wonder "Achy Breaky Heart" fame and a highly intoxicated Ryan Cabrera. And that's not even mentioning the shirt-ripping antics of former child star Danny Bonaduce.
Alright, so I've written about Metal Skool* in this space before, but then again we left after two songs with the initial "Welcome to L.A." shock of topless girls dancing and making out with each other while the band jumpkicked their way through Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer."
Now after eight months in Los Angeles my pure Midwest morality has been withered (insert smirk here) so my jaded new self had no problem with the debauchary. Well, OK, more like my friend Joel was in one of the opening bands and he had an unlimited guest list.
Luckily the girls that attended were more "modest" this time, and the show was about as much as you'd expect...the guitar player playing a blistering solo while flying over the crowd via harness, gratuitous remarks about women's body parts, etc. etc.
But then Billy Ray Cyrus came on stage and sung Billy Idol's "With a Rebel Yell."
Cyrus now looks like a Contemporary Christian version of Red Sox era Johnny Damon.
Things got even odder when they dragged a bewildered Ryan Cabrera onstage ("Is Ashlee Simpson's dad going to let you?" the guitarist asked)
to sing the aforementioned Def Leppard song. A few minutes later, Danny Bonaduce (maybe more famous now for his VH1 reality show) came up and offered to play the bass. He then ripped his shirt off and made a wrestling pose. More crazy antics ensued.
Afterwards, I felt like I needed a bath.
Part of me wished I had remained in Barney's Beanery to see the Chicago Bears' amazing comeback on Monday Night Football. Myself and a couple friends had gone to watch what we thought would be the Bears sacking Matt Leinart like the Visigoths did to Rome in the 5th century (what, you thought that History degree was for show?). Instead we witnessed one of the worst quarterback performances of all time as Rex Grossman almost singlehandedly hijacked the Bears attempt at going 6-0.
By the time the fourth quarter was ending, my friend Andy had to leave, John was ready to leave because he couldn't watch the horror, especially with the sports bar so packed with cheering Cardinals fans (Maybe they were all Leinart's frat buddies?).
So after another Bears turnover that led to an apparent 80 yard touchdown rumble that made it 29-3 with nine or so minutes left in the game, John and I split the premises.
But while riding to Hollywood I happened to look at the score on my phone and literally shrieked when I saw the score was 24-23 Bears with 2 minutes left. Then I found out Neil Rackers missed a chip shot to win it. Incredible. Even the Metal Skool guitarist made a Neil Rackers joke in the middle of the set.
Needless to say... nights like last night don't come around too often. At least I hope.
*Here's a sample of Metal Skool on YouTube when Kelly Clarkson (also very intoxicated) went on stage. (Family Friendly Warning: It's an R-rated for Profanity clip)
There is strange, there's surreal, and then there is being in a club on the Sunset Strip watching four spandex clad big haired rockers channeling Poison circa 1987 singing Def Leppard's "Pour Some Sugar On Me" with a headbanging Billy Ray Cyrus of one hit wonder "Achy Breaky Heart" fame and a highly intoxicated Ryan Cabrera. And that's not even mentioning the shirt-ripping antics of former child star Danny Bonaduce.
Alright, so I've written about Metal Skool* in this space before, but then again we left after two songs with the initial "Welcome to L.A." shock of topless girls dancing and making out with each other while the band jumpkicked their way through Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer."
Now after eight months in Los Angeles my pure Midwest morality has been withered (insert smirk here) so my jaded new self had no problem with the debauchary. Well, OK, more like my friend Joel was in one of the opening bands and he had an unlimited guest list.
Luckily the girls that attended were more "modest" this time, and the show was about as much as you'd expect...the guitar player playing a blistering solo while flying over the crowd via harness, gratuitous remarks about women's body parts, etc. etc.
But then Billy Ray Cyrus came on stage and sung Billy Idol's "With a Rebel Yell."
Cyrus now looks like a Contemporary Christian version of Red Sox era Johnny Damon.Things got even odder when they dragged a bewildered Ryan Cabrera onstage ("Is Ashlee Simpson's dad going to let you?" the guitarist asked)
to sing the aforementioned Def Leppard song. A few minutes later, Danny Bonaduce (maybe more famous now for his VH1 reality show) came up and offered to play the bass. He then ripped his shirt off and made a wrestling pose. More crazy antics ensued.Afterwards, I felt like I needed a bath.
Part of me wished I had remained in Barney's Beanery to see the Chicago Bears' amazing comeback on Monday Night Football. Myself and a couple friends had gone to watch what we thought would be the Bears sacking Matt Leinart like the Visigoths did to Rome in the 5th century (what, you thought that History degree was for show?). Instead we witnessed one of the worst quarterback performances of all time as Rex Grossman almost singlehandedly hijacked the Bears attempt at going 6-0.
By the time the fourth quarter was ending, my friend Andy had to leave, John was ready to leave because he couldn't watch the horror, especially with the sports bar so packed with cheering Cardinals fans (Maybe they were all Leinart's frat buddies?).
So after another Bears turnover that led to an apparent 80 yard touchdown rumble that made it 29-3 with nine or so minutes left in the game, John and I split the premises.
But while riding to Hollywood I happened to look at the score on my phone and literally shrieked when I saw the score was 24-23 Bears with 2 minutes left. Then I found out Neil Rackers missed a chip shot to win it. Incredible. Even the Metal Skool guitarist made a Neil Rackers joke in the middle of the set.
Needless to say... nights like last night don't come around too often. At least I hope.
*Here's a sample of Metal Skool on YouTube when Kelly Clarkson (also very intoxicated) went on stage. (Family Friendly Warning: It's an R-rated for Profanity clip)
