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Rodeo Review: We've Left the Blue County Behind
On Tuesday, Austinist headed down to San Antonio with some out-of-town visitors from the East Coast. Sure, we took them to the Alamo and the Riverwalk, but the real reason we went was to watch the culture shock as our Philadelphia guests experienced their first rodeo. Mission accomplished.
The abundant belt buckles and hats were the first signal that we were a world away from liberal (and let's face it, not like the rest of Texas) hipster Austin, and the pig races that we came across brought the first sign of true amusement from our friends. We also encountered THOR, the world's tallest living horse, and met many cows of all spots and sizes.
Inside the SBC Center, the Rodeo was two hours of dusty and extensively overcommentated events. The rodeo has an MC that works as hard as a baseball announcer to pass the time when bulls act up or animals otherwise fail to cooperate (this happens often). The banter sort of trailed off into Charlie Brown parent-speak after a while, but we did enjoy the saddle bronc and bullriding events far more than we had anticipated.
The sign to exit came immediately after the competition ended. A country video on the SBC Center screen showed someone called Montgomery Gentry driving around with a dead deer on a truck and wielding a baseball bat in an apparent rampage againist drug dealers, rich folks, and city slickers (Seriously - click the link and watch the "You Do Your Thing" video. It's creepy.) The crowd sat and nodded in approval while waiting for the evening concert by Kid Rock. Austinist and crew ran for the exits to return to our blue county in the red state. Maybe we're not culturally enlightened because of it, but it was a change of pace from Lovejoy's and Emo's. Indeed.
The San Antonio Rodeo wraps up on Sunday. Austin's Rodeo takes place in March - tickets are now available.
Image via SARodeo.com.
