I took the morning off to hang out with Leila and have lunch with her before she headed back to Austin. The rodeo last night was a lot of fun. To summarize, I’ll just re-post something I put on gtcrows last night:
“First of all, the show started with an invocation that was downright creepy. This booming God voice came over the PA system and Leila thought it was from some sci-fi movie, you know, like a bad guy named Zoltor or something. Creepy. The rodeo started, and the calf scramble was very funny.
So Leila and I are sitting way the hell up in Reliant Stadium watching the steer wrestling, when suddenly I spot someone standing on the stage (which is stored in the wings, not having been pulled out to its center-of-the-field rotating position yet). I thought it might be John Mayer, so I say “Leila, give me the binoculars for a sec.” She gives them to me, going “what, what?” I take a quick look, and the verdict is even better–it’s Scotty Crowe!! (You may not all be aware, but Leila has an obsession with Scotty Crowe, who will now also be referred to “the pimp behind the magic.”) We were so amused. He was all decked out in a too-small pink shirt. He’s looking very buff though.
(Interjection from Leila: “Scotty Crowe!!! I’m so obsessed with him. I don’t know why. It’s unnatural. He makes my heart flutter.”)
Anyway. The concert was tres, tres amusing. The rodeo is awesome. The concert, though short (he played for about an hour), was one of the better ones I’ve attended. The only disappointment was that there was no encore, however, you can’t be too upset when everyone on stage leaves by jumping in the bed of a pick-up trick and being driven through the tunnel. The rotating stage, the fireworks, the closed-captioning (John: “You know they’re typing everything I say on that little screen….watch…the best Houston rodeo rider ever, John Mayer! Look! See it?” ). And John Mayer makes funny faces when he plays the guitar and was wearing a jacket that bugged Leila because she thought he looked like a homeless man. At the end of the show, he even thanked the “men on horses” for opening the show.
After the concert, we almost got run over three times, lost the car, became convinced that grass had been planted over a large area of parking lot while we were inside, but then we found the car again. A guy told us “I love John Mayer” as we walked by, and Leila asked him “but how do you feel about Scotty Crowe?” Sadly, he didn’t know who Scotty was.
(Interjection from Leila: “That guy was so drunk.”)
Then, as we were jockeying for position to get out of the parking lot, these high school kids called out the window of their SUV that it was their turn, and I shouldn’t cut in front of them. I laughed and didn’t move, and then all of a sudden we hear, over a speaker coming out of their SUV, one of the kids saying “Apparently you didn’t hear me…it’s our turn!!” It was very funny, and would have been very redneck, if it weren’t so funny. Then the guy at the Shell station tried to sell Leila beer and invite us to stay at the gas station all night.
(Interjection from Leila: “That was so fun. I would have just stayed to hang out with people in the parking lot if I didn’t have a job and shit. By shit, I mean husband, house, and dog(s).”)
And thus is the story of John Mayer at the rodeo. You should all go read the road journal on johnmayer.com, which has already been updated despite the fact that the show just ended two hours ago.”
So yeah, the rodeo was a lot of fun, and it was nice to see Leila. There really is nothing quite like the spectacle that is the Houston rodeo. Horses, cowboys, cattle, fireworks, pick-up trucks, southern accents…with a video tribute to NASA thrown in. And John Mayer’s site has a priceless picture of him in front of the rodeo looking confused. Yeeeeeeeeeeee ha!
