Week Around The Ists
H-Town Rock
Helmets: You know, for the kids.
Houstonist joined over 70,000 rodeo fans and rock music lovers in Reliant Stadium last night for the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo finale. This wasn't our first Houston Rodeo, but it was the first time Houstonist had attended with a rodeo nut. We were skeptical about arriving at 10:45 AM on a day when the main events did not commence until 3:45 PM. How were we to occupy our time until the stadium opened?
Team Houstonist decided that all decisions should be made on full stomachs so we headed to the food court. There were few breakfast choices as most vendors were still shuttered when we arrived. We opted for sausage-on-a-stick after passing up the turkey legs and roasted corn. Nothing like a nice tasty skewer of random swine parts and a Dr. Pepper to get the day rolling. In fact, please let us know if you know a place we can meat on a stick during normal non-carnival type breakfast hours.
The hours separating us from the evening events melted away after breakfast. Our group occupied several hours sorting through the daylight events and vendors spread out around Reliant Park and surrounding facilities. Want to watch a child wrangle a bovine or bird? No worries; head to one of the livestock shows, which are more interesting than you first think. Need some soap that looks like a geode? How about a bridle for your horse, spouse or child? Just head into the fray of the vendor booths surrounding the central show corral. Ditch your City Slicker duds and get your Urban Cowboy on before the evening entertainment while you're at it. Complete your cowboy image with a horse trailer slash apartment. We're still not quite sure how broke country folk (according to the country songs at least) can afford fancy digs like that, but most of the ones we saw were sold - some to the tune of $116,000 and above. And to think that we once thought the only thing entertaining at the rodeo besides the evening events was the ability to gawk at the wide variety of mullets, fake boobs and tight jeans on display.
Evening entertainment after the jump.
The evening events kicked off with the PRCA Xtreme Bulls before home boys ZZ Top took the stage. Houstonist was not sure what to make of "Xtreme Bulls" but after last night all shadows of uncertainty were removed.
Those kids are nuts. 2,200 pounds of bull versus 155 pounds of teenager. The beasts quickly whittled down the field of 40 riders to a dozen riders in the final round. Luke Haught from Weatherford, TX seemed to take the most abuse from a bovine in the form of horns to the backside and face. In the end, Chance Smart of Philadelphia, Mississippi took home the Rodeo Houston Xtreme Bull title and over $21,000 in prize money.
Rock fans got paid as ZZ Top took the stage and let fly with Ring of Fire. The rock and roll bluesmen let it be known that they still had A-game stuff behind their cheap sunglasses 38 years into their hall of fame career. The set list was stacked with fan favorites: Pearl Necklace, I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide, Legs, Sharp Dressed Man, Tush, La Grange and Just Got Paid.
We're not sure if we'll opt for the Chute Seats next year. But you can bet your prize winning turkey (even if it's not valued at $175,000) that we'll be there for more meat-cicles, wagon races and bull riding.
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i'm pretty sure you can get meat on a stick on montrose at any hour. :-)