… and I-rish I hadn’t drunk so much while celebrating St. Patrick’s Day this past weekend. Although comparatively, I was practically sober.
It may have rained on our parade – literally, the parade was postponed until this weekend – but Rich and Bennett’s 8th Annual St. Patrick’s Day Pub Crawl marched on. Said pub crawl is the largest in the U.S. – like, officially. More than 4,000 people come in from all over the country, as far as San Francisco, to crawl through the streets of Charlotte. The crawl is so massive in fact, the Travel Channel filmed it for their new show “Extreme.” This pub crawl has made Charlotte a tourist destination. All hail Rich&Bennett.
But I’m pretty sure the producers thought they were filming “Charlotteans Gone Wild” in some of the interviews. I overheard one interview where the guy was talking in a foreign language known as drunk babble, and some girl in dire need of attention wanted to be on camera so bad she pulled up her shirt and shouted, “They always be after me Lucky Charms!” Not very lady like of the lush.
Pictured was the view from DJ Mayor’s booth of Buckhead Saloon at 3 p.m. Saturday afternoon… it was so crowded it was one in, one out — and the line for the ladies room was so long the attendants offered a pass to the front of the line for $3. Considering how long all the broken seals in there were holding their pee, it was a bargain.
And this is Whisky River at 8 p.m…..
Uptown Charlotte was a sea of orange. And apparently, orange is an offensive color to the Northern Irish … so I guess this mean’s they’re not Virginia Tech, Virginia, Clemson or Syracuse fans. Let’s just say the orange shirts bypassed Connelley’s. The travel route included Dixie’s Tavern as the starting line, followed by Alley Cat, BAR Charlotte, The Breakfast Club, Buckhead Saloon, The Attic and Madisons, Brick and Barrell, Cans, Tilt, the Green Party at the EpiCentre Pavilion (as in all the bars in it), and back to Dixie’s for Shamrock and Roll with DJ Arthur Bruthers, DJ Jazzy Jimmy and VAN DAM.
Survival of the sober-est: How to successfully manage to remain able to walk through an entire bar crawl…because remember, it’s a marathon, not a sprint.
I apparently got a late start to the crawl because everyone was already drunk by the time I got there. I called a time out halfway through the night and rounded the troops for dinner at Librettos. When people start buying rounds of shots, start drinking water. Avoid anything with sugar because that is what gives you a hangover, and carbonation which pushes the alcohol into your blood stream faster.
Either I actually heeded my own advice for once – or I am part ninja because I walked away from the crawl around 10 p.m., changed out of my orange t-shirt and into my white cowboy boots to go see Lee Brice at Coyote Joes. Hey, I may be one-fourth Irish, but I am a certified G.R.I.T (Girl Raised In The South) and you can take the chick out of Dixie, but you can never take the Dixie out of the chick!
Plus, the line was twice as long for the men’s room as for the women’s (which is an indicator of the ratio might I add). Immediately after Lee Brice sang to us with his lyrics that remind us that it’s a long way from Myrtle Beach to L.A. and that all women are crazy, Coyote Joe’s proceeded to turn into Club Coyote. It went from hick to hip-hop… Hick-Hop, with some hop. And may I just say, the venue is so much better now that it’s non-smoking. I no longer feel at risk of spontaneously combusting from all the hairspray and smoke.
Upcoming Coyote Joes shows include….
Jason Aldean – April 11
Eric Church – April 17
Jake Owen – May 9
Zac Brown Band – May 21
And for those who wish to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day on the actual holiday (March 17) there’s The Irish Flu Bar Crawl schedule_itemID=1340 which kicks off from 3 – 5 p.m. with a free wing buffet at Wild Wings Café. If you get there before 4 p.m. there’s no charge and after it’s a mere $5. Lazyday’s Dr. Valentine will even write you a doctor’s note.
This article appears in Mar 10-17, 2009.
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