Masters Week Review

If you're not from Augusta, then the first full week of April probably doesn't hold much meaning to you. For us locals, though, it's many things. Spring break, vacation time, party time, or a total nuisance. You see, that's the week the PGA comes to town for The Masters Golf Tournament. I wouldn't say that I'm a golf fan, and I haven't touched my clubs except to move them from one place to another in years, but even I watch golf that week.

Flashback: I worked out at the tournament my junior year of high school. The basketball coach got a bunch of us onto the Litter Patrol. Prestigious; I know. So I spent the seven days of my spring break walking around in a yellow jumpsuit poking at cigarette butts with a long pole and emptying trash bags. I don't remember exactly how much money I made, but $7/hour sounds right. That was pretty hefty for an almost 17 year old in 1996. Coolest thing I can claim is that I think I saw Anthony Edwards checking out the action on some hole.

Present Day: Being pretty far removed from the spring break days, and not really feeling like a vacation time, this year was more or less party time. Come to think of it, so was last year. I didn't work at all during either week. Last year I had taken the time off to go on a cruise. The cruise didn't happen, for me at least, and I still had the time off, so I went out five or six nights. This year I was off because I'm unemployed, having been laid off last month. I think I only went out four nights this year, though. With all the presumed big wig tourists in town for the week, my favorite places to have a beer or two tripled their prices, so I couldn't afford to hit the scene every night. Most of the time there was live music, though, so that's always a plus.

Tuesday: The fifth annual Rock Fore! Dough concert was Tuesday night and featured my favorite band, Hootie & the Blowfish. For flavor, there was also a local act, 48 Volt, and national acts Shawn Mullins and Zac Brown Band. Overall, it was a pretty good show but a couple of things brought it down. First off it was freezing! It would have been tolerable if the wind hadn't been so bad, but I was shivering the entire time. Second, I really felt like my boys in HBF just kinda mailed it in. Having seen them probably a dozen times, I think I qualify as being able to say that. Luckily, their 80% is better than most bands at 100%.

There was an after party deal at Wild Wing Cafe featuring Occasional Milkshake, which is two guys from Hootie and a guy from another favorite band of mine, Blue Dogs. While I met the members of that little band in various levels of complexity, the highlight of the night was meeting Mark Bryan (the Hootie guitarist). During the show I yelled out a request for one of his solo songs, A Fork in the Road. He thanked me but said the rest of the guys didn't know it and he gave me a fist pound. Good times.

Wednesday: I got talked into going to Country Club to see LoCash Cowboys. I'd seen them before back in December, so I felt good that it was worth the price of admission. They're a semi-country music act that I guess still hasn't fully been discovered yet. Like a lot of popular country acts, they're really more rock-oriented when you listen to them. They put on a pretty good show with lots of energy. You haven't lived until you've seen a guy in a country music band, wearing a Motley Crue blue jean jacket, playing an camouflaged acoustic guitar that's not plugged into anything just so he can shoot confetti out the end.

Thursday: Took in Sam Thacker at Somewhere in Augusta. It was my first time seeing him and he's pretty good. He seemed to know just the right amount of his own original stuff to mix in while playing everyone's favorite mix of bar and grille covers.

All in all, it was a pretty fun week. It was a nice escape from reality. Now, unfortunately, it's back to the real world that I live in the other 51 weeks of the year. Not that I don't like my life, that's not what I'm saying. It's just nice to get away and do something new for a while. Now I'm back to just sitting on the couch with Hazel and looking for a job.

Maybe I'm in need of a change...?