I’m in Love with Roller Derby

Last night I went to the roller derby for the second time in my life.

The first one was in Toronto last July.  And I’m sorry Toronto, but Nashville’s Roller Girls skate faster, score higher and hit harder.  I can’t wait to get back to Toronto this Summer so I can keep going to games and supporting them but my expectations for “good” derby were set very high last night.

It was a double header.  Two of Atlanta‘s teams travelled up to contend with two Nashville teams.  There was a junior game, which presumably featured the younger players -- that, or simply less skilled, and a senior game, which featured the more experienced players who -- to be totally honest with you -- intimidate me greatly.

Nashville humiliated Atlanta for both games.  The score for the first game was something like 130 to 37.  The second game was a tighter match, but not by much -- at approx. 100 to 50.  Dang, Nashville.  You held it down.

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When I play rock & roll shows with Hello Kelly, I sometimes run into girls who are … well, let’s just say silly.  I don’t know WHY ladies love a guy with a guitar so much, but it’s a reality.  And I’m not entirely opposed to it because, hey, let’s face it: It makes me feel cool.

But watching these girls smear each other across the roller track, I think I started to understand the perspective of those fan girls.  I wanted Slammylou Harris‘ autograph.  I wanted to shake Rambo Sambo‘s hand.  I wanted to meet Lady Fury to see just how insane she is in real life.  But I was in a room of men, women and children who felt the same way, so I didn’t do any of those things.

Sigh.  I’m a fan.

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For the second game, I was joined by my friend Travis.  Afterwards, we grabbed a bite to eat at Applebee’s and then went to a movie.  We saw Daybreakers.  Usually I don’t get into vampire movies, but this one was pretty fun.  Daybreakers is a good example of a movie that’s neither box-office smash nor disastrous dud, but sets out to tell a story, does it well and doesn’t ask for much in return.  Hyper violent and gross but hey -- should I have expected anything different from a vampire movie?

We took Travis’ car to the movie -- and when we went back to the Nashville Fairgrounds to grab my van, we discovered that the Fairgrounds was locked up tight.  I considered driving my van through the gates like in the action movies but … I just slept at Travis’ house and grabbed my van in the morning.

My other bandmates-to-be were supposed to come to chill with us too but they ended up bailing on us.  Oh well.  At least Travis and I had a good time.  It’s good to have buddies here so that I don’t go crazy in my room alone writing blogs all day … wait …

Tonight, the Superbowl.  I know there’s more production value in NFL games but it remains to be seen whether or not it’s more exciting than Roller Derby.

If nothing else, there’s more fishnet in roller derby.  Does that count for anything?

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francy