Monday, February 14, 2011

Monster Jam: A Primer

WELCOME TO MONSTER JAM 2011!!!!

Aww yeah, baby! It's me, my family, and 50,000 of our closest friends and we all came together for a Monster Jam!  (Say that with the most extreme Southern Twang and it's like you're there!)


I've lived in the south my whole life and have never experienced the awesomeness that is Monster Jam.   Think huge arena with a concert-type vibe going on except you are cheering for grown men who are driving trucks with obnoxiously large tires...let's not even go to the issues these guys must have...and the trucks have even louder engines.  Testerone was flowing quite freely at this event.  Also flowing were the mullets.  And the camoflage.  It was a cultural event for the children. And for us grown-ups.
And I'm ready to go to Motocross next weekend.

Because I'm a giver, I want to share my experiences at Monster Jam with you...in case you want to partake of fantastic people watching and extremely loud machines.  Here we go....


First is the Pit Party.  Basically a Meet-And-Greet for the drivers.  Since we didn't know who in the heck any of the drivers were, we pretty much walked around and wondered out loud why anyone would have the desire to drive these things.  It was super crowded
so the only way for the little guy to see was to take advantage of his dad's 6'9" height.


What to wear to an event like Monster Jam?  Let's look.  Do you like my shoes? Thanks.  They're my favorites and they are super duper comfy.  BUT they are absolutely THE wrong shoes to wear to a Pit Party.  Who knew there was a dress code?   Everyone else was in their tennies on that nice red clay.  Shoe selection for Monster Jam was off this night.  But I looked cute and that is what matters, right?


The start.  Lots of fireworks.  Trucks doing laps.  Ear plugs were firmly in place and a definite MUST HAVE by this point.   The whooping and hollering was oh-my-gosh loud.


The purpose of a Monster Truck race is for two trucks to see who can make it twice around a track, including jumps that you're seeing above, the fastest.  Straight forward.  Pretty cool.  Very loud.  Some guy in a truck called Grave Digger was the favorite in this part of the Jam.  The screaming and whistling from the fans was such that you'd think U2 was in the house.  Sorry. No pictures of him because yours truly didn't realize he was the guy until the end and by that time I was bored with taking pictures of trucks doing the same thing.  Sorry.  



Like hockey, the fans get most riled up when there is a crash of some sort.  This poor guy got himself turned over when he cut the turn a bit close.  The funny thing is that those yellow tow-forklift-crane-lifty-thing machines would race out there to right the truck.  The drivers who turned over always got out and waved to the crowds...causing the decibel level to rise to unholy levels.


Free Style:  When the drivers go around running over cars and jumping the hills.  No real routine, per se,  at least to my untrained eye.  It looked to me like the officials said "GO!" and they drove like crazy for a minute and a half.  It was cool to watch, but we were all a little wicked and were really waiting for the trucks to turn over or for one of them to lose a tire or something equally horrific.


Look how much the little guy is loving the trucks.  Lucky for us we were in a suite that had sliding glass doors.  Little guy and I could sit in the relative calm and watch the whole thing.  Nice.  Really nice.  Highly recommend the suite for the Monster Jam.


In the end, Monster Jam is a family event.  From the Pit Party (which I'd really skip next time) to the actual races, there is stuff going on that can entertain the kiddos for hours.  Plus, who doesn't want to reach down... deep deep down into the recesses of your soul and bring out the inner redneck?

It is fun for one night.

No comments:

Post a Comment