Lokal Loudness | Four Leaf Clover We Party All Over!

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Four Leaf Clover We Party All Over!

By Stoney ⋅ March 15, 2008 ⋅

Many in Augusta were left curious about Augusta having St. Patty’s Day festivities, in particular the parade, on Friday as opposed to Saturday. This years holiday falls on the Monday of Holy Week leading up to the earliest Easter Sunday we’ve seen in a while. St. Joseph’s Day, normally celebrated on March 19th, was transferred to March 15 this year so as not to conflict with Holy Week leaving Friday as the sole day to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day without conflicting with religious holidays. With all that figured out, I turned to a day’s worth of fun.

Like most days mine began on a barstool at Metro A Coffeehouse only the drinks were changed to protect, well celebrate the obvious. Hanging at Metro is always a pleasure of familiar faces and usually involves ordering lunch while sipping on some sort of liquor injected coffee. This day it would be a tasty cold concoction of Irish flavor to go along with sandwiches from great new eatery Sweet Lou’s. (OK, so maybe lunch wasn’t Irish but it was pretty darn delicious) The Metro staff showed up a little at a time and began preparing for a larger than usually daytime crowd what with the Metro sitting on one of the parade route corners. Over the next couple of hours we drank, laughed and celebrated while watching the sidewalks slowly fill up with anyone who’s schedule would permit them to enjoy the early portion of the day’s merrymaking. I would have to say that the wait was well worth it. This years parade, while probably not on the grand scale of Savannah’s or possible even Columbia’s, was a well put together display of the usual marching bands, business run floats and radio station vans with a few surprises thrown in. Speaking of thrown, I think float sponsors planned for a larger showing as there was an over abundance of projectile candy flying into the crowd as the parade passed by. Call me silly, but my favorite participant was the Metro A Coffeehouse float topped with a live performance by the Dirty Sons of Ireland and a couple of kegs. Not much more Irish you can get than that! The other would have to be the redneck float with trailing outhouse and built-in water guns. Oh yeah, the Adrian shenaigans were a blast as well. A big Mexican straddled on the back of a Shriner’s cycle celebrating St. Patty’s. Gut-buster. Parade over, check - clover number one.

After a short break home to let out the dogs and rest a bit it was time to meet up with Jason, grab some grub, and check out some of the nightly fun.

With the sounds of the Dirty Sons still lingering, it was only appropriate that we would begin the evening at the Playground with the ultimate in Irish drinking music. Also it was a chance for Jason and I to shoot the next episode of LOUDtv which will be up soon. Now needless to say, it would be hard to discuss the Dirty Sons first set without symbols in place of the expletives in half of the song titles but I can say this, the songs involved drinking, sex, drinking, and well, more sex. Irish drinking music, check - clover number two.

So our next goal was to hop over the river and take in a quick dose of a more modern St. Patty’s party. The result: the Highlander and area music vets 420 Outback. While it seeemed that I would never run out of familiar faces to run into at the Playground, arriving at the Highlander, no offense to my musical Augusta brothers and sisters at the Playground, was like a family reunion barely out of the car. Doug E. Beatz and the guys were between sets but just like that were kicking that familiar 420 crunchy groove. The “Hits from the Bong/Rainy Day Women” medley was a “stone cold groove” and we left with the sounds of a cheering crowd following us as we made our way up the stairs to the car. Head-bobbing music, check - clover number three.

Speaking of 420 Outback, not since the days of Tommy Hangover (sort of precursor to 420 Outback), had I entered a bar on Augusta South side. OK, maybe once I found myself tugged along to the now defunct honky Tonk, but even so it’s been a few years. Well it turns out that Jason is a line-dancing junkie. Sure I found that out during our visit to the Country Club to see the Velcro Pygmies but I had no idea how obsessed the guy is with country floor boot-scootin’ boogie stuff. Well being that the cover at the Country Club was $20 (bummer because Blackberry Smoke is an incredible original Southern rock band) I found myself cruising up Gordon Highway to of all places, Coyote’s. Granted I knew we be be hitting the place up a week later to shoot Big Al and the Jeremy Graham Band for LOUDtv, but I just assumed I would be waiting a week before entering the land of pickup trucks and cowboy hats. Oddly enough, no sooner had we walked in, Jason had grabbed a girl, hit the line-dance floor and I ran into familiar faces. Now you can laugh if you want when I say that those familiar faces were people I know from lokal wrestling, as “wrasslin” and country bars have always had kind of a unique association since probably way before ANYONE line-danced, but its true. I found people I know at Coyote’s. Let me shed a little light for those who have never experienced such a thing as a night at a South Augusta country bar. If you think you and your favorite bar know how to party. Forget about it. When bar patrons are getting free shots of Jager right out of the bottle right on the dance floor…tough to beat. Don’t ask me though when cowboys and cowgirls started drinking Jager but I can say that there was constantly a few “open-mouthed” people hanging out in front of the stage. After nearly witnessing a couple of fights and stumbling “cowchicks”, I was somehow not phased when Jason blurted out, “maybe I’ll end being some girls mistake”. I do wish to add though, I certainly hope that the Jeremy Graham Band is much better than the band we sat through. Don’t get me wrong, Becky McLeoud seems like a genuine person and does a good job of working the crowd (and even better job of turning up a bottle of Jager) but I wasn’t even close to impressed with McLeoud and her band. Musically, not too bad but vocally, fair to…fair. But then again, the crowd at Coyote’s didn’t seem to be any more the wiser and were having a good time, especially the open-mouth bunch in front of the stage looking like a bunch of baby chicks waiting for mama bird to feed ‘em. I just wonder if the Jager thing was Coyote’s attempt to celebrate St. Patty’s Day. Do peeps on the southside think that Jager is an Irish thing? Redneckin’ and line-dancin’ - check - clover number four.

So all-in-all it was a fun St. Patty’s celebration day. The kind that a St. Patty’s celebration SHOULD be. Drink, friends, drink, fun, drink, music, drink, singing, and…drink. A four leaf clover of fun!

I just wonder if Jason ended up being some drunk girls mistake.

’til next time,

Stoney