Rock n Roll Barbeque

July 2, 2012

Dakota & Avi







Rock n Roll Barbeque

With most of my friends not arriving for our big gathering until late Saturday and Sunday, I found myself with a day to spend in South Florida and no clear plan of what to do, so naturally I checked in to what was happening on the cultural calendar and found that the Seminole Hard Rock Casino was hosting their second annual “Rock n Roll Barbeque” on Saturday night and thought that sounded like a decent option so I invited our friend Dakota and her boyfriend Avi to go to the promising event.







Before the afternoon event started, I headed in to downtown Ft. Lauderdale, checking in to my favorite downtown hotel, The Riverside on Las Olas and then drove the twenty or so minutes to Golden Beach to check out the headquarters for the upcoming ODC gathering. Our hosts Eli & Mary were on hand preparing for the onslaught and I was the first official arrival. I didn’t stay long, but was able to say hello and check it out before it got too hectic.

Avi & Dakota



Avi & Dakota picked me up at the hotel and we drove over to the Hard Rock, where we had VIP passes that allowed early entry and access to special VIP tent with special food, craft beer and liquor. As early arrivals, we were able to sample the food and specialty craft beer from over forty of South Florida’s premier restaurants specializing in barbeque.





From Ribs, Chicken, Shrimp, Steak and all other manner of barbeque, there was something for every palate. Most restaurants, which ranged from huge chains, to mom and pop bbq specialists had outdoor grills where they were grilling up samples of their tasty food for the masses that were attending the festival. The early entry proved to be a great thing as once the regular gates opened, the crowds swelled and the lines for food and beer got progressively longer.







The only down side was the wicked heat of the South Florida July afternoon. Held on an asphalt parking lot, with blazing sun and grills everywhere and it was one hot afternoon, throw in thousands of hot and sweaty people and it was a damn good thing that we had access to the comfy air-conditioned couches in the VIP area.





There was a contest for what restaurant had the best barbeque and while I have no idea who actually won, for the three of us it was an easy choice as we all agreed that Mug’s Sports Grill had the tastiest food that we experienced. There were a number of good choices, but Mug’s stood out in our opinion, and while I had never heard of the place, I may check it out when I visit the area in the future.





It was a fun afternoon at the Hard Rock, and by the early evening I was back at the hotel and soon after headed back to Golden Beach to spend the evening with the early ODC crew who had arrived already. I spent the night at the Riverside and woke up early the next morning to explore Las Olas a little on my own. There was a monthly Riverfront Jazz festival on Sunday morning that had a large, relaxed crowd and great music and food on three stages where I spent the morning.







In the early afternoon, I headed over to the Museum of Art where they were hosting an exhibit on Sharks. The exhibit focused on the role of sharks in art and in popular culture and while small, was quite interesting. Especially to me, as I have always been a shark lover. After perusing the museum, I was headed back to Golden Beach to check in to the Crowne Plaza hotel where Kathy & I would spend the next week. She was flying up from Key West on Monday morning to join me.

“Lights Will Guide You Home…”- Coldplay

July 1, 2012

Coldplay



Esme & Cayman

Michael & Dakota



“Lights Will Guide You Home…”- Coldplay

When I am going to be spending any significant time in a certain place, I always take some time and check out what might be going on there while we are there. This way I often take advantage of concerts, local music, plays, museum openings and any number of entertainment options while traveling. When I checked in to what was happening in the Miami/ Fort Lauderdale area during the reunion of my friends known as the ODC, I noticed that the band Coldplay was going to be playing a gig at the American Airlines Arena on the Friday evening prior to the gathering.



Dakota





It just so happened that I needed to give our friend Dakota a ride to Lauderdale on that Friday and she just happened to be a huge Coldplay fan, so it seemed like a perfect opportunity to catch what is one of the hottest tours in the world at the moment and try and see the sold-out Coldplay show while we were there. Thankfully one of my good friends (and fellow ODC member) Drew, owns a ticket broker agency and was able to hook us up with amazing seats in the second row off the floor, stage right that also happened to include access to the exclusive Flagship Lounge, a private bar/club located just off the floor of the arena.









The Flagship Lounge is a fancy, private club reserved for people with tickets to events in the first six rows and offers a special private menu, top shelf liquor, close-circuit tv and all the amenities usually reserved for celebrity types. It was pretty cool to be able to hang out there before the show and during the breaks between opening acts. We also had waitress service at our seats which was pretty cool.







The show itself promised to be pretty special from the moment we received our special LED powered, radio controlled light up bracelets that were given to each patron and light up via radio signals in various colors based upon beats to the music, providing a spectacular scene when over 20,000 people were lighting up at once.





The shop began to the theme of “Back to the Future” and Coldplay took the stage and launched in to “Mylo Xyloto”, the title cut to their most recent release. Over the next two plus hours they played twenty-two songs including all of their biggest hits, all with a spectacular stage show the likes of I have never witnessed in over 1000 concerts that I have seen.





In addition to the incredible light show, both from the stage and from the bracelets, there were also moments when literally tons of confetti rained down upon the audience and other moments when lasers punctuated the darkness in incredible designs, all set to the moody spectacular sounds of one of the best bands out there. It was an amazing experience.

Coldplay – “Yellow” – live in Miami

The entire band was amazing and lead singer Chris Martin seemed absolutely ebullient, perhaps because his girlfriend, actress Gwenyth Paltrow was seated in the crowd, at one point he leapt from the stage, ran up into the crowd and gave her a surprise kiss. It was just one of many, many highlights of a spectacular show. I have included a couple of youtube videos which do nothing to capture the spectacle of the show, but will give you some idea of what it was like.

Coldplay- live in Miami



Brendan O'Hara

After the show, Dakota & I headed out to the legendary Miami bar, Tobacco Road, where singer Brendan O’Hara was celebrating his CD release party. In a case of what a small world it is, my Key West friends Esme and Cayman were at the gig as well, and happen to be good friends of Brendan’s which just added to a pretty cool evening all around. We stayed at the bar until Dakota’s boyfriend Avi arrived, fresh off a plane from a work trip to Houston to pick her up. A excellent start to what promises to be a great week with friends.



Brendan O'Hara