Josh Ritter was awesome! Seriously, if you get a chance, go see him. This was his first time playing New Orleans and he was excited. Between every song he kept telling us how unreal and exciting it was to not only play New Orleans but for his first time to be at Tipitina's. The show was absolutely fantastic. During the second song he stepped back and let the crowd sing the chorus and I was completely shocked-- the majority of the crowd knew every word. I think Josh was as surprised as I was because he stepped back from the mic and (I'm pretty sure) said "F*ck me!" with a huge smile on his face. After that, his energy level sky-rocketed and the crowd felt it. It turned out the crowd knew every word to every song. Why did I think I was the only Ritter fan in New Orleans? He showed his roots with an Idaho state flag draped across the front of his keyboard :) Excellent show, it was a blast. I would post a picture of the band but I'm unsure about the legality of it.
On Thursday night (yes, a school night) we went to the parades put on by the Krewes: Babylon, Chaos, and Muses. They all ran down St. Charles. One of my Yelp friends has a condo on the route so we hung out with them and 30 other people to watch the parades. This is a picture of my friend's wine purse:
Krewe of Muses is awesome! It's the only Krewe run completely by women. This is quite a feat seeing as there are about 60 Krewes total in New Orleans. Their big throw are bedazzled high-healed shoes. It is quite rare and special to get one, so that's what everyone wanted. I didn't get one but a couple of people next to me did. Parades here are different. Instead of candy they throw stuffed animals (nice stuffed animals), balls, yoyos, frisbees, beer, and, of course, beads. The funnest thing for me is watching the kids. Most of their parents have made "parade ladders" for them to be able to see the parades better. Parade ladders are ladders with wheels so you can drag them to the route that have seats attached to the top of them for two kids to sit on. Here's a picture of the most ingenious one I saw:
The picture sort of sucks, but the ladders had dryer vent tubes attached to either side which led to a huge bin where the kids could drop their goodies. So smart.
Here's a picture of the opening float:
Now, the bad news:
Here are the weather warnings for today:
Thunderstorm advisory.
Flash flood advisory.
Tornado advisory.
Our big parade Endymion got postponed to run on Sunday with another krewe, Bacchus. That wouldn't be so bad, but the route has changed. This means our restaurant event won't work because the restaurant is no longer on the parade route. I actually feel really bad for the restaurant because they have to refund everyone's money. So now I don't know if I want to go. Here's why: Endymion and Bacchus are called the "super krewes." A million people known for getting rowdy were expected to attend each parade. Put them together, and you can expect (with overlap) 1.5 million people. Now, observing a million rowdy people from our nice, controlled, restaurant event is one thing. Being in the mix on the street with 1.5 million rowdy people trying to get a view of the parades is quite another. This year has the highest expected turnout in years because Mardi Gras is so late it falls during a lot of spring breaks. One can expect the crowds to be a big Frat party--not my idea of a good time.
We're waffling. I'll let you know if we decide to take part in any of the craziness, tomorrow or otherwise.
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