[Clicking any of the photos below will take you to the Picasa Album for my Monster Jam pictures.]
Many of you must be thinking, “I’m pretty sure Monster Jam hit Columbus last week… whatever could be taking Delmer so long to blog about it?”
Once again I have let you down. Not in the same manner Anheuser-Busch has by mixing Bud Light and Clamato and tricking me into buying it by putting it in a pretty can, but in a manner that, though less provoking to the taste buds, still brings with it a smattering of disappointment.
Somewhere, some place, there’s someone wondering where my review of Monster Jam 2009 is as they are contemplating going but are hesitant to make a move without my thumbs up.
If you’ve ever seen Monster Trucks in action they’ve likely been whipping around a giant outdoor stadium. Central Ohio, despite the fact it is full of giant outdoors, lacks a stadium which is Monster Truck friendly. And I’m cool with that.
Though, I wonder, isn’t Crew Stadium pretty big? It’s got to be bigger than Nationwide Arena. It’s probably visitor unfriendly in early January. (But, if it were to get torn apart by Monster Trucks, who’d care. It’s a soccer stadium!)
Monster Trucks in Central Ohio are rather tame when compared to Monster Trucks in the Astrodome, Kingdome, or a Super Wal-Mart. (Are those first two items still around?)
Tame, yet still pretty cool. I mean, after all, they’re bit f*cking trucks rolling over things.
Kids tickets were $6.00 each and adult tickets $18.00 for a total of $48.00. The complete (because I didn’t want to say “total” again) charge, after Ticket Master and the arena tacked on some fees: $74.15. So, I paid $26.15 other charges, or more than an additional 50%. (Which, if you’ve read yesterday’s post, is about how much older than Radioactive Girl I am.)
Well. As they say, if you’re going to run with the big dogs, you gotta piss in the high weeds.
This year we went to the pre-Monster Jam pit party. As parties go it was rather lame; there were no snacks and nothing in the way of a bar. There was, however, a chance to see all the trucks up close and to get pictures taken with the drivers.
This is Sammo and the driver of Grave Digger. Samson has autographs of all the drivers on the bill of his hat.
The Cannon Lady was there. A person can’t help but wonder: “Do ladies really allow themselves to be shot out of cannons?”
Another wondering, and this was voiced by the other adult in the group, was, “How are they going to line the shot up?”
“I’m not sure,” I said, “But it’s got to be something a little more scientific than just eyeballing it.”
You’ll notice in the above photo that the Cannon Lady is “eyeballing” the shot. Every so often she’d look down at the driver, give him a hand gesture and he’d cut the wheel to the left or right. After setting the parking brake he got out of the truck and appeared to pace off the distance from the bumper to the net.
Prior to the shot the other adult said something like, “At some point there was a conversation around a dinner table about this,” and then we wondered how a woman might go about explaining to her family she’d like to be shot out of a cannon. And if the Cannon Lady refers her activity as a money shot.
The Cannon Lady hit the net dead center.
Monster Jam also had a bit of Quad Wars – that is two teams of quad runners racing each other. Amazingly (it seems) Quad Wars always features a team from Ohio and a team from whatever state hosts the team the OSU football team will be playing in an upcoming bowl game. (Lacking a bowl appearance, the opposing team is typically from Michigan.) This year, OSU played a team from Texas in the Tostitos oops, Fiesta Bowl. So! Quad Wars was Ohio vs. Texas. (I’m not going to look, but I’m guessing Texas’ colors are reddish and white – those were the colors of the cars the trucks ran over, and that’s another theme.)
There was a lot of this during freestyle.
Grave Digger, always the crowd favorite, dropped his drive shaft at something like 10 seconds into the freestyle competition.
I’ve no idea who won the Monster Jam competition (much like I’d no idea who won the Fiesta Bowl until the evening of the next day) – but, I give Monster Jam two thumbs up.
I’m sure I’ll be there next year. (I might try buying tickets directly from Nationwide Arena.)
That second to last photo above of the truck in the air is pretty cool.
I’ve never been to a Monster Truck show, but this one you went to looks pretty cool.
Either I have known you FAR too long, or these Monster Jam things are coming around faster and faster. Is it that time again??
Marty: Monster Trucks, despite the fact I make fun of the event, are always a good time. And it would be a cheap outing, I think, if I were to find a different source for tickets.
Lady P: I can’t believe how fast Monster Jam comes around. AND, if I wanted, I could go to the Monster Nationals on April 4. The monster truck Samson is going to be at that one.