Saturday, February 21

Nichole stayed at our house Friday night and Justin came over around 9am. We left Huntsville around 9:30 in the morning. The drive went by pretty quick with few stops along the way. We pulled into New Orleans around dusk, about 20 minutes before the Thomas Function guys arrived.

We met outside of Quintron and Miss Pussycat’s Spellcaster Lounge (they actually live upstairs…it’s awesome!) in the 9th Ward. Then we all squished into the Thomas Function van and headed to the French Quarter/Bourbon Street. After walking around for a bit, we decided to have dinner at Oceana. Andy and I split a shrimp po-boy. It was pretty good, but kind of bland. Dinner took quite a while since they were so busy, so we only walked around for an hour or so more before heading back to the Spellcaster Lounge.

The Spellcaster Lounge (before the crowd)

(me before the beerbath)

The show was packed. That place could maybe hold 200 and there were at least 400 people there, overall. Thomas Function played a good set and it was cool to see people get into them. Monotonix (a band from Israel) was insane! I had read a bit about them before we left, but to be there in person was crazy. The lead singer crowd surfed throughout the show, threw the bass drum in the audience so they could beat it, and hung from the ceiling when he sang. I was standing on a raised platform, and had just opened a beer when all of a sudden, he crowd surfs over, grabs my beer, chugs it, then tried to spit it back in my mouth. I put my head down, and the beer went allllll over me, in my hair, on my face, down my dress. It was hilarious…and at that point, refreshing. By the time Quintron and Miss Pussycat took the stage, the crowd was crammed inside. Of course as soon as they started, the dancing began. It was so crazy! I was right in front of Quintron and his set-up, and me and the girls next to me had to constantly hold the crowd back while we danced away. The show lasted until about 3am. We hung out for a bit longer before turning in around 5:30am.

Thomas Function

Monotonix

Quintron and Miss Pussycat

(Quintron’s Drum Buddy…he invented this to make light create sound. Pretty awesome!)

Sunday, February 22

Woke up around 11 and followed Quintron and Miss P to a bar called Markey’s for bloody marys. Several people from the show the night before ended up showing up as well. We hung out there for a couple of hours before heading downtown. We spent most of the day walking around the French Quarter before ending up on Bourbon Street again. We went into a few different bars and dance clubs. When the group decided to go to Big Daddy’s Love Acts (a sex/strip bar), Andy and I tried to locate food. My parents recommended Acme Oyster House, but there was a two hour wait. We then went across the street to Felix’s, but never got a chance to order before the group called saying they were finished at the strip club. It was getting late at that point, and everyone wanted to see a show at the Saturn Bar (across from Q&P’s place) so we headed that way. I was super tired, and Andy and I eventually went to take a nap in the van. Before we knew it, Nichole and Justin were coming to the van to get their pillows and blankets. I guess our quick nap was a few hours long. We all went inside Q&P’s house for much needed ZZZs. Again, we all fell asleep around 5:30am.

haha Zach saw these guys selling kisses for a dollar and totally took advantage. The girl in the photo was disgusted.

Monday, February 23

Monday morning we got an earlier start because Quintron had to load his equipment and that’s not a quiet feat. Justin, Andy, and I ate breakfast at McDonald’s (blech…I only had a hash brown) while everyone else slept through the noise. When we got back to Q’s house everyone else began stirring. We headed back to the French Quarter one last time before we had to leave later that day. We had lunch at Coop’s Place…which was by far the best meal of the trip. Quintron recommended it to us, and we tried to go the day before but it was WAY too crowded. But on Monday we got a table and the food was delicious! Andy and I split a fried shrimp plate. Coop’s had a kitten, Stella, that lived in the front window…boy, what a life she must have! After lunch we walked around for 5 hours or so before we had to head out so we could make it home at a somewhat decent time.

Look! We totally saw Val Kilmer!

One night Quintron’s workroom was open and I snapped a few pictures. This is where he builds the Drum Buddy and works on other various projects. I took some additional photos of the Spellcaster Lounge and the surrounding buildings.

We (sadly) left in the evening. New Orleans is hard to leave! The drive home wasn’t too bad, but I got really tired when we hit Birmingham and traded off with Andy. Nichole and Justin slept most of the way, but we had great conversation on the last leg of the trip. We arrived at our home sweet home around midnight thirty and crashed. Best sleep ever! And our kitties certainly missed us!