Last night we were invited to the world premiere of Unchained, a movie about freeriding (more on this in a minute). The film was to be unveiled at Rain, a night club in the Palms Hotel.
The question: what do you wear to a mountain bike movie premiere held at a club?
An occasional club-goer myself, I had packed several club specific outfits, however, J Vic did not. Mind you, packing for this kind of a trip isn't easy. Six days and five nights is a long trip for packing in the first place, but throw in the various activities we had planned and you get exponential growth in terms of clothing required. We packed clothes for riding, bumming clothes to change into after the ride, clothes to attend the indoor expo, and clothes to go out in at night. What a pain in the ass! Anyway, to make a long-story short, I had an extra club shirt and lent it to J. But, his trail running shoes would have to make do.
We hopped in a cab and made it to Rain by about 9:40pm, with the premiere scheduled to begin at 10. Perfect timing. The place was already packed, but the crowd was navigable. We decided to forgo the usual beers and went for some drinks instead; vodka and club soda for me, gin and tonic for the Vish.
We looked around at the crowd (maybe 800 - 1000 strong). A veritable sausage-party! Actually, that's how it has been all week at the various Interbike events. The Interbike crowd has got to be 80% male, at least! When we did spy a honey, it was like coming upon an oasis in the hot desert. Now here's the good thing. About 95% of the 20% of the attendees that are women are really, really, hot! So we can't complain too much.
Back to the point of this post. When the movie finally began the crowd went wild. The movie was chock-full of scenes of 40 foot drops, back-flips, and crashes. Each of the world-class riders had their own distinct riding style. There was freeriding, flow-riding, and urban all represented. This crowd was into it...groaning when a crash occurred, cheering at a never before seen stunt, and leaning into the turns with the riders.
Unchained is well directed. Camera angles were unique; often with several on a single stunt. Also, the scenes at Whistler and various desert locations were outstanding. I have not seen many full-length freeride or mountain bike movies, but I definitely give this one an enthusiastic thumbs up. While I'll never be able to ride like these guys, I'll say that this movie was still inspirational. Both J and I decided that we would become inspired to ride harder and be just a little more daring out on the trails back east. (Check out the movie trailer).
An hour later the movie ended and the placed emptied out. Guess most mountain bikers just don't feel at home in a club. Our night was not finished, however. Hey, we didn't get all donned up in our club clothes for nothing. So we waited about 20 minutes in the cab line and headed out for some additional fun. Hmmm ... Rum Jungle at the Mandalay Bay, strip karaoke at the Hard Rock, or Tangerine at Treasure Island. We heard that Tangerine was tight (plus it was closest) so we headed to TI where we stood in a line for a good 10 minutes. Then one of the bouncers came along and asked J to lift up the legs of his pants.
"What are those New Balance?" he said.
"No...Asics," said J.
"Sorry...no sneakers...goodbye," he firmly, but pleasantly said.
Moral of the story to all you mountain bikers out there that travel to Vegas. Bring a pair of shoes, damn it! And, to His Viciousness, next time tell them their Pearl Izumis!
