Rude Mechs "The Method Gun"

SB, BB2 and I met with friends yesterday for a trip to the Long Center to see The Rude Mech's performance of "The Method Gun." If you haven't seen enough of it here or here, I'm here to tell you, just go see this thing.

You can get your fill of review like information on the links above, and there's something amusing about full frontal nudity happening not just onstage but in the communal backstage areas of The Rollins Theatre and The Dell Hall -- especially with The Austin Symphony performing next door Saturday when we saw the show.

I'll leave the theatre reviews to others and I'll take this space to tell ya about the Long Center.

We chose to take plenty of time to get there, and parked in the garage on the North side. We had an early dinner at Vinny's and walked around the Palmer Auditorium to get to The Long Center.

I've lived here all my life and I remember when the high schools were small enough to conduct their commencement exercises at Palmer Auditorium and NOT the Erwin Center. I remembered those quiet and simple times as I rounded the building, cars in a veritable parking lot beside me, being directed into the parking lot by a pleasant Sheriff's deputy who informed us that they were expecting about 8000 people to the Center/Palmer that night.

The kids Imaginarium was happening in Palmer Auditorium, The Austin Symphony was in Dell Hall, and the Rudes were in The Rollins Studio -- oh, and UrbanFest was on Auditorium Shores. Welcome to the culture that is Austin.

It's a little confusing at the front of the Long Center -- where's the "will call" for The Rollins and Dell Hall? Well, the Rollins was NOT a part of the huge box office area where Dell Hall was admitting well dressed patrons of the Symphony. We were directed into a doorway just to the left of the wide staircase out front. We siphoned ourselves in with the patrons of the symphony and were directed to a tiny table that was will call for The Method Gun. Interestingly, there's a door that is a short hallway away from The Rollins Theatre, and no one thought to funnel us through that door. Instead, they placed that tiny table just to the right of the small lobby where all those Symphony fans were entering. Live and Learn.

I admit. As glad as I am to have it, The Long Center reeks of, well, Houston and it's culture. It's grey, and big, and most of the patrons around us were posh and such. We headed straight for the bathroom, shouting behind us amidst all the culture to BB2, "Look, you can come to the bathroom with us sweetie, there's a *family* bathroom." Which there is. How that child manages to tolerate us makes him a saint, really. It's like his life really is a little like Patrick's in Auntie Mame, a role he played opposite just the very sweet friends we were out with last night. And that was some "culture" he got last night!

Ok, so we take our seats in the Rollins Theatre, an industrial strength black box theatre with "one and a half hour" seats. No, they're not two hour seats, so keep your show short. (The Rudes did). We took our seats and shortly thereafter a very polite usher informed us the show would be starting later (there were 60 unclaimed tickets) than it's designated 7:30 curtain. Certainly the traffic and Austin's notorious inability to manage crowd control had something to do with it.

Someone asked if we had enough time for cocktails. Of course that someone was in my party. Surprise.

So, after having a smoke (not me) a reasonably priced latte (me) and an $8 gin and tonic (not me!) we ventured back to our seats. The theatre was noticeably more full, and the show started shortly thereafter.

Here's the part where you can learn more about the show, as linked above. Go see the show. And make sure you check the times, which are as odd as 10pm or 6pm. This makes it a great candidate for my BIP friends, who I INSIST must see the show.

My comment above about Houston notwithstanding, we're still in Austin, and it really does rule, even with traffic and crowd control and expensive cocktails, to know that The Rudes were running around naked with the Symphony happening right next door. THAT is why I love Austin. But please, if we're going to brave such a parade of people and traffic, make sure your show is as good as this one.

Even in all The Method Gun's brilliance, we spent the ride home having a conversation that gave new meaning to the innocence we could no longer associate with helium balloons, backstage mothers and whether size matters. You'll just have to see the show to understand.

So, at a mere 9:20, it took quite some time to snake through the parking garage and find our way to Barton Springs Road. That's ok. The company, the show, and the conversation was great. Especially the company.