The House of Pain

Well, there's not a lot to say about the Texas/WVU game last Saturday.  It was a heart breaker, but I walked away from it thinking it was an awesome game.  Do I wish we had won?  Of course. 

What was great about the game, is that the crowd was totally into it!  Yes, we are often a lackluster crowd.  But after comments about the crowd not being very into the games from "Big Hits" Kenny Vaccaro went viral, the Longhorns brought it.  It's been four days and my voice is still not right.  Students and Alumni alike were on their feet, screaming and loud as heck. 

Of course, by now, everyone in the world has heard that midway through the second quarter, Jeffcoat recovered a fumble for a touchdown.  While the play was under review, guy-in-booth scrolls through his iPod and queues up the most riot inducing song he can find:

Jump Around by House of Pain. 

And riot we did. 

Despite the reputation we have at DKR for maybe not being the most intimidating environment, I've seen some incredible games where the crowd was balls out.  Missouri in 2008, Oklahoma State in 2004 to name a few.

But I've never seen anything quite like what happened when "Jump Around" came on in DKR Saturday night.  It was almost instantaneous.  That first little House of Pain scream sent 60,000 of the 101,000 in the stadium to to their feet in an instant.  The team went nuts on the field, and the rest of the crowd followed suit.

Even this guy.

Riding home after the game, we discussed 1) the awesomeness of that moment and 2) our relief over the fact that while it would be amazing to see 101,000 people doing "The Cupid Shuffle*" in the stands at DKR, "Jump Around" has much less complicated choreography.

But my favorite thing about that three minutes? 

My sister and I were one of the 60K jumping within seconds.  As the players and the rest of the crowd caught on, my Dad started eyeballing the situation.  He noted there was a very fast and specific reaction to the song, and found himself perplexed and maybe a little bit out of the loop.

He turned to me and asked very seriously "Did I miss something?"

Oh, Augie Father...how I love you.




* By the way, I'm a complete sucker for "The Cupid Shuffle."  I irrationally love it, and go out of my way to dance to it every time it comes on at any Mav's game, bowling alley, St. Patrick's Day parade, wedding, bar, gas station...whatever.  It instantly energizes a room the way the "Electric Slide" and "The Macarena**" used to.  A close second is the "Cha Cha Slide," though it's a bit more complicated and much harder on a torn ACL.  Both have excellent YouTube tutorials if you want to thrill the crowd at your next DJ'd event.

** Auto correct really wants this to be Mac Arena.  What is that?!