Now, when going to a SCOTS show, one can always expect free snacks. "8 Piece Box" and "Banana Puddin'" aren't just song titles - they are a way of life, and they are on the menu, usually "served" (read "thrown") to the audience by the Pudding Queen during the respective songs.  But when O'Shea, Kyle and I arrived, we were delighted to gorge ourselves on all the unexpected free foodstuffs spread before us; not just drink tickets (I had no qualms about switching from Makey Make to JD for the night - just a dalliance though, I assure you), but also a hearty spread of biscuits, potato wedges, fried mac 'n' cheese bites, sausages, cajun shrimp, and of course, chicken wings.  Oh yeah, I think there was some fruit on the table too, but fuck that shit - we went Cackalacky style.  The only fruit we North Carolinians are likely to consume in a BBQ-type situation is watermelon (if we're in a place we can spit the seeds on the floor) or apples (if they're all cinnamony and thrown in a pie).

We finished our binging just in time for the band to take the stage.  A couple of songs into the set, I began to feel like I was 26 again.  SCOTS has such a personal association with my college years, partially because their existence coincides with both the environs and lengthy time span of my college career (I was on the 10 year plan).  Also, SCOTS pays homage to the Cackalacky culture that I grew up in and have left behind (at least geopgraphically), simultaneously glorifying and poking fun at it:

I love living in Portland, but I also love having lived in the south.  SCOTs really embodies a couple of my favorite things about the region - the fried food and the diverse music.  Just take a gander at this short list of musical wonders from North Carolina: George Clinton, Archers of Loaf, Doc Watson, Thelonious Monk, Link Wray, Bessie Smith, Mojo Nixon, Nina Simone, Squirrel Nut Zippers, Roberta Flack, Earl Scruggs, John Coltrane, Superchunk (I'm going to pretend that James Taylor and Fred Durst are from SOUTH Carolina, like this man:

. . . please just let me have this!).

I've seen the band several times, and I believe this was the funnest SCOTS show yet.  This is also the first time I've had the SCOTS experience as a non-vegetarian.  Coincidence?  I think not.  I think that stuffing my face with chicken wings gave me the strength and courage I needed to hop on stage and dance with Dave, Mary and Rick.  The band always invites the ladies to do so, therefore, O'Shea and I indulged in some onstage Pony time, Boot Scoot Boogie, Do-Si-Do, and Roger Rabbitery.

Meanwhile, those poor JD promo girls didn't quite know what to do with themselves during the block of songs for which Rick had requested their presence on stage.  They had no problem at first, when called upon to toss free T-shirts to the audience, as I'm confident that this was part of their job description.  But when instructed to tear hunks of chicken off of "8 Piece Box" legs and thighs and feed the crowd with said parts, there was just a lot of nervous giggling and whispering amognst them.  But the Pudding Queen took the stage and led the way, sexily serving up the goods, making sure that snacks were had by all.  If SCOTS are the Southern Santa, she's kinda like the head elf, spreading poultry and pudding to all the hungry boys and girls!