Dallas Derby Devils at the Arlington Skatium

Amy and I went to the Arlington Skatium for roller derby tonight. Isn't Skatium a great word? It just begs to be pronounced with the voice often heard in monster truck racing commericials. I guess that suits the roller derby quite well.

This turned out to be a huge event. We had to wait in line for a good 45 minutes to get into the Skatium. Since it was a BYOB event, there was plenty of consumption and rowdiness in the line. So much so that many of the groups in line had to send a reprsentative to the Tom Thumb next to the Skatium to restock their coolers before they got inside. Tom Thumb must have sent a single night record for the sale of Tecate in a can.

We made our way through the doors as the opening band was wrapping up and the first half of the first bout was about to begin. The action was entertaining but I wasn't as impressed with this roller derby as the Assasination City Derby. Tonight the skaters didn't seem as skilled and there was little strategy. There were a lot of illegal blocks, dirty hits and fights, but only a few examples of excellent skating on behalf of the jammers. I guess it appears to be more of a sloppy, rough and tumble league at the moment, more geared towards watching girls beat on each other than displaying agility and skilled skating ability.

The crowd was really eating it up though. It was rather rowdy and one felt like at any moment the place could be consumed by a Tecate-fueled riot. I think they just underestimated the number of people that would turn out with both their ability to sell tickets and security.

Despite the less than stellar play, a great time was had by all. Especially those who wound up with a derby girl in their lap.