Now, in years past, PEVENTS and Vertically Challenged held their annual show the same weekend as Showfest in Greenville. (Boy, what a show to contend against!) And even though many had suggested and even begged Johnny and his crew to switch the dates, sometimes that is easier said than done. The 4th annual Meltdown got a huge break this year, however, and was moved to a different weekend, finally allowing the huge attendance this show has not only been craving but has deserved. PEVENTS and the Vertically Challenged crew sure know how to throw an event. We have always thought some of the best mini-trucker-friendly events each year are thrown by mini-truckers, since we are the only ones that know what we want, not some businessman in a suit, right? Meltdown 2006 was held in New Braunfels, Texas (about 20 minutes outside of San Antonio). The Meltdown show always brings the craziest events, including tug-o-wars, tattoo show-offs, live bands, arm wrestling, and even a mud bath or two. This show had it all!
With the weekend forecast originally for thunderstorms, we were worried it might pour rain on us...and it did. We awoke Saturday morning to thunderstorms blanketing the entire city. The rain tapered off around noon. Then the only pouring going on was the trucks into this event! The rain did not keep people away. It made for some very messy showgrounds, but what is a little mud between friends? We arrived at the show Saturday morning to a much larger crowd than years past and caught up with some friends to make our rounds of the show. There were lots of clubs represented this weekend, including Erratic, Severed Ties, and Negative Camber, which made for some great eye candy for all in attendance. There were also some awesome vendors on hand to keep the mini-trucker within happy, including Kustomz Ink Klothing, Crime Pays Video, and Layinbody.com. In charge of pumping out some music in the Texas heat were some great local bands: iSintense, Tension Speak, and even REV (all the way from Cali), to name a few.
Like we said, this event offered many events to keep all in attendance happy. But by far the most entertaining event had to be the bikini contest. Let us tell ya, when Vertically Challenged throws one of these, they are BIG crowd-pleasers and this one was no exception. This was the only time all weekend long that nobody complained about the mud. In fact, some were wishing for more. The ladies this contest produced were so hard to choose between that they narrowed the field to three and then the final two mud-wrestled it out to the finish, much to the crowds delight. However, even when the mud pit could not produce a winner of the two (hell, who could choose between two hot ladies covered in mud?), they settled it the old fashioned way...rock, paper, scissors. Sunday morning came too soon and we headed back to the show to make our final rounds and say goodbye. We would like to thank Johnny Perales and Vertically Challenged for putting on such a great event. Also, a special thanks to Mother Nature for dumping just enough rain to help the bikini contest turn into a mud-wrestling match! For information about Meltdown 2007, visit the website at www.killershow.com or call Johnny Perales at (512) 947-3999. See you next year!