My First Vist To The Fiesta---Part 2

My first visit to Fiesta was one I will always remember. I had no idea what the night had in store for me. I naturally assumed this would be similar to the other bars I had experienced along the Gulf Coast...But boy, was I in for a surprise. We started out the trip by scoring some tabs in Mobile. Jimmy, Jason, and I pooled our money and bought 10 tabs that night. The plan was to sell off 4 of them and end up paying around $5-7 a piece for ours. Jason assured me that we would have no problem unloading four of them at $25 a piece. Once we had the beans in hand, we rendezvoused up with another crowd of folks who were headed over to Biloxi also. Everyone seemed to be hyped up about going to this bar. I remember thinking, what is so special about a nightclub? Since I had a fake ID, I had been to many bars in Pensacola and Mobile. I liked drinking with friends, shooting some pool, and meeting girls, but I wasn't one for dancing. I just couldn't imagine what was so special about this place. I was given a glimpse into what it was all about the night before when Jimmy and Jason were telling me about it on the ride home from FWB....but, you figure guys exaggerate and bullshit you, so you never know what to believe. Looking around at the others in the group I noticed that I seemed a little out of place. It was May, but my friend Jimmy had on a white, long sleeve turtle neck t-shirt. When I asked him about it, he said it helps him sweat better...I really didn't understand that at the time. Jason and most of the other guys in our crew were dressed in Z-Cavaricci's or similar style pants with either a black button up shirt or a black, dressy T-shirt. I remember looking at my stone wash jeans and denim button down shirt and thinking that I hope I don't stick out like a sore thumb with the rest of the crowd at this bar. Once we hit the road, we lit our first joint around the state line.....I smoked allot a weed back then and always had a bag on me. I remember the sunroof being open on Jimmy's car and the night was warm and clear. You could see thousands upon thousands of stars in the night sky as we made the journey across the Pascagoula bridge. Somewhere just past Gautier, the flashing lights on top of a tall radio tower came into view. Jimmy and Jason both looked at each other and in unison said "Eat Em Up". This landmark was evidently their que to eat a tab. They explained that Fiesta was 20-25 minutes away and this would time it so that once inside, your roll would be starting to kick in. So, we each ate a tab and washed it back with a few sips of the cold beer we had bought on the way out of town. Sure enough, 20 minutes later we were pulling into the parking lot of Fiesta, and Man-Oh-Man...was I amazed. From the outside parking lot this place seemed HUGE. There were what seemed like 400-500 cars in the parking lot. It was around 10:00pm and there was a line of at least 200-300 people stretched around the front and side of the building. We found some friends of Jimmy's already in line and cut into the line with them. I could feel the tab starting to kick in as I started to get that queasy feeling in my gut and I started to yawn uncontrollably. I soon realized that some of what Jimmy and Jason had told me was in fact true. HOT, young girls, baring allot of skin were everywhere to be seen. Sure enough, the girls seemed to outnumber the guys too. Most everyone that was in line was dressed pretty flashy. I remember feeling a little under-dressed, however, I wasn't the only one dressed in jeans. There were a few rednecks scattered among the crowd. I remember spotting a few mullet haircuts, a few baseball caps, and allot of others wearing jeans too. Once we made it up close near the entrance, I remember thinking to myself, from the outside, this place kind of looks a little run down and like a dump. I handed my fake military ID to the bouncer. He looked at it then back at me. He then said, "Your hair is a little long to be in the Navy". I panicked slightly at first since no one had ever questioned me on the ID before. I told him I was home on leave recovering from an injury and I had let it grow out while home. Not sure if he bought it, but he let me pass. I paid the girl behind the register, got my handstamp, and proceeded through the big red door into a world like I had never experienced before......TO BE CONTINUED.

More Music From Fiesta

Here's a few that I picked up from the Friends of Fiesta Facebook page:

Lil Louis - French Kiss

Rhythm Device - Acid Rock

Book of Love - I Touch Roses

Sonique - Take Me Higher

The Voice in Fashion - Give Me Your Love

CETU JAVU - Have In Mind

Tommy Page - Turning Me On

MC ADE - Da Train

Arabian Prince - Professor X

My first visit to The Fiesta.....Part One

Well, here I am with Fiesta on my mind again. I went through over 600 posts on the Friends of Fiesta Facebook page and it was quite amusing. Seeing some of the comments different folks have made about their times at Fiesta brought many smiles to my face when reading. Plus all the great music people have posted really brought back some memories. I thought it would be cool to remember the first time I went to The Fiesta, and capture those memories here in the blog. Hopefully, others will comment with amusing stories from their first time at Fiesta also. Well, here goes.....

I remember it was in May of 1989. I had been out of high school for a year and was living in Pensacola, FL. I had tried Ecstasy a couple of times over the past year. It was always just a half or a single tab and if I recall, I was just hanging out at someones house or at a regular, beer pub, type bar when I rolled for the first couple of times. A friend (Jimmy) from back home in Mobile, who was a year younger, was graduating from school in a couple of weeks. He and another friend (Jason) came over to visit his dad in Pensacola one Friday night and we all got together to hang out. I was able to score some HUGE wafers for us with the big chocolate chips in them. I mean, these were the size of Alka Seltzers they were so big...and that's what they looked like too...no little double-dome pills...no little Mike Tysons..big, huge wafers. Well, we rolled pretty hard and hit a few of the bars in Pensacola. We then got a wild hair to go check out a "Rollin Bar" in Fort Walton Beach we had heard about named Victor's. I remember it was late when we pulled into FWB...maybe 3am. Bars in Florida have to stop serving alcohol at like 2:30 so many of them are closed up by 3am. Anyways, I remember we pulled into one of the first open gas stations we came to. I got out, walked in and asked the lady behind the counter how to get to Victor's. A guy walking up to the counter with a 12 pack in hand looked at me and said: "Victor's is closed by now, but if you're rolling as hard as you look, you should come on out to the beach behind the Ramada Inn". I was naturally, a little taken back by his comments. Was it THAT obvious that I was rollin? I look back at some pictures of those days and sure enough, I was one that didn't hide the fact that I was "rolling balls" very well: Face all sweaty and greasy looking, lower jaw cocked, crooked to one side, and one eye looking straight ahead with the other drifting off in a different direction, doing its own thing it seemed. So, YES...It WAS quite obvious I was rolling whenever I was anywhere near my peak. Anyways, we did a drive by Victors and sure enough, only a few cars left in the lot, so we cruised on over to the beach. We located the after-party crew behind the Ramada. Someone had a boom-box with a mix tape cranking out some Stevie B and Noel. This type of music was quite new to me. I grew up as a teen in the 80s and liked the Metal music scene. I was never one for dance music, but something about hearing it while I was rolling...just made you want to move to the beat. There were about 20 or so folks gathered on the beach. Off to one side there were about 6 or 8 girls and a couple of guys that were kinda standing around in a loose knit circle dancing; mostly they were dancing individually, but a couple were dancing together. This would be my first exposure to the solo "Trance Dance" as I later called it. We hung out for a short while, drank a few beers then loaded up for the long drive back to PCOLA. I remember sitting in the back seat, staring out the window, letting my eyes play tricks on me. Hwy 98 from FWB to PCOLA is dark and desolate during most of the ride. I knew I was hallucinating and enjoyed the little dazes I would drift off into watching the lights and shadows and such. All of a sudden what looked like a pack of dogs ran in front of the car and Jimmy slammed on the brakes. We had all seen it...or did we? There were no dogs seen behind us, we didn't hit anything, and luckily no cars were behind us for miles. Looking back, I think that some lights or shadows came across the car and we all THOUGHT we saw a pack of dogs running. In reality, we were all kinda dazed and dozed. We rolled down the windows and turned up the music a bit and kept the conversation going so as to make sure Jimmy got us home safely. I recall Jimmy and Jason telling me about the bar that they were gonna take me to the next night; The Fiesta in Biloxi. A big,huge place, open all night until the sun is up, everybody rolling on X, girls outnumbering the guys like four-to-one. The more they described it, the more intrigued I became...Little did I know what the next night would have in store for me......(STORY CONTINUED IN PART 2)

Been in hibernation mode.....

Well, here it is...some year and a half since my last posting, and I wasn't even sure if this blog would still be active. Found out the email address I had setup had expired due to inactivity, so it took a little work with Google to get this blog transferred over to my new email address...easy enough though.

I had started this blog, then for some reason or another got distracted with something else in my life and kinda put it on the back-burner. Since the email address I created wasn't one I used regularly, I never got the posts that you followers had posted...Sorry about that. I now have an email address that will notify me whenever someone posts to this blog.

Now, the reason I thought of coming back to this blog, was some inspiration from someone else...someone has created a "Friends of Fiesta" webpage on Facebook. Check it out if you haven't already:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1514222174#!/groups/110974441228/

If the link doesn't work, then try a Facebook search on this:

" Fiesta at the Fiesta--Biloxi, MS "

Allot of good music from Fiesta posted already, although you may have to scroll through allot of pages to find the one you're looking for. There are nearly 1000 Friends that have joined the page. Looking through the friends list, I managed to find and contact 2 old friends from the Fiesta days that I hadn't hung out with in nearly 20 years. So check it out, you may have similar success. More postings to come soon. I see allot of activity on this Facebook page and it re-kindles my memories of Fiesta and lots of the stories that can be told. So check back soon and see if there is something new posted...So, until then..Take Care.

Next list of songs from The Fiesta

Doctorin' the Tardis - The Timelords

Blue Monday - New Order

Pure Energy - Information Society

Say Its Gonna Rain - Will to Power

The Promise - When In Rome

I Melt With You - Modern English

Its My Life - Talk Talk

You Spin Me Round - Dead or Alive

I Beg Your Pardon ( I never promised you a Rose Garden ) - Kon Kan

Blame It On The Rain - Milli Vanilli ( YES, I heard this song in Fiesta, believe it or not)

And today's Video for You-Tube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdTELokKfCk

Things I remember from Fiesta

Here's a short collection of things that may evoke some memories for you as well.....

----Laser Light Beams & Fog Machines on the Main Dance Floor

----Chico in the DJ booth

----Z-Cavarriccis

----From Dusk To Dawn ( one of the hand stamps )

----Five bars and three dancefloors

----Opening of The Night Gallery ( another bar and dancefloor )

----The Waffle House across the street

----The A/C units on the second floor and the crowds that would gather there

----Turtle necks and cardigans

----The Summer of mid-riffs

----Dancing on the speaker box platforms

----Dancing on the suspended mini balconies over the main dancefloor

----The dumpy motel and lounge across the street

----The Royal D'Iberville

----The trashy looking apartments behind The Fiesta

----The little seafood restaurant in the corner of the parking lot with the outdoor dining deck

----All the "Tab-Whores"

What do you remember about The Fiesta????

More Songs from Fiesta

OK.....Here's my next submission of songs that I remember from The Fiesta:

In my Eyes - Stevie B

Send Me an Angel - Real Life

American Soviets - C.C.C.P.

Dreamin - Will To Power

Welcome to Paradise - Front 242

Shake It - MC Shy D

And here's another video from You Tube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osQMG9f0HC0

Can you tell where this pic was taken??

Yep, that's the Royal D'Iberville Hotel in the background. Judging by the surroundings I would say this was taken just as we had stepped outside the doors thru the Night Gallery entrance. I think we were headed across the street to my friend's room...probably to take a break from the action...smoke a joint...eat another bean, who knows.

Familiar Faces??

Do these two faces look familiar??? This was taken in the upstairs bar. It was called something like The Sports Page I think. Lady named Barbara was the the head bartender up there. If my memory serves me correct, the guy's name was Chuck...It's been twenty years so correct me if I am wrong. He was one of the main bouncers that worked the door. Can't remember the girl's name though. Just rememeber that she was a little "punk/alternative" for the time, she liked to hang out in New Orleans, and she was in a band called Velvet Elvis. Can anyone remember her name??

More blogging on The Fiesta

Here's a link to the blog that I came across that inspired me to start this one. Read it and I think you will enjoy...some of it's pretty funny.

http://3leggedcat.blogspot.com/2006/02/fiesta-at-fiesta.html