Author Archives: Jessica Jakobeit

by Jessica Jakobeit | November 7, 2014 · 8:00 am

Country Dance Halls

I hardly think anyone refers to country dance clubs as “dance halls”anymore, but in case anyone was wondering where some of the fun places are, I thought I would give a list of some of my favorite places to go two-stepping.

Midnight Rodeo – Okay, okay I know I mentioned this in my last post, but this place is my absolute favorite place to go country dancing. Thursdays here are college night and those are the nights that I usually go. To be more accurate I pretty much go to Midnight Rodeo 3 out of 4 Thursdays of the month. I also abbreviate the name of the place to just “Midnight” when I talk to people about it. I will usually ask someone “Hey, are you going to Midnight tonight?” and they usually know what I am referring to. If you get there before 10 there is way more room to dance, but there is less people to dance with. It all depends on what you would rather enjoy. The entire night consists of some slow songs, a waltz song thrown in, then faster tempo songs, then 3 or 4 top 40 hits and then the cycle continues until 2 am. There are also pool tables for those who are dragged along and do not really want to dance. The live bands that play on Thursdays sometimes ruin the fun, but the bands on Friday are pretty awesome.
Dallas Nightclub – Betcha did not think to throw that in there. I have only been on Wednesdays, but there is so much room to dance. This is considering that not a lot of people go to Dallas Nightclub as much as Midnight Rodeo. People usually have classes on Thursday so that may be a reason. They also play a lot more older hits and classic country than the newer country. They hardly play any waltz songs which disappoints me. However, they also throw in some top 40 hits like they do at Midnight. I also abbreviate the name of this place to just “Dallas”. I do not go as often as Midnight, but if there is a large group of friends that go then sure why not. One of my friends actually teaches country dance lessons on Saturdays in case anyone wanted to brush up on their skills.
Rebels Honky Tonk (Rowdy’s) – So this place I have only been to a few times, but I enjoy it when I go with a group of friends. Yes, the floor is smaller than Midnight Rodeo, but there is a mechanical bull. I have not ridden it, but some of my guy friends have. The music they play is almost the same variety as Dallas Nightclub. There is something interesting about the “Footloose” line dance. They dance it different at Rebels than Midnight Rodeo. The song came and I got on the dance floor, but it looked as if I was doing it wrong. Technically there are no right or wrong versions of “Footloose”, some people just prefer to do it different ways than others. One of the downsides about Rebels is that most nights it is only 21 and over.
Cowboys – The best thing about this country dance spot is that the dance floor is huge. College night is on Wednesdays because I mean no one would want it to conflict with Midnight Rodeo’s college night (especially me). I have only been a couple times, but from my experiences there are a few reasons why it is not my first or second choice. Yes, there is a huge dance floor. When the top 40 songs start to play, you either stay on the dance floor the whole time, or you watch from afar. That floor fills up super quickly. No way in, no way out. And you are actually allowed to take your drink on the dance floor (Midnight Rodeo strictly prohibits such a thing) for a good reason. Towards the end of the night there are so many bottles on the floor along with the substance that came from the bottles. I would suggest going on a Friday when they have live bands play because there are some pretty good ones that play there.

Of course there are others such as the Broken Spoke (more of an older crowd), Wild West (in cedar park), and Gruene Hall (in Gruene, TX). Those are a few places that I have not been to yet, but I do plan on going to very soon. I have been to Billy Bob’s in Arlington which was pretty cool. Country dance halls are some of my favorite places to go. I just love country music and dancing. I usually go dancing once a week because if not, my heart becomes sad.

Have any places you think I missed? Comment about them!

1 Comment

Filed under Austin, Dancing, Lists, Texas

by Jessica Jakobeit | October 20, 2014 · 8:00 am

Dance Your Heart Out

Have you ever heard a country song and get lost in the lyrics? I feel that every country song puts me in a different mood. I even have different country playlists on my Spotify. One is labeled “Midnight” and contains songs that I have danced multiple times to at Midnight Rodeo. I think it is also interesting the way that country music also connects people. Even though my boyfriend and I met through a social dance class, we kind of started to fall for each other each time we would go country dancing. Even before we were a couple, strangers at Midnight Rodeo and even Dallas Nightclub would tell us we dance so well together. There are a few songs that every time we hear them played at any country venue, we cannot stay off the dance floor.

Shania Twain – Man! I Feel Like a Woman!

This is one of the best one-step songs we love dancing to. They do not play it at a lot of country dance halls, but at Midnight Rodeo they usually play it every Thursday. I think it is even more interesting because before the song comes on she usually tells us it is ladies choice. I think it’s more fun when I get to ask him to dance.

Lee Brice – I Don’t Dance

This song is pretty ironic only because my boyfriend actually knows how to dance and he is pretty good at it too. But we both love the song anyway. Of course as soon as it comes on we try and find each other to dance the song with one another. When it comes on in the car we turn it up and just listen. We stop talking for a moment and just feel the music and imagine ourselves out on the dance floor two- steppin’ the night away.

Deana Carter – Strawberry Wine

This song is much different than the rest because even though it is a country song, there is a different way to dance to the song than just two-step. This can actually be considered a cross-step waltz song. The beat is much different and the steps are a lot smaller with a different frame structure. Sometimes I feel like when we dance it at Midnight Rodeo people look at us like we are crazy. But I’m truly glad he knows cross-step waltz and is really good at it.

Blake Shelton – Footloose

So I know this is not the original “Footloose” track, but it is the one that they play sometimes at Midnight Rodeo. This is not really one-step or two-step either. This is actually one of our favorite line dances that they play at many different country dance halls. There are also many different ways you can do the line dance. I remember we went to rebels and people were doing all kinds of crazy moves. I like the version that we learned at Midnight Rodeo and in our social dance class.

In case anyone was wondering where you could learn two-step, or one-step, or cross-step waltz, there is an AMAZING social dance class offered at UT taught by Campbell Miller. There are even different levels from Beginner to Advanced. That’s where the two of us met and I can honestly say that the class is one of the best parts of my day.

Feel free to leave your comments below!

5 Comments

Filed under Dancing, Song Analysis, Texas

by Jessica Jakobeit | September 23, 2014 · 5:37 am

Up Close and Personal

Luke’s Opening Number

I think we can all agree that concerts are pretty awesome. I think everyone can also agree that the closer you are to the artist(s) during the concert, the better the experience.

Luke Bryan has been traveling and performing on his “That’s my Kind of Night” tour. He played in San Antonio at the AT&T Center on September 18th. My friend was so generous and asked me to go see him along with Lee Brice and Cole Swindell. Not only were these floor seats, but these were aisle seats. This meant that we did not have to worry about squishing through other people to get to our seats. This was the best concert of my life and I am very fortunate that I was able to see a few of the hottest country artists up closer than normal.

The first song he sang was “That’s My Kind of Night” which makes sense because this was the name of his tour. My friend and I were both pretty amazed that there was a giant truck in the middle of the stage. How they got it up there is still a mystery to us.

Luke Bryan on the Pier

It was amazing how many props they were able to bring out. For anyone who has not heard the song “Drink a Beer” by Luke Bryan, here are a few lines of the song to make sense of why they used this prop.

So I’m gonna sit right here

On the edge of this pier

Watch the sunset disappear

And drink a beer

And if you look really close he also has a Coors Light beer can next to him.

Dance Moves

Any up tempo song that Luke Bryan performed you best believe he got his groove on. Anyone that has seen him perform before knows that he loves to dance. I mean even though he has a song that says he wants a country girl to shake it for him, I’m pretty sure that he loves to shake it for those country girls more. I mean from all the screaming that was going on in the stadium it was clear that everyone enjoyed his dance moves. And just in case anyone was wondering; No there was no zoom used to take this picture.

One of the parts I enjoyed the most was when Luke Bryan and Lee Brice sang “Crazy Girl” that is originally performed by Eli Young Band. Everyone in the crowd was singing along and the two of them together sounded pretty amazing.

Luke Bryan and Myself

Now I know it seems pretty impossible to tell, but in this picture LUKE BRYAN IS POSING FOR MY CAMERA. Let me explain exactly what happened. Since we were so close to the stage, people were standing next to it and taking pictures with Luke Bryan in the background. I decided to take it upon myself and do the same. Well when I was walking toward the stage Luke Bryan saw me! He nodded his head at me and struck a pose. I turned around as quick as I could and this was the picture that came out. Because the lighting was so bright on him and dark on me, it is kind of hard to see. But I promise he did. This was the best part of my night. I will never forget this night. Being the huge country fan that I am, I feel that this concert will top any other country concert that I go to.

Comment below with your thoughts about my night or about your personal experiences!

3 Comments

Filed under Live Music, New Country, Reflection

Tagged as concert, country, luke bryan, San Antonio