Riffs, Roams and Raves: A Weekly Column

Riffs, Roams and Raves uncovers the creative, noteworthy and accomplished in the Wimberley Valley and beyond with tips on who to hear, where to go and what to see from managing editor Teresa Kendrick.

If you’ve spent the early summer restoring a hugely overgrown garden in the punishing heat, like me, anything that provides relief is a welcome reward. At our house, our reward is the Pub Choir Austin at The Parish on September 3.

A little bit like a Flash Mob performance, at Pub Choir, hundreds of strangers meet up in a hall or other large venue and, instead of dancing, they sing a popular song together under the direction of Astrid Jorgensen, an Australian vocalist, conductor and composer.

Jorgensen arranges a well-known song, like Toto’s “Africa,” and teaches it to the audience in three-part harmony. The performance is filmed and shared on social media. Check out the YouTube video of 18,000 strangers singing the aforementioned song, “Africa.” The musical high is palpable. Just watching the video alone will raise a few goosebumps.

Pub Choir is a very big deal in Australia. The first Pub Choir event was held in Brisbane at The Bearded Lady in March 2017. With a show that’s equal parts music and comedy, Pub Choir transforms a group of strangers into a celebrated choir in just 90 minutes. Aided by a form of musical notation that incorporates color-coded text and comedic visual cues that Jorgensen created, musical literacy is not required.

Jorgensen has written that she and her fellow musicians and performers on stage “help regular people reclaim music in their lives, free of pressure or judgment.” She invites people to “come and experience an extremely chaotic music lesson that’ll have you belting out a song in three-part harmony with a room full of average strangers. Somehow it works. Trust us. It’s a group activity that doesn’t suck, even if your voice does!”

For her efforts, Jorgensen has been awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for her outstanding service to others. Pub Choir has held events widely around Australia, in New Zealand, England and in the U.S. During the pandemic she created the virtual choir called Couch Choir that somehow worked too. The likes of Mariah Carey, Kate Bush, KISS and Sir Barry Gibb have endorsed it.

Tickets to attend are $35 but ticket resellers quickly set up websites to sell them at premium prices. At the same time we purchased our tickets, other sites had them for as much as $150.00.

Roam: Rage Room in Kyle

Have you ever seen the 1999 Mike Judge cult film, “Office Space?” Filmed in Austin, it satirized IT workers in the ‘90s who absolutely hated their jobs. Actor Ron Livingston heads up a trio of friends, Samir Nagheenanajar, played by Ajay Naidu, who hates that no one can pronounce his name and Michael Bolton, played by David Herman, who hates that he shares his name with the famous singer. Their combined hatred of the corporate climate boils into revolt and in one key scene they haul a printer that constantly malfunctions outdoors and pound it to pieces with a baseball bat, kicks, stomps and punches. Anyone who worked with a bad printer in the ‘90s knows the fury it can inspire. The scene is so relatable that it has been imitated in countless TV episodes, comedy skits and films.

For those unfortunates who have never had the chance to enact revenge on an evil printer, there’s hope for you. The Rage Room in Kyle is the answer.

The Rage Room is today’s version of yesterday’s arcade. You can demolish bottles, tiles, cars, tvs, computer monitors, VHS tapes and printers to your heart’s content. Beat crappy stuff alone or with a group of friends. At $62 for a basic package, with a printer addon charge, it’s cheaper than therapy.

Located in a warehouse, The Rage Room works hard to attract teens and tween birthday parties, edgy team-building groups and kids in training for juvie. It offers axe throwing, escape rooms, splatter painting, car smashing and something called zombie airsoft. After choosing your activity, paying the fee and signing a waiver, you are asked to wait in a lounge area. You can order beer, wine, and jello shots to spike your exasperation and channel your inner Samir.

I signed up, suited up, and safetied up with an epee mask to torpedo two crates of junk and a large plasma TV. Unfortunately, a printer was not available. Austin, who set up the room for me, told me there always seemed to be a run on printers and offbrand fax machines.

My tools consisted of bowling pins, a baseball bat, wrenches as long as my leg and a 20-pound sledge hammer that bounced off the TV and landed on my toe. After five minutes of clobbering the TV, my heart was pounding in my ears and I was in a lather because I couldn’t annihilate the thing’s aluminum frame. The screen shattered easily under the mighty blows of the sledge but the frame, sadly, did not budge.

The Rage Room in Kyle also goes by the sanitized name of Unchartered Adventures. There are Rage Rooms in Hutto, Killeen, Austin, San Antonio, Utah, New Jersey and everywhere else. Apparently it’s a thing.

To watch the uncensored “Office Space” printer scene, search for it with those words on YouTube. For more about the Rage Room and what it offers, google “Rage Room Kyle” or “Unchartered Adventures Kyle.”

Rave: Black Bear Diner in New Braunfels This rave about the excellent Black Bear Diner comes from a faithful View reader and occasional raconteur who I trade stories with from time to time at the Wimberley Cafe. Not your greasy burger and fries, the Black Bear serves up elevated fare at reasonable rates in portions so large that you’ll get to-go containers to finish up your entree at home.

Order up breakfast and you can choose pancakes made with sweet cream, waffles, or French Toast to go with delicious omelettes with all the meaty trimmings. For big eaters, choose a Hungry Bear Breakfast like “The Grizz!” with two pancakes, three eggs, thick cut bacon, sausage links and a smoked ham steak. You can also order Eggs Benedict or something from the Fit & Focused menu that won’t leave you in a food coma.

While there are yummy burgers and the classic cheeseburger diner basket for lunch, there are also sandwiches, soups and super salads from which to choose your midday repast. They offer full-course homestyle dinners like chicken fried steak, meatloaf and pot roast and dinner combos with fish and shrimp. I ordered the blackened salmon with pesto which was excellent. On Fridays and Saturdays they have dinner specials like prime rib and all-you-can-eat fish frys.

Their desserts are legendary. Their slices of pie are baked in bowls and enough for two.

The New Braunfels Black Bear opened this year and became their 158th restaurant. Owners Bruce Dean and Bob Manley opened the first Black Bear in the small mountain town of Mt. Shasta, CA in 1995. They wanted to “deliver big portions of quality food in a great environment” and it appears they have succeeded. Did I mention that the prices were reasonable?

Take exit 193 off South I-35 and turn into the TA Travel Center truck stop. You’ll recognize the diner by the three carved wooden bears standing at the entrance.