Dos Equis Apologizes for Castle Party Fiasco

If you haven't heard by now, Dos Equis had a grand celebration planned last Wednesday at Falkenstein Castle, about an hour's drive west of Austin. But it quickly devolved into a logistical meltdown when pretty much all 1,800 RSVPers tried to get into the castle for the free beer but only 800 were admitted. *hilarity ensues*

Click here to read about the disaster in great detail.

Dos Equis issued an official apology today via e-mail in which the company says it plans to make amends by throwing a bigger and better (and logistically successful) celebration than the castle party. Straight from the Most Interesting horse's mouth...

On behalf of Dos Equis, we would once again like to apologize to everyone who did not get into the event or who had a bad experience Wednesday night and let you know we are taking full responsibility for the disorganization.

Although we know it’s impossible to alleviate the frustration felt by all, whether you had to wait in line for hours or were turned away after finally getting there, we know we owe you an honest explanation.

In keeping with producing the most unique events for the brand we selected the Falkenstein castle location. We thought only a limited number of people might take the long drive out there on a Wednesday night. Therefore, we heavily promoted the event to ensure we filled the venue, which unfortunately resulted in a RSVP list far greater than the capacity of the venue. A crowd much larger than we were prepared to handle, showed up at both the Austin bus pick up location and at the castle. Consequently, this all led to a horrible experience for hundreds of people and ruined their entire evening. And for all of this, we are truly, truly sorry.

We have spent the past two days reading each and every email, blog, and Facebook posting, and talking to some of you on the phone and we feel terrible. We are working hard to find a way to show you how sorry we are (while working within Texas alcohol beverage law which severely limits what companies can provide to consumers).

Therefore, in an effort to show how important you are to us, we are planning a special event (think of it as a Most Interesting Apology Party) for all those on the guestlist who had a bad experience and were not able to make it into the castle. Obviously planning the details and logistics of this event will take a little time, so we'll work closely with the promoters to keep you in the loop, and further details will be shared next week. If you would like to attend this event please email the promoter that invited you, and they’ll make sure you get a ticket.

If you have ever attended any of our previous events, you know we always try to give you the best experience possible, and we hope you accept our apology. If there is anything you would like to share, please email me at dosequis@heinekenusa.com.

Sincerely,

Kheri Tillman
VP, Dos Equis
Heineken USA

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"I Don't Always Complain About Free Castle Parties, But When I Do..."

On the one hand, Dos Equis fucked up last Wednesday night. On the other hand, it was a free corporate event, so what did you expect?

By now, we've all seen the ubiquitous TV spots and billboard ads featuring a salt-n-pepper-bearded, expensive-suit-wearing gentleman known only as "The Most Interesting Man In The World". It's a genius bit of marketing: Did you know that his beard alone has experienced more than a lesser man's body? Or that his blood smells like cologne? And my personal favorite: He once had an awkward moment... just to see how it felt. Dos Equis essentially co-opted the concept behind the Chuck Norris Facts internet meme (example: "If you have five dollars, and Chuck Norris has five dollars, he has more money than you") and used it to make themselves the cool kids of the beer world. And it worked. So what was the next logical step for Dos Equis? Throwing huge hipster parties in isolated castles (yes, castles) that require mass bus transit and air-tight organizational skills, of course.

The event, called The Most Interesting Academy, was pitched as a decadent dance party at Falkenstein Castle (about 50 miles west of Austin). The idea sounded like a bust from the beginning: Driving an hour out of Austin on a Wednesday for a corporate circle-jerk featuring edible bugs, free haircuts, and music by Z-Trip (you know... the DJ who did that one song with the whiny screamer guy from Linkin Park). But what do I know? The event drew 1,792 RSVPers on the concert/event calendar site Do512.

Fast-forward to last Wednesday. Some of my friends who got in said the party was awesome. But that's just it: Not everyone who RSVPed was allowed into the shindig. There were three buses scheduled to pick up RSVPers from Waterloo Park. Departure times were stacked as follows: 5pm, 6pm, and 8pm. But apparently, all three buses left at 5, with another bus being added later. It became a huge clusterfuck and the kids were restless. Check out this Youtube video shot by blogger Matt Reyes:



Local blog TwoGroove reports that only about 800 of the almost 1,800 RSVPers made it into Falkenstein Castle, while hundreds of others waited in line for hours, only to be told to leave.

The denied partiers were livid, posting tweets about how Dos Equis is the worst beer ever. Sure Dos Equis is a tasteless watery product, but this hyperbole was coming from people who hours earlier were talking about how great Dos Equis is. And then someone started a Facebook group about the disastrous organization of the event, complete with contact info for letting the higher-ups know about your disappointment.

If you read all that, great. This is what I really want to say about it: Yeah, it sucks that the event was so disorganized and many people felt betrayed. BUT this event was FUCKING FREE. And yet I'm seeing people write about it on Do512, Facebook, Twitter, and the blogosphere as if they'd paid $1,000 to see Michael Jackson live for the last time, only to have him drop dead.

Get some perspective, folks! Be leery of Corporate America making grand promises, especially when they're trying to be cool and with it (The Dos Equis brand is owned by Heineken USA, by the way). They will fuck up. It's embedded in the DNA of large faceless corporations to lack a personal touch and a sense of treating people with dignity.

Is your life that shallow that the greatest betrayal you can feel is that of a castle party invitation gone awry? You'll be partying in Austin this weekend anyway, right? People are talking about class action lawsuits on the Most Interesting Academy's Do512 event page. Seriously. I can't imagine my grandpa suing over a free event in which the greatest damage suffered was to his frail ego.

Secondly, Dos Equis does suck. It's not a good beer. Not because they ruined your Wednesday, but because it just lacks the fullness and flavor of a proper beer. I could always understand drinking Lone Star or High Life because you're broke and thirsty, but Dos Equis is just as bad and costs more. At least with Lone Star, you're supporting a local business (it's based in San Antonio). But if going local is your thing, drink Shiner, Real Ale, Independence, or 512 Brewing.

But if you want to stick with Mexican booze, Negra Modelo is the only imported Mexican beer in the States worth drinking. It's the only beer I'll order at a Tex-Mex restaurant. It's full and delicious and not hard to drink, like some other good full-bodied beers can be. The ad industry magazine Advertising Age reports that sales of Dos Equis rose 17% last year while sales of other imports dropped, due in big part to the Interesting Man capaign. I know we're all sheep when it comes to consuming. It's bared out all the time. For once, choose a beer based on taste and not on cool factor. God, don't even get me started on Pabst Blue Ribbon. That's a rant for another day.

So, yeah. Basically, heal your emotional wounds like an adult. Stop whining about not getting to do something that was free and not guaranteed. And start drinking real beer. Taking those two steps will actually ensure that you're on your way to becoming an interesting individual, more so than had you just attended some corporate castle party. As my old Texas hold 'em buddies used to say whilst turning over their hands after a successful bluff: "You got duped." Now move on with your life.

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MP3: Druggist is Heading Out West

Druggist is heading out west. Scroll down for a free mp3 download.

Druggist is the San Antonio songwriting duo of Zach Dunlap and Blake Cormier. They've been a team since 2005, when Dunlap returned from traveling in Asia. In four years as a band, Druggist has self-released three albums in addition to embarking on four national tours. Their sound is large, sweeping, and intricate -- a style of sincere and grandiose pop-rock that doesn't get its due anymore in the mainstream, for whatever reason. This is the kind of band that could find an audience with Okkervil River fans, but I wouldn't call them Paste or Pitchfork standard indie-rock fare. There's some REM and some Springsteen in what they're doing, too. I feel like Druggist's most recent album, The Pile On, would appeal to the people who made alternative rock radio big in the '90s, and later abandoned it when stations like Austin's 101X became havens for post-grunge Nirvana-Lite bands and the Fall Out Boys of the world. I guess what I'm trying to say is this: Druggist isn't ready for trendy indie-rock prime time, but their sound is mature and varied enough to win fans from a diverse array of musical niches.

Unfortunately, for us Texans, Druggist is leaving the Lone-Star-sipping state for the allures of California's Bay Area. I doubt it's 100 degrees and paralyzingly humid there right now like it is in central Texas. I recently conducted a quick Q&A with Cormier (vocals/piano/guitar) about the move and about their tunes. And be sure to catch Druggist for the last time in San Antonio this Saturday at The Ten Eleven Bar.

What prompted the move out west, and why did y'all choose San Francisco specifically?

Blake: I was actually born in San Francisco, and it's always been a city I've felt connected to. When we went on our fourth tour, we spent a week on the West Coast, and San Francisco was like this breath of fresh air. We played on the third story of a club where people had to weave through a couple hundred folks at the bar, go up a couple dark flights of stairs, and pay ten bucks to see a band from Texas they'd never heard of. The room got packed with people rocking out to our music; it was a great feeling. We spent another day hanging around the city and I think Zach began to get sucked in by it, too. After we released The Pile On it started feeling like we'd come to the consensus that we'd grown as much as we could here.

On your album you have songs titled "San Francisco" and "Our Way Out West". Did you have this move planned when you recorded the album last year, or did it just become a self-fulfilling prophecy?

Blake: It has definitely become a self-fulfilling prophecy. The song "San Francisco" came about after the last tour, when we were back home and I was recalling the way it feels to be on the road for a few weeks -- driving all day, playing all night, getting up the next day, and doing it again, just you and your close friends. I knew from the beginning that I wanted Marcus Rubio to come up with a violin part for that song, in the vein of "Drivin' on Nine" from the Breeders' second record. "Our Way Out West" had maybe a verse and a half written before the tour, then the rest of it fell into place during the excitement of getting back into the studio.

Listen to "Our Way Out West" below and/or download here.



What's the hardest part about leaving?

Blake: Definitely leaving our family and the people we love. We're very close with our families. Also, we love San Antonio. Certain areas of town, like River Road and King William are very close to our hearts with their parks and mom-and-pop places.

I feel like people in Austin don't really know much about the music scene in San Antonio (or if there even is one). I know about punk and metal coming from SA, but is there much support for your style of indie pop-rock?

Blake: Firstly, I wanna say that we find ourselves picking and choosing here as far as venues go. The city is very spread out, so location can be an issue. There is no real centralized artistic-minded population here -- no Drag or Sixth Street to speak of. Some venues have great sound, nice people, and will let you set up shows exactly how you want, but they're nowhere near any sort of "strip" or downtown area. Others are centrally located, but prefer to feature DJs over bands for various reasons. During our stops in Austin, it's been extremely clear that (relatively) no one up there has any idea about San Antonio music beyond the "metal" or "punk" genres. We've written venues, even very small ones, about doing shows and gotten responses like, "Sure, you can have Thursday night if you can bring in 150 people." It does seem like a lot of promoters in particular just don't really care to hear from you if you're from here. I've had the same experience booking the tours we've done. One guy in Minneapolis will be a dick like that and then another guy will go, "Wow, I listened to your tunes and I'd love to have you guys."

How did you come up with the name Druggist?

Blake: The name Druggist, possibly obviously, came from a period when I was taking a lot of pharmaceuticals and thought a concept record would be in order. The idea was pretty stupid, and thankfully this great pop band was created instead. Dodged a bullet on that one, huh?

Watch Druggist live for the last time in San Antonio before they head out west, this Saturday at The Ten Eleven Bar. Visit the band on MySpace.

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'NITES Gets Warped: Dispatches from Warped Tour 2009

Watch this video at Vimeo.com or Youtube.

Ajay here, your friendly neighborhood 'NITES blogger. I was lucky enough to get a media pass to cover Warped Tour in San Antonio earlier this month for a website called Double Stereo. Check it out if you haven't yet. In addition to their blog, which I contributed my Warped Tour interviews to, they also sell CDs and mp3s by unsigned Austin bands. Very cool service, if you ask me. Anyway, I got to interview some pretty heavy-hitting bands, in terms of record sales and exposure. Scroll down for those interviews if you're on the homepage. This was a super-fun day, although a bit exhausting too, given the 100-degree weather and the sun bouncing off the asphalt of the AT&T Center parking lot. Luckily, we were able to get into the post-show BBQ and enjoy some delicious hot dogs and veggie burgers, along with a mystery cocktail known cryptically as "the Force." What was in it? I don't know. The server wouldn't say. But I think I tasted vodka and some sort of fruit punch. Good times.

Read my thoughts on my interviews with Thrice, Chiodos, Alexisonfire, and Senses Fail.

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Warped Tour Interview: Thrice

'NITES blogger Ajay Miranda covered the San Antonio stop of this year's Warped Tour for the website Double Stereo. Below are some thoughts on the interview, as well as a link to the published Q&A.

This was probably my favorite interview of the day. The Breckenridge brothers, Eddie and Riley, are laid-back dudes. Not an ounce of pretentiousness about them, which is nice. You never know what you're gonna get from a band who names an album after a Thomas Pynchon novel and writes a four-part concept album about the natural elements. They gave detailed and intelligent answers, which makes my job as an interviewer easy. And after a line of serious and kinda-serious questions, they humored my Warped-Tour-survival question and gave a nice little anecdote about the importance of toilet paper at music festivals ("Make sure the paper's there before you cop a squat," says Riley Breckenridge). Oh, yeah: Thrice also has a new album coming out in October (tentatively titled Beggars). They gave me a bunch of info on that. Read the interview at Double Stereo.

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Warped Tour Interview: Chiodos

'NITES blogger Ajay Miranda covered the San Antonio stop of this year's Warped Tour for the website Double Stereo. Below are some thoughts on the interview, as well as a link to the published Q&A.

Some people seem nice. Others seem too nice. Considering they've had an album debut in the top-ten on the Billboard Charts and they have about 400,000 rabid MySpace fans, the guys in Chiodos are really gracious, humble, and laidback. Vocalist Craig Owens was "thank you" this, and "thank you" that. It made for an easygoing interview, which I needed at the time. They were a couple of chatty dudes. Find out Craigery's take on jorts, Michael Jackson, and Harvey Danger: Read the interview at Double Stereo.

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Warped Tour Interview: Alexisonfire

'NITES blogger Ajay Miranda covered the San Antonio stop of this year's Warped Tour for the website Double Stereo. Below are some thoughts on the interview, as well as a link to the published Q&A.

Oh, me so clever! The singer/guitarist and award-winning songwriter for Canadian rockers Alexisonfire (pronounced Alexis-on-fire) is named Dallas. And the interview took place in San Antonio. So I went with a sort-of Texas cities pun title for this interview on Double Stereo. Dallas Green seems like an interesting cat, and he definitely has a dry sense of humor. But he also seems like he hates doing interviews (or at least is completely apathetic about them). He always seemed to be on the verge of saying something great and profound, but then would run out of steam and mumble instead. The interview turned out interesting enough, as he gave some good details about the meaning of their new album's lead single, "Young Cardinals" ("Long after we’ve fucked everything up for ourselves, animals will be here because they know how to survive"). But I get the vibe he would be a lot more laidback and cooler to talk with in a bar over some beers, not backstage at Warped Tour. Read the interview at Double Stereo.

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Warped Tour Interview: Senses Fail

'NITES blogger Ajay Miranda covered the San Antonio stop of this year's Warped Tour for the website Double Stereo. Below are some thoughts on the interview, as well as a link to the published Q&A.

My interview with Buddy Nielsen, lead singer of Senses Fail, was dangerously close to becoming an epic fail, to use Interweb slang. I was in between interviews, waiting for Buddy to finish up with a cute indie chick who was asking soul-penetrating questions for about an hour. His tone was contentious in that interview, which didn't bode well. I'd just seen the guy jumping off the stage, into the photo pit, and going nuts throughout his band's set just hours earlier. I figured fatigue could be an issue for him when it came time to talk to me. And it was. Buddy wasn't much of one. He gave short answers, talked about how tired he was. His sense of conversation was failing. But it's understandable, given how hard the dude has to work; he also tour-manages for his band on Warped. That's an exhausting job itself, let alone having to perform in 100-degree heat. The interview was a bit short, but still interesting. Read the interview at Double Stereo.

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