Spoleto Scene is a great way to interact with your 20- or 30-something friends without having to click a Buzzfeed link. Basically the group is for young arts appreciators who want to not only attend a bunch of Spoleto shows, but socialize afterward with like-minded people. We’ve done both Spoleto Scene and Spoleto Society parties (those swank South of Broad fetes for the older set) and can vouch that both are equally entertaining. Of course, we did meet a Bond villain — Orlov from Octopussy — at a Society party a couple of years back, so that may trump Scene. At any rate, Thursday we went to Scene’s kickoff event, Shakedown at Memminger, where we were greeted with a normal-sized drink, but were quickly pointed to the Big Gulp version at the main bar ahead of us. DJ NattyHeavy made the entire crowd dance, as usual, but it wasn’t until our usual text message requests to the DJ (we have NattyHeavy on speed dial) that the crowd really got moving. In fact, the event extended the party by an hour. If there were ever a party to kick off the summer, it was this one — so fun in fact, no one we talked to was feeling especially well the next day, so we kept it low-key Friday.
After a short rest, we went to Palmetto Brewing on Saturday for our first Crawfish for Cancer event. Produced by James Crowell, whose father passed away from myeloma this past year, the function raised money for cancer research. Crawfish arrived from NOLA and were steamed almost immediately. The folks attending the event were no strangers to the crustaceans and were quick to show us how to eat one, before shoving dozens of crawdaddies down their mouths. It was a messy affair, and we considered personally pressure washing the entire event after. Fortunately, enough libations — Palmetto beer and Firefly liquor — were on hand to distract us from our cleaning instincts.
After four courses of crawfish, we were somehow still hungry and decided to grab a bite at Leon’s. One imbiber in our group spilled the better part of a bottle of rose on our khakis, so we opted to keep it sloppy and ordered some Blue Point oysters. Let us tell you, we’ve never seen bigger oysters. Good thing we were offered a new, larger table to make room for them.
All of this necessitated a nap because at precisely 8:36 p.m. it was off to attend yet another charity event. Club Trio hosted Wiggin’ out for a Cure, an organization that raises funds for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. We were a little late to arrive, what with all the seafood, but we totally got down with the stragglers still on site. Wigs were provided for all guests, and after donning a weave or two, we hit Trio’s recently renovated dance floor. Now incorporating a new DJ booth, the entire space has been feng-shui’d to allow for ultimate Step It Up reenactments. Suffice it to say, we got down. Not sure if the Smurf-looking wigs or the Oasis-looking ones were our favorite, but a fun time was had by all.
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