Here's the day we hoped would never come. The last Thursday night at the Wicked Wolf. Much anticipated. After a day of packing my things and organizing my life, we all got dressed up and took the newest arrival in Dublin, Claire's little sister Grace, to Blackrock for dinner before karaoke. We had never been to Blackrock in the daylight, but we found a little pub called Jack O'Rourke's and settled in for some traditional Irish food and a Caesar salad. We had some Bailey's and headed towards the Wicked Wolf. Much earlier than normal. We took a detour to take a view of the sea, and we ran into Brock along the way. We offered to help him bring in his stuff....groupies for sure.
The Wicked Wolf was full of the after work crowd. Some type of work mixer. Eugene pointed to an empty table for us. This was not the same Wicked Wolf. Light was streaming through the windows and we could see the bay. And they were playing Eminem. But like clock work, the crowd shuffled out, we took our front row seats and Brock got going. He came up to us and chatted with us and talked about our last night and told us that we looked nice.
He started the night out slow, but quickly dedicated our favorite song HUMAN to us announcing to the whole bar that it was our last night and that this one was for us, who had become regulars. We took to the dance floor, and he even changed the lyrics and made some Chicago (and Melbourne) shout outs. Perfect. Then Ring of Fire...which Laura and I decided to interpretative dance to. He then dedicated another song to us. A U2 song called "The Unforgettable Fire". He said that we had left an unforgettable fire at the Wicked Wolf. Way to make it even harder for us to leave. But before he could finish and hand the microphone off, he sang "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World". Another dedication to us.
Alastair took to the stage, the X's went up, and he serenaded us, his favorite Americans with "You Raise Me Up" and "A Million Love Songs". Supposedly he is auditioning for the X Factor on Saturday at Croke Park. Let's hope he makes it, so we can watch him when we are back in America. He promised us if he made it famous, he'd buy us tickets back to Dublin.
Then we had a girl sing a very poor version of Barbie Girl. Not good. She didn't really sing, as much as just say the lyrics, off tune. Then her friend serenaded her boyfriend with Spice Girls' 2 Become 1. She was decent, but the googly eyes she was making at her boyfriend were somewhat disturbing as he mouthed the words to her. She then sang OUR song which we had literally waited all semester to sing. American Pie. And she butchered it... but we danced anyway.
Claire & Stevie took the stage to sing "What A Girl Wants". The version was a little different so they had a bit of trouble but mastered it pretty well. Then Claire & Grace sang "Don't Stop Believing". Which is just always a jam. Fist pumping, Stacy Curry jumping, Aussie rules moves. Brock called us to the stage to sing our selection of the evening. "Save Tonight". The perfect goodbye anthem. It ain't easy to say goodbye. It was so surreal, I am not sure any of us are really truly aware of the fact that we're leaving on Sunday. And never coming back. At least not to live. I think if we really knew that it was our last night, we would have cried.
It didn't seem like the usual Wolf. Maybe our expectations were too high. Maybe it was the fact that the normal barkeep was not there and we had some other random person pouring our pints. Usually Stefan knows what we want. Or the fact that raspy voiced Mark had called in sick and no one was there to sing Gangster's Paradise or Streets of Philadelphia. Or maybe we were all just more melancholy then usual. But we did all we could do, and lived like Gaga, and just danced so it would be okay.
We did have the pleasure of a "one trick pony" who was break dancing all over the dance floor. He entertained us and spun us around. His friend got up and sang Home for us. Another depressing anthem about sunny days we are lucky to know. We swayed on the dance floor, and tried to delay the misery.
Alastair got up again to sing our song for us. "You Are Not Alone", dedicated to us. Theme of the evening. We swayed along, Brock stood behind him and swayed his lighter in the air. Then the guy who sang Home and one of the "Don't Stop Me Now" ladies got up and sang "The Time of My Life", another song we considered singing. We did our best Swayze & Baby impression, jokingly dancing and pretending to run to Brock for the signature lift. We serenaded Brock and told him that "we owed it all to him". Cheesey, perhaps.
Don't Stop Me Now & Don't Stop Believing (Round 2) were next performed by the usual ladies. Laura got up and sang "Love Song" and rocked it. Solos were the theme of the night, as it was our last chance. Me and Laura were going to rap to Gangster's Paradise in traditional form, but Brock did not get to us. I am not sure it would've been the same anyway, since I don't have Mark's raspy voice.
Sam and Aoife then sang "Wonderwall", a song that will forever remind me of Claire trying to imitate an Irish brogue while in a cab and tried to sing this song.
"Home" guy took to the stage again, and sang an American classic for the American girls. "You've Lost That Loving Feeling". Which apparently I have since he serenaded me while his friend spun Stacy around the dance floor. Not quite Maverick & Goose but Stacy and I appreciate any Top Gun singalongs we can get.
We had waited all semester to sing American Pie so we weren't going to let the fact that the other woman had sang it stop us. But Brock played the Madonna version for us. Which was a little different. The stage was also rushed by our dancer friends. It wasn't quite the well executed American Anthem we were looking for....but still ridiculous as we all crammed on the stage and sang with friends (old & new) the timeless classic.
And then it came, the literal and metaphorical End of The Road. A final dedication to us. We all swayed together as Brock & Alastair sang their final rendition of the "End of the Road". And all too soon it was over. We took some photos, we did the usual impromptu singalong with Alastair. Some old guy told Stacy that Alastair may have the "X Factor" but she had the "Sexy Factor". That's usually our cue to leave. We hugged Alastair and found Brock once last time. He told us that he "doesn't like Goodbyes, so this is until next time", wished us luck, and gave us all a hug. We headed for the door and Eugene told us to "be good, and have safe travels home, and find the Wolf on Facebook". And just like that, we bid farewell to the Wicked Wolf.
Appropriately, it was raining when we emerged from the Wolf. The weather reflected our moods. We went to Supermac's, found our favorite worker, who knew our "tenders" order. We got chips & tenders, slathered them with ketchup, and enjoyed our last Supermac's Afterhours. Laura, the warrior, purchased 3 diet cokes, determined to pull an all nighter since she has a 9 am exam and needs to study, but wouldn't let that stop her from coming to our last night. I finally had the award winning tenders, which are as good as they are acclaimed to be.
We found a "maxi taxi" to fit all of us in, and headed home. The taxi driver was not too entertaining, although we had a good laughs about the asshole Irish drivers. And my alter ego, Whitney.
Said goodnight and went home, all just a little depressed. All good things must come to an end, I suppose. But the fire we left at the Wicked Wolf perhaps lies within all of us. The desire to take the stage, dance with all you've got, make friends with strangers, and find that all we need out of life is a few good songs, a few good friends, and a few good laughs.
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