“The chinese food was late. The bass was missing. The van broke down. The bass broke one minute before they went on. And then it broke again. The monitors were too low. The second set was played in complete darkness. But the beer? The beer was free. It was a night they’d never forget, if they could only remember it.” - VH1 Behind the Music, Barry Badrinath & The ZJ’s 

Here’s some pics from last night’s show at Mystery Lane in Portsmouth, Dominica. The band changes it’s name for every show; last night we were Barry Badrinath & The ZJ’s. In true medical school fashion, we had to perform emergency MacGuyver surgery on both the van and the bass guitar, but in the end we pulled it off and sounded better than we ever have. The highlight was probably “Fat Bottomed Girls” where we all switched instruments with our keyboard player hopping on guitar, our guitarist hopping on bass, our drummer on vocals and me on the drums.

Set 1:
Misirlou (Dale Dick) —>
Take Me Out (Franz Ferdinand) —>
Woman (Wolfmother) —>
Roadhouse Blues (The Doors) —>
Hey Ya (Andre 3000)
When I Come Around (Green Day)
Fat Bottomed Girls (Queen)
Say It Ain’t So (Weezer)
Rolling in the Deep (Adele)
Dammit (Blink 182)

Set 2:
Seven Nation Army (White Stripes)
Paint it Black (Rolling Stones)
Steady as She Goes (Raconteurs)
Proud Mary (CCR)
Rebel Yell (Billy Idol)
What’s My Age Again (Blink 182)
Mary Jane’s Last Dance (Tom Petty)
House of the Rising Sun (The Animals)
Pursuit of Happiness (Kid Cudi)

So this past weekend they celebrated Carnivale in Roseau, the capital of Dominica. Having just finished up our neuro/endocrine/psych block and taken the block exam the previous Monday, we decided to head on out and experience Carnivale in the Caribbean first hand.

What ensued was basically a seventeen hour bender of no sleep, drinking, eating, marching in the streets, blowing whistles, jumping on and off trucks, wearing crazy hats and more drinking. It was fantastic. Especially since most of us pulled seventeen hour no-sleep benders the weekend before to study for our exam.

Of the twenty or so that went and started our Carnivale experience around 5pm, only Sayegh and I were left standing in the streets at 10am with our breakfast Vodka-Monsters in hand (they were out of Redbull.)

Highlights of the night included:
-Jumping on a moving flat bad and crowning it our chariot float.
-Marching in the parade with locals for 4 hours.
-Getting invited to karaoke with an Asian family at their Chinese New Years dinner.
-James’ incredible mullet wig.

Thanks to a three day weekend and the crushing realization that our final exam for MS2 is only a mere 7 weeks away thanks to the mandatory four week Pre-USMLE1 Falcon course we have to take, we decided to take full advantage and hit up DeChamps restaurant for the 12-hr challenge.

The Rules:
-You must remain on the premises for 12 hours without leaving for any reason
-You must drink at least one drink per hour
-You can not refuse any shot bought for you so long as the offering party takes one with you.

Our Self-Inflicted Rules:
-Wear Jorts
-Look Ridiculous

It sounds easy. It’s not. Especially in a bar that’s maybe 30 ft by 30 ft and half open to the Dominica heat. “I’ll just have one beer an hour” goes right out the window when your beer gets warm and gross after 6 minutes and you don’t want to drink it anymore. The idea of taking a shot on the hour also sounds good, until you realize you have nothing to drink for 59 minutes while everyone else around you is partying. Then there’s the epic levels of boredom that hits somewhere between hours 7 and 9.

Luckily around 9pm all our friends who weren’t doing the challenge came up to hang out, run through some epic group sing-a-longs of “Piano Man,” “Pour Some Sugar On Me,” “Semi-Charmed Life,” etc., and push us through.

If you ever happen to be in Dominica—why the hell would you be?—stop by DeChamps up on top of the mountain near Dominica and you’ll see our names up on the wall of Champions.