When walking into the American Airlines Center (in Dallas) on Saturday night to see the show called Nuclear Cowboyz, I had no idea on what to expect. My editor told me it was some combination between a motor-cross race and a rock opera, two things that usually do not go together. Outside the arena, there was an almost heavy metal rock concert vibe, with t-shirt hawkers and girls in tight jeans. The closest seats, the ones next to the action, were cordoned off, giant plastic tarps covering the chairs. A feeling of danger filled the air. The set filled all sides of the AAC, with a giant one story ramp on the center stage, that could have been accessed from either end. Hugging the sides were a series of smaller and steeper ramps. All were covered with graffiti. There were wrecked cars on either corner, one a police car and the other a taxi.

Before the start of the show, the overhead screens project the preamble to our little play. It seems that mankind has destroyed civilization and what is left in the post-apocalypse are scavenging the countryside. We get shots of tornadoes and exploding buildings. As these images are to distract the audience, the stage is taken over by a bevy of pretty young girls carrying flashlights. They are looking for something.

Our first rider appears, decked out in white. He does a series of stunts on and over the broken down car, flipping his bike on top of the auto. Then there are a few ramp stunts with the rider flying far in the air. He meets up with a black clad rider and they have a battle royal in the air and on the ground.

Then both assemble a team of riders. One group is called the Soldiers of Havoc (white clad bikers) and the other are the Metal Mulisha (black clad bikers). First up are the Soldiers of Havoc our white knight bikers who fly up in the skies, performing flips and twists while atop the bike and in mid-air. Some guys straddle their machines while others stretch back in a move that looks more as if they are being crucified while in flight. A few cyclist can even make their motorcycles do full front flips, always landing in perfect form on the return ramp.

The black clad riders take over with many of the same stunts. One girl during the Metal Mulisha segment cracks a whip while ascending on a platform. Then she disrobes, showing a solid metal body suit. Taking out a grinding tool, she showers sparks from all sides and between her legs. This is a little stunt that will probably be copied in different 'gentleman's clubs' in years to come.
Between the motorcycle stunts, the young lasses are dancing on poles and faux fighting, giving the riders a break and the backstage crew time to reset the stunt work. Also involved in this bit of misdirection are stilted, bat wing beauties and fire juggling twirlers. There are also a ton of explosions and fire effects so hot that even 50 feet away, one could feel the heat.

The second act of the show is the showdown between the two groups and their forming into the Nuclear Cowboyz. One rider even makes a four-wheeler fly into the higher altitudes. The soundtrack of the show is full of heavy and hard rock, a thundering pulse of death metal filling the waves with sound.

I did have a few problems with the show. While the 'story' of the Nuclear Cowboyz' is silly and simplistic, that is not a complaint. It would be hard to craft Shakespeare with 150cc excitement. No the biggest drawback of the show is the announcing. The story of the show is lost in a sea of reverb and feedback. I thought it was just my bad hearing, but everyone in our party said that they could not understand what the announcer was saying. The entire exercise was more along the line of the adults in a Charlie Brown Special, a bunch of wah-wahs without any semblance of understanding. The other was the layout of the production. While every seat in the arena had a perfect view, it also had an obstructed one. When the action took place on the ground, the side opposite could not see what was going on. Though there is no way this could be fixed, it was a distraction when one has to guess exactly what is going on with the far sides of this oval production.

As a former rider of dirt bikes, I was totally amazed by the skill that these athletes exhibit in this show. They take these machines and get them air born with such a degree of precision that it almost feels ballet-like. This is the type of show that a 13 year old boy would design. It is full of scantily clad women dancing in various degrees of repose and guys with bikes flying 40 feet in the air. The basic question is –is it entertaining? Yes, this is an exciting and very different kind of entertainment. If one is looking for something to take a bunch of teenagers to, this would be a perfect fit.

http://www.nuclearcowboyz.com/