Big Brother 13′s resident metalhead and reality show addict Adam Poch is recapping The Amazing Race for Metal Insider – specifically Team Headbangers, consisting of former White Lion/Megadeth/Black Label Society bassist James LoMenzo and entertainment lawyer Mark “Abba” Abbattista. You can follow Adam on Twitter at @heavymetalteddy.
Welcome to the latest edition of The Amazing Race 21 recap – focusing on TEAM HEADBANGERS – James LoMenzo & Mark ‘Abba’ Abbattista. After finishing in 6th place for the 2nd week in a row – it would be kinda cool if they finished in 6th place again – so their stats would be 6 6 6 – and with 9 teams left and only the top 8 moving on after this week – this would keep them in the race and make them even more metal then they already are. So lets see what happens.
The teams got their first clue of the week and had to make their way out of the 24 hour market in Surabaya, Indonesia and head to the Antika Jay Padang restaurant where they would have to compete in the Roadblock challenge. In this challenge – one member of each team had to serve as a waiter and stack 20 small plates of food and bring it to a table of hungry customers. The catch was, if they dropped any of the plates before serving them, they would have to start over. They arrived at the restaurant 5th as the team that won last week – twins Nadya & Natalie got lost in their cab. As we saw last week, the language barrier and not knowing where they are going caused problems for Abba & James – so this week it was the twins turn to feel the wrath! Once at the restaurant, Abba took on the challenge and did great not dropping any. It was funny to see Lexi from Team Longhorn – the first team to make it to the restaurant drop her plates and everyone in the place cheered & clapped. I thought it was only us immature Americans that did that! Anyway… Abba & James got out of there and raced to the train station where they had to make a 7:30am train. They got to the train station with just a couple of minutes to spare and good thing, because the next train to Bangil Indonesia was 3 hours after. The Twins who were right on their tail were not so lucky, just missing the train. This gave the 5 teams that made the train a 3 hour head start. While on the train, 4 of the teams, Goat Farmers, 2 sets of dating couples, and the Chippendale dancers (whom Abba gave the nick name Chipmunks) all sat together and discussed the upcoming Double U-Turn while looking for their next clue on the train.
(For those of you unfamiliar with The Amazing Race – a U-Turn is the ability of a team to force another team behind them to go back and do both parts of the Detour. A Double U-Turn means two teams can force another team behind them to do both parts. What made this even more intense is it was a Blind U-Turn, meaning the team that gets U-Turned would not know who did this to them).
The four teams besides the Headbangers all agreed not to U-Turn anyone as they were all but guaranteed to not get eliminated as there were 4 other teams on the later train. But since Abba & James were not sitting with them, could they have been targeted?
The clue on the train was pretty easy – as a vendor walking through had them all on a hook. Basically, as long as you were not asleep – you would be able to find this clue no problem. When they opened the envelope they found out their choices for this weeks Detour. Egg Head or Lion Head. In Egg Head – the team would have to buy 4 eggs at a local market and bring them to a park, where some locals would cut open a coconut and set the inside on fire and fry 2 eggs while each member held the flaming coconut on their heads. In Lion Head – both teammates would have to dress up in a traditional outfit and put a 40 lb. headdress with a Lion’s face on their head, and then dance along in a street parade – periodically doing dance steps. They actually could balance it by holding a part of it in their mouth. I was wondering/hoping if James & Abba took the Lions Head challenge thinking James would have to play some old White Lion songs in the parade route (hmmmm?).
As the teams got off the train, they had to go to the park where they would do their tasks via a rickshaw-like carriage. Instead of being pulled – it was a cart attached to a bicycle. This proved to be the funniest part of the episode as the “Chipmunks” are both 6’4 and could barely squeeze into one of the carts. All the teams on the first train did Lion’s Head – only the Goat Farmers opted to do Egg Head. Another reason I think the Headbangers did Lion’s head was for fear that having a burning coconut on their head could mess up their long hair. As a former longhair myself, I know I would be scared shitless to voluntarily put anything on fire on top of my head. This was a good move for James & Abba as all 4 of the teams that did Lions Head finished before the team that was doing Egg Head. Once they completed the task, they had to go to the U-Turn checkpoint and decide if they would U-Turn any of the teams behind them. All 5 teams from the first train decided not to U-Turn anyone which is bad for the viewers (as it creates more drama) but good for their karma. Once they made their decision, they got their next clue to where the Pit Stop was located. The first team that checked in would win a trip to Fiji so the race was on. I do not know if it was the editing, but it looked like all 4 of the teams were close to each other – until we see Abba & James go to the wrong school to check in. This obviously cost them some time, but not too much as they finished 4th in this leg of the race.
OK – so it was not 6 6 6 for our Headbangers – but we did get a little insight throughout the episode and at the end, when they checked in with Phil that Abba & James are running their own race, not helping others, and not looking for help from others. Will separating themselves from the other teams be a good move, or will it come back to bite them later if & when they need help? Tune in next week and find out.
