Could it be?
It might! Tonight could have been the best night of my life, or at least top 5. To start, Weird Al started his tour for Straight Out of Lynwood earlier this year, even though the album came out more than a year ago. Al had been at a few venues within driving distance, but usually right on the edge of a reasonable ride, and generally on nights that were very bad times to go to a concert for me and others.
Well, maybe two months ago, Chris notified me that Al was going to go to Foxwoods on September 21st, which happened to be on a Friday night, and only a few miles from home. FINALLY! I'd seen Al about 7 times before, so the idea of missing an entire tour was simply out of the question, especially since he hasn't toured since 2003. So yes, PERFECT.
Chris bought 4 tickets (that's the most you can get at once), and then after talking with my family and juggling some ideas, his mom bought three more tickets so um, 7 of us could go to the show together.
FADE TO ABOUT 5:30 OF SEPT 21st:
I called up Chris on his cell phone because we were supposed to meet him and his family at Hard Rock Cafe in Foxwoods, and he told me that his mom had actually only bought TWO tickets in addition to the original four. Well... that's not good. That's not good at all. The seven people were me, my mom, my sister, Chris, Elisa, Chris' mom, and his sister. One of us was going to be very unhappy if we couldn't scrounge up an extra ticket.
At any rate, we had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe, it was alright. My roast beef sandwich was colder than it should have been. As in, it should not have been cold at all. Oh well, it wasn't bad. After dinner, we decided on getting some Ben & Jerry's, or rather Tim & Terry's, as Chris named it. It ended up being one of the most crucial decisions of the night.
Oh, but first, we decided to head over to the box office area to find extra tickets or whatever, and also to buy some shirts. There were some pretty sweet ones on sale, most of them were White and Nerdy themed, including a pretty sweet white shirt that had a WonderBread type logo on it and said White and Nerdy instead. I decided to go for shirts based on only Al or one of his albums, rather than a single song. I definitely decided on the silver signature shirt, which you can see me wearing in my picture, but I had enough money for two shirts, so the second one was a bit of a dilemma. I finally decided on a gray-greenish shirt that said "Weird Al is my Homeboy", but I was told that it wasn't in the size I wanted. FINE! I'll take the one with the Straight Out of Lynwood album cover on it. SWEET, two shirts, plus a non-Al shirt that I was already wearing. What to do... hmmm... oh yeah, wear all three of them at once!
After waiting around for a little bit, we decided to get back over to that Tim & Terry's. We were waiting in line for maybe one minute at most, and I look over at Elisa, who has an amazed look on her face. I look at what she's looking at, and it's... no way. No. No. It can't be. IT'S WEIRD AL. Shhhhhh. He knows we're looking at him. Is it really him? Well, who else looks like that? It has to be Al. It is. It has to be. Where's my sharpie? Where's the camera? Ohhhhh man. What are the odds?
Someone comes over and takes a cell phone picture, so by this point we all know it's Al. I brought with me a 7" vinyl single of Eat It, vintage from 1984. It has a mostly white cover, and it's probably pretty rare, so it's the perfect thing to get some Herbie Hancocks on. I ask if he could sign it, he says "yeah sure, no problem". People are starting to notice him, and he looks a little flustered; he didn't come this way to get attention. Fortunately, only a few small groups of people ended up bothering him.
I tell him that this is like the 8th time I've seen him live, and Mrs. Colgan says she's been a fan for like 22 years, and I'm pretty much poopin' 'em. I tell mom to break out the camera, because I'm getting a damn picture with "Weird Al" Yankovic. I go back up to him and ask if I might get a picture with him, and he says "yeah, sure". My sister wants one too, and Chris and Elisa get their picture with him too. Mrs. Colgan gets a shot in, but my mom and Chris' sister don't get the chance. The pictures with him came out AWESOME, like if they were just us without Al I'd say they were some really good pictures of us, but... HOLY CRAP, Weird Al's in them. Chris' sister flipped out at her mom because she deleted a blurry picture of her with Al, and she insisted that a blurry picture with Al is better than a clear picture with anything else. I AGREE.
After a bit, I finally get my chocolate chip cookie dough waffle cone (which by the way was the messiest ice cream cone I've had since I was a little kid), and we've just kind of been watching Al for the past few minutes. All of a sudden, he jets off towards the box office area, apparently he got some pints of ice cream and put them in a little carrying bag-type-thing. For some reason, we saw him turn around and start heading the other direction, Idunno.
Um. Holy crap. We just met Weird Al. We talked to him, got his autograph, and got pictures with him. It couldn't have been cooler, because he was stuck in an ice cream line that he chose to be in, so it wasn't like a passing thing. Weird Al was just standing there next to us for probably longer than 5 minutes. It felt more like 20, 20 of the most awesome-feeling minutes ever. Despite this being my ultimate dream, I wasn't that nervous. He was just so polite and calm that I couldn't get any frustration or anything. Definitely an awesome start to the concert.
Then, we headed back to the box office area, and almost right away, Elisa heard some lady offering a ticket for sale. We SNATCHED it up, so now Mrs. Colgan had a general admission seat somewhere in the first FOUR rows for about 50 bucks. What a deal! Me, my sister, Chris and Elisa were on the right side of the venue, about half way back, and my mom and Chris' sister were on the opposite side of the venue. Most of the seats there give a pretty good shot anyways, so it was bound to be a sweet time.
Then the concert starts... every minute that goes by just keeps getting better and better. He was playing mostly recent songs for a bit, from his past three albums. Then he busts into this incredibly long medley of songs, sometimes doing 3 minutes of the song before bursting into the next one. It was incredible. There were a few things that I hadn't seen before, like one where he dressed like Gilligan and sang that he's in love with the skipper, and an updated version of Headline News where he talks about how no one gives a crap about Paris Hilton. Totally. Awesome.
He eventually got down to doing The Saga Begins and Yoda, which have been show closers for most of the shows I've seen, so I was expecting it to be the finale. It had been about an hour and a half, which isn't an uncommon set time at that venue. But... everything was only about half done! Oh man, the incredibleness of it all.
He rode out on a Segway for White and Nerdy, he had a big undressing sequence for You're Pitiful, and he had a bunch of newly edited sequences for the between-song videos, spanning back to the early 90s. Eventually, he played Fat, which is a typical pre-encore show-closer. People started leaving when he got offstage, and I just LAUGHED. I LAUGHED AT THEM FOR BEING SO STUPID. Haven't they heard of an encore? Apparently not. This was one encore that they should be ashamed to have missed.
First he came back and sang a joke song (yes, a joke song even by Weird Al's standards) which had previously been alluded to in a between-song video, and all you needed was a cell phone to participate. Then all of a sudden, he jumps into Albuquerque, which is a true rarity in his shows. Not only is it the full version, it's extended by almost 50%. First was the incredible extended donut-shop, which actually literally had me in tears, it was so bizarre and wonderful to me. Then about halfway through the 11-minute song, he says he lost his train of thought and had to start over. He started the song over! He sang about four verses before resuming back to where he was before he started over, and then went all the way to the end. That's like a 20 minute encore. It was unlike anything I'd ever seen at any concert, and it is probably contender for one of the best concerts I've ever seen in my life, definitely the best Al concert.
After the rush that was a 2-1/2 hour Al concert, we waited outside of the venue, hoping to find any band members that were trying to escape unnoticed. Chris caught a glimpse of Jim West, the guitarist. I ran up behind him and asked him to sign my 7" Eat It, and then I got a picture with him, he put his arm on my shoulder BY CHOICE! Some other jerk was on the other side of Jim when I was getting my picture taken, but fortunately my sister only took the picture of me and Jim.
Now, I've met the bassist Steve Jay twice after shows, both in 2003. He is the most laid back, awesome dude I've ever met. You can just stop him and have a conversation, and won't make you go away if he has somewhere he wants to go. A truly cool dude. The second time I met him, he gave me his personal business card, with his phone number and everything. I was hoping to catch him again tonight, but unfortunately I was unable to. I also didn't see anything of Jon Bermuda Schwartz or Rubén, but I'll save it for next time. Oh, speaking of Rubén, at a 2003 show I saw him coming out of the venue and I asked for an autograph, but he said he'd be right back and rushed off, but he never came back. Jerk. But basically, Jon's the only one I haven't met so far.
Ahhhh. There's nothing quite like a night like this. There are good nights, there are incredible nights, and then there are Weird Al Yankovic nights. Just an Al concert alone is enough to send me into unrestrained elation, but actually meeting the man? Holy crap. I met Weird Al.
Oh... it's 5 am. I should get to sleep. Yessss, Saturday.
Well, maybe two months ago, Chris notified me that Al was going to go to Foxwoods on September 21st, which happened to be on a Friday night, and only a few miles from home. FINALLY! I'd seen Al about 7 times before, so the idea of missing an entire tour was simply out of the question, especially since he hasn't toured since 2003. So yes, PERFECT.
Chris bought 4 tickets (that's the most you can get at once), and then after talking with my family and juggling some ideas, his mom bought three more tickets so um, 7 of us could go to the show together.
FADE TO ABOUT 5:30 OF SEPT 21st:
I called up Chris on his cell phone because we were supposed to meet him and his family at Hard Rock Cafe in Foxwoods, and he told me that his mom had actually only bought TWO tickets in addition to the original four. Well... that's not good. That's not good at all. The seven people were me, my mom, my sister, Chris, Elisa, Chris' mom, and his sister. One of us was going to be very unhappy if we couldn't scrounge up an extra ticket.
At any rate, we had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe, it was alright. My roast beef sandwich was colder than it should have been. As in, it should not have been cold at all. Oh well, it wasn't bad. After dinner, we decided on getting some Ben & Jerry's, or rather Tim & Terry's, as Chris named it. It ended up being one of the most crucial decisions of the night.
Oh, but first, we decided to head over to the box office area to find extra tickets or whatever, and also to buy some shirts. There were some pretty sweet ones on sale, most of them were White and Nerdy themed, including a pretty sweet white shirt that had a WonderBread type logo on it and said White and Nerdy instead. I decided to go for shirts based on only Al or one of his albums, rather than a single song. I definitely decided on the silver signature shirt, which you can see me wearing in my picture, but I had enough money for two shirts, so the second one was a bit of a dilemma. I finally decided on a gray-greenish shirt that said "Weird Al is my Homeboy", but I was told that it wasn't in the size I wanted. FINE! I'll take the one with the Straight Out of Lynwood album cover on it. SWEET, two shirts, plus a non-Al shirt that I was already wearing. What to do... hmmm... oh yeah, wear all three of them at once!
After waiting around for a little bit, we decided to get back over to that Tim & Terry's. We were waiting in line for maybe one minute at most, and I look over at Elisa, who has an amazed look on her face. I look at what she's looking at, and it's... no way. No. No. It can't be. IT'S WEIRD AL. Shhhhhh. He knows we're looking at him. Is it really him? Well, who else looks like that? It has to be Al. It is. It has to be. Where's my sharpie? Where's the camera? Ohhhhh man. What are the odds?
Someone comes over and takes a cell phone picture, so by this point we all know it's Al. I brought with me a 7" vinyl single of Eat It, vintage from 1984. It has a mostly white cover, and it's probably pretty rare, so it's the perfect thing to get some Herbie Hancocks on. I ask if he could sign it, he says "yeah sure, no problem". People are starting to notice him, and he looks a little flustered; he didn't come this way to get attention. Fortunately, only a few small groups of people ended up bothering him.
I tell him that this is like the 8th time I've seen him live, and Mrs. Colgan says she's been a fan for like 22 years, and I'm pretty much poopin' 'em. I tell mom to break out the camera, because I'm getting a damn picture with "Weird Al" Yankovic. I go back up to him and ask if I might get a picture with him, and he says "yeah, sure". My sister wants one too, and Chris and Elisa get their picture with him too. Mrs. Colgan gets a shot in, but my mom and Chris' sister don't get the chance. The pictures with him came out AWESOME, like if they were just us without Al I'd say they were some really good pictures of us, but... HOLY CRAP, Weird Al's in them. Chris' sister flipped out at her mom because she deleted a blurry picture of her with Al, and she insisted that a blurry picture with Al is better than a clear picture with anything else. I AGREE.
After a bit, I finally get my chocolate chip cookie dough waffle cone (which by the way was the messiest ice cream cone I've had since I was a little kid), and we've just kind of been watching Al for the past few minutes. All of a sudden, he jets off towards the box office area, apparently he got some pints of ice cream and put them in a little carrying bag-type-thing. For some reason, we saw him turn around and start heading the other direction, Idunno.
Um. Holy crap. We just met Weird Al. We talked to him, got his autograph, and got pictures with him. It couldn't have been cooler, because he was stuck in an ice cream line that he chose to be in, so it wasn't like a passing thing. Weird Al was just standing there next to us for probably longer than 5 minutes. It felt more like 20, 20 of the most awesome-feeling minutes ever. Despite this being my ultimate dream, I wasn't that nervous. He was just so polite and calm that I couldn't get any frustration or anything. Definitely an awesome start to the concert.
Then, we headed back to the box office area, and almost right away, Elisa heard some lady offering a ticket for sale. We SNATCHED it up, so now Mrs. Colgan had a general admission seat somewhere in the first FOUR rows for about 50 bucks. What a deal! Me, my sister, Chris and Elisa were on the right side of the venue, about half way back, and my mom and Chris' sister were on the opposite side of the venue. Most of the seats there give a pretty good shot anyways, so it was bound to be a sweet time.
Then the concert starts... every minute that goes by just keeps getting better and better. He was playing mostly recent songs for a bit, from his past three albums. Then he busts into this incredibly long medley of songs, sometimes doing 3 minutes of the song before bursting into the next one. It was incredible. There were a few things that I hadn't seen before, like one where he dressed like Gilligan and sang that he's in love with the skipper, and an updated version of Headline News where he talks about how no one gives a crap about Paris Hilton. Totally. Awesome.
He eventually got down to doing The Saga Begins and Yoda, which have been show closers for most of the shows I've seen, so I was expecting it to be the finale. It had been about an hour and a half, which isn't an uncommon set time at that venue. But... everything was only about half done! Oh man, the incredibleness of it all.
He rode out on a Segway for White and Nerdy, he had a big undressing sequence for You're Pitiful, and he had a bunch of newly edited sequences for the between-song videos, spanning back to the early 90s. Eventually, he played Fat, which is a typical pre-encore show-closer. People started leaving when he got offstage, and I just LAUGHED. I LAUGHED AT THEM FOR BEING SO STUPID. Haven't they heard of an encore? Apparently not. This was one encore that they should be ashamed to have missed.
First he came back and sang a joke song (yes, a joke song even by Weird Al's standards) which had previously been alluded to in a between-song video, and all you needed was a cell phone to participate. Then all of a sudden, he jumps into Albuquerque, which is a true rarity in his shows. Not only is it the full version, it's extended by almost 50%. First was the incredible extended donut-shop, which actually literally had me in tears, it was so bizarre and wonderful to me. Then about halfway through the 11-minute song, he says he lost his train of thought and had to start over. He started the song over! He sang about four verses before resuming back to where he was before he started over, and then went all the way to the end. That's like a 20 minute encore. It was unlike anything I'd ever seen at any concert, and it is probably contender for one of the best concerts I've ever seen in my life, definitely the best Al concert.
After the rush that was a 2-1/2 hour Al concert, we waited outside of the venue, hoping to find any band members that were trying to escape unnoticed. Chris caught a glimpse of Jim West, the guitarist. I ran up behind him and asked him to sign my 7" Eat It, and then I got a picture with him, he put his arm on my shoulder BY CHOICE! Some other jerk was on the other side of Jim when I was getting my picture taken, but fortunately my sister only took the picture of me and Jim.
Now, I've met the bassist Steve Jay twice after shows, both in 2003. He is the most laid back, awesome dude I've ever met. You can just stop him and have a conversation, and won't make you go away if he has somewhere he wants to go. A truly cool dude. The second time I met him, he gave me his personal business card, with his phone number and everything. I was hoping to catch him again tonight, but unfortunately I was unable to. I also didn't see anything of Jon Bermuda Schwartz or Rubén, but I'll save it for next time. Oh, speaking of Rubén, at a 2003 show I saw him coming out of the venue and I asked for an autograph, but he said he'd be right back and rushed off, but he never came back. Jerk. But basically, Jon's the only one I haven't met so far.
Ahhhh. There's nothing quite like a night like this. There are good nights, there are incredible nights, and then there are Weird Al Yankovic nights. Just an Al concert alone is enough to send me into unrestrained elation, but actually meeting the man? Holy crap. I met Weird Al.
Oh... it's 5 am. I should get to sleep. Yessss, Saturday.