GLEN ELLYN, IL
CONCERT REVIEW AND PICTURES
(To skip the review and just see the pictures, scroll down!)
This concert was on September 25, 2007. It was the 4th concert I had seen this tour, and the 1st of 3 concerts I would see in one week. My friend, Andy, tagged along for the concert as well. We left around 4:00PM thinking we would stop to get something to eat along the way, until we realized there was really no where to eat, so we just went through a drive through. We arrived at the venue at 4:55PM. We went over to the busses only to find out that they were being gaurded by a police car. This did not look too promising for a meet-and-greet. So we went inside the venue where we met up with some online friends: Kaffy and fred27. We visted with them for a while but then began our duty of getting signatures for the Make the Rock Hall Weird petition. We were not entirely sure if it had been cleared by the venue or not, so we were gathering signatures quietly by going up to big groups of people and asking them to sign. During that time, Andy just happened to ask a journalist from the Naperville Sun newspaper for her signature without realizing she was a journalist. She happily agreed and asked if she could interview him for her article about dedicated fans that will appear in the Naperville Sun newspaper. Andy happily agreed. While Andy was being interviewed, I kept walking around getting as many people to sign the petition as possible. I ran into a teacher that I had had in high school (Dina Higgenbotham) and her family (apologies, for I do not remember her husband or her son's name). I had already known from talking with her before that her son had become a fan of Al's recently, he seemed excited to be at a "Weird Al" Yankovic concert. I got them to sign the petition and made my way back over to Andy. About this time, it was 7:20PM and we decided to take our seats. We were seated in Row B seats 12 and 13, right next to Kaffy. We thought the show started at 8:00 so we were debating whether or not to go out and get more signatures when all of a sudden "Fun Zone" started playing. We quickly sat down and checked our tickets, to see that the show does in fact start at 7:30PM.
The first four songs, "Polkarama", "Canadian Idiot", "Close But No Cigar", and "Why Does This Always Happen to Me?" were very loud and energetic. Though, it seemed to be a quiet crowd tonight. Al and the band sounded great and they were having a blast, so was I and the other big Al fans around us, but it seemed like people hadn't heard these songs before and were confused. Don't get me wrong, people did laugh and have a great time during these performances. I just found it interesting that, well, people had never heard of these songs before. Especially since most of them werel off of Straight Outta Lynwood. But hey, I guess all fans have to start somewhere.
The crowd started to change there attitude when Al came out and did a more recognizeable tune: "It's All About The Pentiums". There was a man sitting next to me who haden't moved or chuckled since the beginning of the concert. And this was the first song where he just died laughing, Specifically at the line "You're just about as useless as Jpegs to Hellen Keller". The audience seemed to know this song, since at the "It's All About The Pentiums...YEAH!" the "YEAH!" was very loud coming from the audience. This was a fun performance.
I am now convinced that "You're Pitiful" is possibly the best unreleased "Weird Al" song as of right now. Not only is the performance hilarious as it copies James Blunt's "You're Beautiful" video, but I can't help but crack up evertime I hear the lyrics. It never gets old. And of course, it never gets old to see the finale of Al in a Spongebob Squarepants t-shirt, pink tutu, and fishnet leggings as he says "Well it just sucks to be you".
The next song has been and still is a fan favorite. I hope he never gets rid of this performance: "Wanna B Ur Lovr". This performance and song almost always win the best song/performance of the night, and tonight was no different. Though I did not get the "Al treatment" of him singing to me this time, it was still hilarious to see his facial reactions along with the audience. This definitely woke the audience up for the rest of the night. The woman in front of me couldn't breath because of laughter for what seemed to be the second verse of the song. It was great, I love this song. Al, if you ever come on to this website and just happen to read this review...please don't get rid of this performance!
Time for a quick costume change and then the Medley started. It always amazes me how Al can switch between totally different genres of songs. Going from rap to pop to hip-hop to R&B to rock in smooth transitions is amazing. "I'm In Love With The Stripper" got huge laughs as always. They really have the video clip nailed for that song. "Ebay" seems to be growing into a mini fan favorite, as everyone seems to know it. "Headline News" had a verse talking about how Britney Spears has lost her mind recently by shaving her head and her lack of underwear. I love "Confessions Part III", but it doesn't seem like other people enjoy it as much as I do. Maybe it's because they can't here the lyrics so well since there is a lot of overlapping. But it's still hilarious. "Gump" and "Eat It" are always energetic songs, and everyone still knows and loves them.
Another costume change and funny clips when all of a sudden, I see a little R2D2 roll across the stage! "The Saga Begins"! This is the first time I have ever seen R2D2 on stage with "Weird Al" Yankovic! So cool! But then, not only did the storm troopers and Darth Vadar come out, but C-3PO did as well! This is great, I'm experiencing a rare concert! Awesome! C-3PO just sort of danced around like the storm troopers did, but R2D2's head kept spinning and lighting up. Al played around with C-3PO and Darth Vadar during the end of "The Saga Begins"
All of the storm troopers, Darth Vadar, C-3PO and R2D2 left the stage and Al did "Yoda". Wow, Al wrote this in the late '70s early '80s and it is still possibly one of the most well known "Weird Al" Yankovic song. It was funny, when Al did the Yoda Chant, of course, I did it with him and this audience wasn't really familiar with it. I got a lot of strange looks from audience members, but everyone laughed and everyone had a great time.
After "Yoda" were fan favorites, "Smells Like Nirvana" and "Amish Paradise". Nothing too different in either of these songs. Both are astill histarical. We were drenched by the "Smells Like Nirvana" water. Everyone was very enthusiastic with "Amish Paradise".
After "Amish Paradise" were some funny clips of the Kevin Federline ALTV interview. Everyone really seemed to enjoy those, he really tears Kevin Federline apart in that interview. Then came the much anticipated, "White & Nerdy". Al definitely likes to play around on that segway more and more as the tour goes on. Finally, this song got this crowd up and excited. Everyone seemed to know "White & Nerdy". The person next to me was finally having a blast.
Al leaves for another costume change and comes back to do "Fat". Even though it was released in 1988, it's still a huge fan favorite. Everyone was energized after "White & Nerdy" so everyone was still hyped up for "Fat". Nothing to different about "Fat", The "HO!" sketch got many laughs since this seemed to be a crowd who never seen Al before. At the end, Al introduces the band and says "Thank you, Goodnight!" and runs off the stage. Jim West is amazing. His solo is amazing. He is amazing.
We call Al back for an encore.
Al does "Cell phones" which is definitely becoming a fan favorite of this tour. Possibly my new favorite unreleased song. Especially "If you have a cell phone, I want you to stand up and wave it in the air!" it is so cool to see all of the cell phones.
During the end of "Cell Phones" you hear Bermuda's do the drum riff at the beginning of "Albuquerque" and the rest of the band joins in. Al started singing it, but then stopped in the middle and posed for an elderly woman who was trying to take his picture. He thought she was done and started singing again, then he stopped to see that she was still trying to take his picture. He looked over at her and said "You're having real trouble with that aren't you? Would you like me to help you?" He leans over the stage, she hands him the camera he looks at it and takes a picture of her sitting in the audience and says "Sorry, must be broken". Then starts the song over again. When he got to the part where he says "You know the place", he pointed at a guy in the front row and the guy didn't notice. So, Al got off the stage and started over again in the audience right in front of this guy and said "YOU KNOW THE PLACE" and the guy said yes and then Al went back up on stage and finished the song.
After the concert, Andy and myself went over to the buses to wait to see if Al would come out. After about an hour only 5 of us were standing there. Jim West came out and signed his autograph and we talked with Jim for a while. Then Ruben came out and we did the same with Ruben, only this time we remembered we had a camera and Ruben posed for a picture with me. Then R2D2 came out with one of the storm troopers and me and Andy got a picture with R2D2. Then they all got on the bus and left, Al was not feeling to well that night and decided no meet and greet.
Oh well, it was still a great concert and so much fun. If you haven't seen "Weird Al" Yankovic live in concert yet, you should. Al puts on one excellent show!
