JOLIET, IL
 CONCERT REVIEW

(POODLE HAT TOUR)

Just got back from the March 28, 2004 show in Joliet, Illinois. It was an excellent show! Although it was sad to think that this would be my last time seeing Al in concert until he shows up by me again. But man, was it a great concert! I got some great pictures (see the bottom of this page) So, here is the long review of the show:

This is my fifth "Weird Al" show...well sixth if you count the time the policeman let me in at Navy Pier (see Navy Pier page.) Anyway, I went with my friends, Gail and Mike. This was Mike's first "Weird Al" concert, and man, was he excited! So, we drove up to Joliet, and got there an hour early (as usual.) We had some dinner and then went over to the venue. There, we sat in our seats waiting for the concert to begin. Mike jumped up and screamed "Look! It's Steve!" There, we saw Steve Jay tuning his bass. We went up to the stage and took a picture of him, then went back. I could tell Mike was excited, his eyes never left the stage. Then Fun Zone started. Everyone in the audience was clapping!

"Angry White Boy Polka" started out the show. As with any first song of the concert, This was very energetic and a lot of people were singing along. Al was very into it, dancing and everything. It was a great performance. 

"Party At The Leper Colony" was the next song. Before the song started, Al told us that last year, when he played at Joliet, the show went great, but he got many complaints from fans that he didn't sing a single song with the seriousness of leperacy in it. The crowd laughed, and then Al said that he didn't want to make that mistake again, so he did "Party At The Leper Colony."

Then, "Your Horoscope For Today." They were experienceing some technical difficulties, and the names of the horoscopes weren't going up on the big screen. But, they fixed it by the time Gemini came up. I did the whole fast part with Al. When the line "Kill Them" came up, a red, devilish light came up on Al's face, hilarious! Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz's new drums sounded really good.

After "Horoscope", Al did "A Complicated Song." Al started talking to us, and then a cell phone rang. Al stopped and said "I don't know if you guys heard, but before the show there was an announcement that said for everyone to turn off there cell phones" I, being to 5 other concerts knew it was really his cell phone and yelled out "It's Your's! Check Your Pocket!" Al then took his cell phone out of his pocket and said "Sorry, I gotta take this call." The audience was laughing so hard! Then Al started "A Complicated Song." It was great and had a lot of energy from the audience. So many people laughed at the different verses in the song. There was a lot of audience participation. 

The stage went pitch black and everything was quiet until we heard Al's voice say "Me-he-he-he-lanie!" Al started singing "Melanie." It was great. He kneeled down on the edge of the stage and sang to all of the girls in the front row. The Al-Gals went crazy! Al hit the high note beautifully. Mike has never heard this song before, and he was laughing at all the hilarious lines.

Then, Al came out in his "One More Minute" costume and said "Well, I guess it's time to introduce the band." The crowd started screaming. Al walked over to Jim West and said "Jim, I'd like you to meet Jon, on drums." The crowd was cracking up. Jim turned around and shook Jon's hand. Al then proceeded to the other side of the stage up to Steve Jay and said "Steve, I'd like you to meet...uh...uh...the keyboardist." It was so funny. Poor Ruben, no one knows who he is. Anyway, Al then said "Well, I guess we can take a song by request now." Everyone started shouting out songs, I said Albuqeruqe. Al was looking around the whole place trying to find the perfect person to ask for a request for a song and he walked right up to....Jim West and said "So, what song would you like to hear?" and Jim said "How about One More Minute?" And they started playing "One More Minute." Al came into the audience on our side! It was great, I couldn't believe he came down this side, because he normally never comes down by Steve's side. He didn't come quiet as far out to us, but he was like, three rows in front of us. He gave away the scarves. And the Al-Gals were even worse in this song! Girls actually went up to him and started screaming! Al was having fun with them.

We saw Al run backstage to get changed, we watched the clips. After the clips, Al came out in...THE BIG WHITE SUIT! Thats right, Al came out and did "Dog Eat Dog." He really nailed Talking Heads. It was great. Who could hate "The Big White Suit?"

Another costume change, we watched the clips. When the clips ended there was silence for a split second and then we heard a female voice say "It's all about the pentiums baby!" Al came out in  THE MIGHTY SILVER SUIT!  Al's voice sounded so cool. He was definatly having fun in this song!

Yet another costume change, and yet again, we watched some more hilarious clips. Then Al came out and did "Wanna B Ur Lovr." This perfomance was AMAZING! It was simply AMAZING! He came out into the audience, and sang to every girl he walked by, he couldn't come out to far because the spot light only went so far, but he came to the girl two seats in front of us. We had a lot of fun, and so did Al. He did the hip thing when he said "KABLAAM!" Everyone was cracking up. Al ended the song with a great face.

Guess what? Another costume change! Again we laughed at the hilarious clips and then "Trash Day" started. This is Mike's favorite song on Poodle Hat, so he was rocking out, and singing along and having a great time. Al was having a lot of fun in this song. The audience was haveing so much fun and Al did all the weird dance moves that he does. It was great.

You'll never believe this, but, Al had another costume change! We watched the clips. And now, it's Medley time! He came out and did "Money For Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies," nothing out of the ordinary happend, same sparkling shirt, same key-tar, same headband. "Jerry Springer" was next in the medley I was singing along with him! Then the infamous pizza song, "Free Delivery" was definatly a favorite (Unreleased parody of "My Heart Will Go On"). He makes everyone crack up when he comes out in that pizza uniform. "Ebay" was pretty standard, he did the weird dance moves. "Rye or the Kaiser" was great! The accordion lift and the leg kicks with Steve were great! "Ode To A Superhero" was hilarious, Ed came out and held the harmonica. Al and Ed gave each other funny looks. "Lasagna," Jim was awsome with his solo! "Pretty Fly For A Rabbi" was awsome Al and Jim head-banged together.  "My Bologna," Al looked around the audience, happy to see that the audience still loves is first hit, "My Bologna." For "Gump" The leg kicks return! Al gets tired of standing on two feet, so he goes over and rests his foot on Steve's shoulder. Finally, "Eat It." The crowd jumped up when they heard the famous guitar in the beginning of eat it. Al did the famous back bend and the leg kicks.

Believe it or not, Al did another costume change! Al came out and did "Smells Like Nirvana." The cheerleaders were unbelieveable, it's hard to explain them, I guess you had to be there to understand what I'm talking about. Al was very energetic. Everyone loved it when he gargled and threw the water out. There was a big laugh when he was singing the line "I forgot the next verse" and then stopped and looked around...like he really did for get the next verse! And ended it with "Oh well, whatever nevermind!" It was a lot of fun. 

I'm beginning to think Al changes costumes more then Cher! Al changed costumes again, and came out and did "Amish Paradise." It was great, everyone was waving there hands this time! There were really cool light effects, I don't think there was one person in the venue that didn't know the words to Amish Paradise.

Again, another costume change. Al came out looking just like Eminem and did "Couch Potato." It was Awsome. The whole entire performace was great! A lot of people laughed at the "Gotta know who J. Lo is marrying this week!" line.  He didn't end it with the peace sign, this time, he ended it with just moving his arms up. 

On the screen (yes, another costume change) they started playing the "Fat" video. Everyone knew that "Fat" was coming up and started screaming! A lot of people said the "Yo, ding dong man, ding dong, ding dong Yo!" line. Al came out as an 800lb Michael Jackson and did "Fat." Al did the high jump and hit the floor and we all jumped up! It was a lot of fun. Al jumped and we jumped up with him! The famous Fat dance is still there. Then Al left the stage and let the band do there solos. Jim and Bermuda's solos were AMAZING! I've never heard them rock like that. Don't get me wrong, Steve and Ruben rocked out too, but the whole entire solo revolved around Jim and Bermuda. Jim was having a great time, before he went off the stage, he turned to the audience, smiled and flashed a peace sign at us. 

We called them back for an encore.

Ruben came out dressed as Darth Vader, and did his powerful "Darth Ruben" moves, then he went to his keyboard and makes us believe that he is about to play an excellent piece, he bends over to the keyboards and plays his excellent, amazing song............CHOPSTICKS! Then it went into  "The Saga Begins." There were a lot of  Star Wars fans there because there were a lot of light sabers in the air. Al held the "He's" in "He's a ghost" for 18 seconds!

After "The Saga Begins," the spot light was on Ruben, he was still wearing his Darth Vader costume, but he made an addition to the costume.......A Sombrero! (mexican hat for those of you who don't speak Spanish) Ruben plays some tunes and tries to trick us with clapping. Then Al came out and did Yoda, it started out with Al swaying his head. At the end of the song he said "Okay, You Sing It." Everyone was singing, but Al looked around the audience, picked out one person who wasn't singing, pointed at them and said "Your Not Singing!" and handed the microphone down to that person. He did the Yoda Chant and I did it with him! It was fun to see the looks on peoples faces! (By the way, if you want the lyrics to the Yoda Chant, go to the page on the lyrics to the Yoda Chant) Al ended the concert with the famous spin and the jump. He looked up and gave us his 100% smile. It was great, everyone was on there feet at the end. Mike's response to the show was "That was Awsome!" and  "That was the coolest!"

The best part about this experience was after the show when we waited by the tour busses to see if Al would come out and sign autographs. I have already met Al before so I knew what to do. We went to the busses and waited with a whole bunch of other "Weird Al" fans. I ran into my friend Andy. Andy, Mike, Gail, and myself were all just talking while waiting for Al. We started singing some songs and got almost everyone in the crowd to sing with us. It was great.

Anyway, we were waiting out there for about 20 minutes when Ruben came out. We all screamed "Ruben!" and he came up to us and said "I want you guys to say Hi to my girlfriend, Linda on the phone, so on the count of three say "Hi Linda!" 1....2....3!" We all screamed "Hi Linda" then Ruben said "Thanks" then went back in. We were talking and we spoted Bermuda walking behind the cars. I said "Bermuda!" and he whispered "SHHH! I'm not suppose to attract a crowd." I asked him if we could get some autographs and he said "Sure, but try not to attract a crowd." So Andy, Mike, Gail and myself casually walked over to Bermuda and we were all hiding behind this one car while Bermuda was signing stuff for us. I talk to Bermuda on http://www.weirdalforum.com (WOWAY)  and I told him who I was and he knew me. Mike got his Poodle Hat album signed and I got one of my "Weird Al" shirts signed. Then we all gathered together for a group picture. We got little hugs from Bermuda, thanked him, and casually walked back to the crowd. No one knew what just happened.

So, we're still waiting for Al. Soon, Skip (the tour manager) came out and said Al would like to sign autographs for everyone, but there are a few rules:

#1: One Autograph per person
#2: No personal story's
#3: No posing for pictures

We all lined up and went inside. I saw Al and said "Hi, I'm Alexis." Al smiled and said "Hi Alexis, did you enjoy the show?" I said "Yeah, It was great." Then Al was signing my "Weird Al" shirt and I said "I went to the Glen Ellyn Show last night." He said "Really? Cool" He gave me the shirt, I thanked him and stepped to the side. He said "Thanks for coming Alexis." 

Then Mike walked up. I'm not sure what he said exactly, but I think it was something like "This was my first "Weird Al" concert and it was awsome!" and I think Al said something like "Thanks" Mike kept on talking to him while he was signing, and I'm not exactly sure what he said, but I know when Al was giving Mike back his CD, Mike asked "Can I have a hug?" and Al smiled and said "Sure" and gave him a hug.

Well, I wanted a Yanko-hug, so I came back in and said "Hey Al can I have a hug to?" and He said "Sure, Alexis." and I got a Yanko-hug to. So, we all walked back to the car and went home. Mike was really lucky to get an autograph and a Yanko-hug all on his first concert! He was so excited he got sick to his stomache the next day.

It was a great experience. If you haven't gone to a "Weird Al" concert yet, I highly recommend you see one, Al puts on one excellent show.