MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN (SUMMERFEST)
CONCERT REVIEW
(POODLE HAT TOUR)
This was on June 26, 2003 and this was my first "Weird Al" concert. I went with my friend, Gail. We drove up to Milwaukee and got to our hotel. It was around 4:00PM, and Al's show didn't go off until 11:00PM. But we went to Summerfest, and went to Al's stage anyway. We were entertained by other bands that performed before Al came on. The first band was Bobby Way And The Way Out's. They were a cover band and covered songs from movies and the 70's. The next band was a singer/comedian. And the third band was I guess well known in Wisconsin. They were called Road Trip, they had a few originals and covered some bands. They had really hard core fans, most of there fans didn't like "Weird Al." Like the woman next to me, after Road Trip was over she turned to her husband and said "Honey, we got to get out of here, 'Weird Al's' coming on." Whatever.
Before the show, Gail saw the tour bus. She decided to go over and take a picture of it. I stayed back because I had to save the seats (4th row center!) She went over by the tour bus and a security gaurd stopped her. He asked her if she had a backstage pass, and she told him no. He said "You aren't allowed back here if you don't have a pass." She looked up and saw Ruben Valtierra (keybordist) and Jim West (guitarrist). She said to the security gaurd "Yes, but can I get Ruben and Jim's autograph, they're right over there." The security gaurd said "Which one is Jim, and which one is Ruben?" Gail pointed at them and said "That's Ruben, and that's Jim." Ruben looked up and saw her pointing at him and started walking over. Gail didn't have anything for him to sign, so she handed him the camera. He asked if she wanted anyone elses autograph and she asked "Yeah, can I get Jim." Ruben went over and had Jim sign it. He gave Gail back her camera and she went back to her seat. When she came back to the our seats, and I saw the autographs and I couldn't believe it. I thought this was the best experience of my life and the show didn't even start yet! Well, some people were standing in front of the front row, so the rest of us had to stand on the benches.
Fun Zone started and everyone was screaming. I turned around and saw that people were standing behind the benches, behind the Miller Lite Stand, all the way out to the lake! It was amazing. It was very cool how this show started because right after the clips said "Are You Ready For "Weird Al" Yankovic?" you heard "Look....If You Had....One Shot..." He was doing "Couch Potato."
Everyone was so into "Couch Potato". It was a little scary on the benches because it felt like you were going to fall off. Everyone was jumping up and down. We started getting scared and then a big guy stepped in front of us on the ground and I accidentely fell on him. He looked up and said "Go ahead, lean away ladies." So throughout the whole show Gail and I were leaning on this big guy. But after a while we got use to it, because we were all bouncing at the same time, in the same rhythem as the song playing. It was kind of cool.
After "Couch Potato", the lights went out, but you could still see shapes. There must have been six people run out on the stage and they all had a job. One had to give Al the accordion, one had to take Al's Sweatshirt, one had to take Al's hat, one had to give Al his hawiian shirt, one had to help Al get the hawiian shirt on, and one had to deal with Al's hair. Once all that was done, the lights went back on and the band did "Angry White Boy Polka." The people who were working the video screen were doing a really bad job. The video stopped every now and then.
Then, Al said "HELLO MILWAUKEE!" and everyone screamed. He then said "And here is our third and final song of the evening." Everyone laughed. Then he started "Party At The Leper Colony."
After that, Al started talking to us about Summerfest, but he was interrupted by a cell phone ringing. He said "If you don't mind, can everyone turn off there cell phones? It's going to be very distracting if there are cell phones on" But it kept ringing. Al looked in his pocket, took out his cell phone and said "Oh..sorry, I gotta take this call." And he went into "A Complicated Song." Hilarious. It's fun to see the reaction on peoples faces that don't know the song. Everyone was still jumping it was a lot of fun.
Then Al did a costume change, came out and did "Wanna B Ur Lovr." Everyone loved this song. This was one excellent performance. He was sliding down the microphone pole and was singing at Steve and Jim. It was just great. The best part was when he got down on his hands and knees and started screaming into the microphone. Excellent performance.
Next came the medley. In the beginning of "Money For Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies," Al was late on coming out, but the band covered it up nicely. From where I was sitting, I could see Al from the side. He was mad at the people backstage. I saw this angry look on his face and he pointed at one guy and I saw him mouth "Give me my instrument." Al then came out and did "Money For Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies." I loved it when Ed came out and held the harmonica during "Ode To A Superhero." Jim did an excellent job with his solo on "Lasagna." And I loved the look on Al's face when he played "My Bologna." And of course, who could not love the famous "Eat It" Back Bend?
After the Medley, "Smells Like Nirvana." Again, the people from Summerfest messed up on the video. Oh well, Al was great. And when he through out the Nirvana water, I got hit with it. I said I would never wash my had again, but it was kind of hard to follow through with that. Unfortunatley, my hand did get washed.
Then came "Amish Paradise." The whole crowd was so energetic, and so was Al. I don't think there was one person in the audience who didn't know at least the chorus to this song.
Then the "Fat" Music Video started up on the screen, Al came out as an 800 pound Michael Jackson and did "Fat." He punched out Santa Clause and made sure everyone in the audience knows who's fat. When it came to jumping, you didn't need to, the other people jumping on the bench made you jump. Jim, Al, and Steve all did the Fat dance. At the end, The band did excellent on thee different solos! Steve did his Bass solo, then Bermuda, then Jim then they all came together in the end. My personal favorite solo was Jim's.
We called Al back for an encore
Darth Ruben came out and did his dance and then Al came out and did "Yoda." The stage next to Al was bigger and there were more people at it, it was the Peter Gabriel concert. Peter Gabriel had to stop his show because the "Weird Al" fans were singing "Yoda-Yo-Yo-Yo-Yo-Yoda" so loud! Even the people inside the Peter Gabriel concert were singing "Yoda-Yo-Yo-Yo-Yo-Yoda" Al did the Yoda Chant and I did it with him.
This was an excellent experience. If you haven't gone to a "Weird Al" show yet, I highly recommend you do. Al puts on one excellent show.
