WAUKEGAN, IL
CONCERT REVIEW & PICTURES
(To skip the review and see the pictures, just scroll down)
This was my third concert of the Straight Outta Lynwood Tour, and it was an excellent one. This was on Sunday, August 19, 2007. I went to this concert with my friends Gail, Kevin, Andy and Jonathan. My friend Amanda was also coming with her family. This was the first "Weird Al" concert for Amanda, her family, Jonathan and Kevin. And they all seemed to have a great time. Gail, Kevin and myself left around 4:00PM so we could possibly stop to get something to eat before the show started. We were going to meet Jonathan, Andy, Amanda and her family at the concert. So we ate at the only restaurant that was open, and they said they were only open because the theatre had a big name that night. The restaurant was packed with "Weird Al" fans. How can you tell they were "Weird Al" fans? Well, almost everyone had on a hawaiian shirt and/or some form of "Weird Al" merchandise. I left the restaurant early to get over to the venue because I was a volunteer for the Make The Rock Hall Weird Campaign. So I went over and told the ticket person who I was, and he told me to go sit at the table they had set up for me. When I got there I was able to meet one of my online friends, Kaffy, who was also helping out with the Make The Rock Hall Weird Campaign. Everything was going well and we got many people to sign the petition, but then they separated me and Kaffy. They put me in the west lounge and Kaffy in the east lounge. But that was ok, wasn't that big of a deal. Anyway, thats where I met up with Andy and Jonathan. They went in to check out where our seats were (second row a bit over to the left.) I follwed them shortly after. Gail and Kevin were literally 3 rows behind Jonathan, Andy and myself. We were looking for Amanda and her family, but was not able to find her.
Shortly after sitting down, "Fun Zone" began. It was so loud since we were right next to the speakers. Jonathan was cracking up at the little short clips in the beginning. That's when I knew he would have a great time. Once "Polkarama!" started, it looked like Jonathan couldn't breath he was laughing so hard. He really liked the Lets Get it Started, Don'tcha, Candy Shop and Gold Digger parts of "Polkarama".
Then was "Canadian Idiot". This time, I was surprised to see confetti instead of streamers at the end. It was as always a fun performance as was "Close But No Cigar" which came next.
After "Close But No Cigar" was "Bob". This was the second time I have seen "Bob" live and I love it. I think it's way better than the album version. The harmonica solo's are so much longer live than they are on the album. Al seems to have a lot of fun on this one.
Then there was a costume change and some video clips and Al came out and did "It's All About The Pentiums." Unbeknown to me, Amanda and her family showed up right when Pentiums had started. Jonathan really liked this performance.
Apparantly "You're Beautiful" by James Blunt was one of Jonathan's favorite songs. So he was really surprised and pleased to see "You're Pitiful" was next. As always, this was a funny performance. He's got the "pitiful face" nailed at the end when he says the line "Well it just sucks to be you."
"Wanna B Ur Lovr" was next. This was amazing. Al came down into the audience, like always. I am happy to say that for the first time, I got a line from "Wanna B Ur Lovr". Al came down the row in front of ours and luckily, during the video clips, the man who was sitting in front of me left. So Al came right in front of me, leaned on that mans empty chair and started singing to the girl next to me. So I got my camera up to take a picture of Al. Then, all of a sudden he turns to me and sings the line "How'd ya get through security? Cause baby your the bomb." Then he went back on stage. I was so excited. That was the highlight of the show. Definitely.
After some video clips, it started the Medley. "Couch Potato" was first, but "Do I Creep You Out" (which was next) had a great response from the audience. During "I'm In Love With The Skipper", it was the first time I saw this where they had the video clips turn on right when Al started the chorus. That was hilarious. We got the Paris Hilton lyrics from "Headline News" this time. "Bedrock Anthem" was so much fun this time. We were sitting around a group that was really into screaming "YABBA DABBA YABBA DABBA DABBA DOO NOW!" Jonathan was having a great time. "Eat It" had a HUGE response from the audience. I couldn't believe how loud it got.
After the Medely was "I'll Sue Ya". I was very surprised to see how many people knew this song. I guess the popularity of the music video really helped out. This is always a fun performance. Espescially when Al sings into the red light and all of the money comes falling into the crowd. I will say, he did seem to be a little tired. But thats ok, it was still great.
"The Saga Begins" was next. To my surprise, the storm troopers and darth vadar came out for this show as well! I thought they only came out at the OC fair shows. Cool! The Storm Troopers at the show weren't as enthusiastic as the storm troopers at the OC Fair, but it was still so cool to see them come out on stage with Al again! Al likes to play around with them during the song which makes it 10 times funnier than the original performance of "The Saga Begins".
After "The Saga Begins" was "Yoda". I'm very proud of myself for learning the new part of The Yoda Chant! It is so cool, and I really like the added lyrics to it. It makes it so much more funnier. Yoda was very energetic, as always and I saw a lot of light sabers up behind me.
Then came "Smells Like Nirvana." The cheerleaders...again...weren't very together. Before the video clips were finished, we saw Ruben talking to them. Andy and Jonathan and myself got soaked with the water after he gargles.
"Amish Paradise" is Jonathan's favorite "Weird Al" song. So he was really excited when Al came out and did "Amish Paradise" after "Smells Like Nirvana". "Amish Paradise" always gets a huge reaction from the crowd...but this is the first time the song was SO LOUD that you could barely hear the audience (because we were right on top of the huge speakers.)
After "Amish Paradise", Al rolled out on his segway, he's definitely gotten better at using that segway. He plays around and spins around on it so much more. Obviously, he was performing "White & Nerdy". This was the first time I watched the video behind him more than him. I never noticed before how many video clips are playing during this song. And Donny Osmond's head pops up every now and then, it's so funny.
"Fat" was next to come. Same as always, yet always entertaining. Me and Andy jumped at the part where Al makes the ground moves...Jonathan caught on and did the same. It was cool, because our entire row just started jumping. Me and Andy felt like such trend setters. At the end of "Fat", Al introduced the band members and left the stage.
We called Al back for an encore and he did...
"Cell Phones". What I found so much more fun was no one sat down during this song. So we were all standing swaying back and forth with our cell phones in the air sining "We all have cell phones, so come on lets get real!" It is so cool to just stop and turn around to see all of the cell phones waving in the air. It's sort of like if you have a whole group of people flashing their cameras at the same time. But this has a more relaxing effect. To turn around and see all the blueish lights waving back and forth.
Immediatly after "Cell Phones", Al started singing "Albuquerque"! Still, no one has sat down yet. So everyone is on their feet dancing throughout the entire song of "Albuquerque"! He added in more donut names and more loving names for Zelda. This was so energetic and felt a lot like summerfest because again, everyone was standing and dancing along. Jonathan watched me and Andy in amazement for most of the songs because we were singing every word. It ended with an explosion of confetti and Al screaming "Thank you Waukegan, I love you all, GOOD NIGHT!"
Andy, Jonathan and myself waited for Gail and Kevin to come meet us in our seats and we were still looking around for Amanda and her family. Amanda found us and came up to us, while we were talking to Amanda, Gail handed me a part of Bermuda's drumstick that broke off during the show (she found it on the stage). We were all talking for a bit, Kevin had to leave and so did Amanda's family. But, Amanda, Andy, Jonathan, Gail and myself were all going to wait over by the buses after the show. So we walked out of the building and it started to drizzle. We walked around to the back, found the buses and found a bunch of people who were standing waiting for Al. After we were standing there for about 10 minutes, it started to rain harder...and never stopped.
Steve Jay came out and took a picture with me and Andy, we talked to him for a little bit, then he went inside. Gail decided to go back to the car to try and find an umbrella. She came back with one, but we all couldn't fit under it. Oh well. After about an hour had past, The crowd started singing "Singing In The Rain". Hey, we had to amuse ourselves somehow. Security came out and told everyone "Al is not coming out, he will not take picture and he will not sign autographs. So we ask you all to leave the area." Of course, no one listened to them (including ourselves). We saw Steve, Ruben and Jim all run out and into the bus. They all waved at us, but were trying to get in the bus fast enough so they wouldn't get too wet.
About another half hour had past and we looked up and saw security bringing a table out and a chair. Then Al came out, and we all got in line to meet him. We all kind of laughed at the thought of that one security gaurd who said "Al's not coming out..." We were the last group at the end of the line, which was kind of nice, we didn't feel too rushed because of that. I was first in the group to meet him, Jonathan had the camera to take a picture. I shook his hand and said "Hey Al, awesome show". And Al thanked me. I turned around and pointed to the rest of the group and said "This is the rest of group." and Al said "Hello rest of the group!" I gave him my Straight Outta Lynwood cover to sign and asked if I could get a quick picture with him, to which he happily agreed. So Jonathan took a picture of me and Al. Andy was next to meet Al, he had Al sign one of the Al money things that fell during "I'll Sue Ya" Andy asked Al if he could get a picture as well...which Al said "Sure" When they turned to look at the camera, a security gaurd stopped Jonathan and said "No Pictures!" Then Al smiled and said, "No it's ok, I don't mind". So Jonathan took the picture. Amanda was next, she had Al sign a golf ball and one of the Al money things. Gail was after Amanda, she had Al sign something and said to him "This is the 10th time I've seen you live, and I was just wondering if I could have a little hug" and Al smiled and said "Yeah, of course". So Al hugged Gail, and Gail was very excited. Jonathan was a bit too nervous to meet Al, so we all just thanked Al and left. for the car.
This was an awesome experience. Again, If you have never seen Al live in concert, I highly recommend you do, Al puts on one excellent show.
Want to see my pictures from this show? See below!
