7/25/10 St. Petersburg, FL Mahaffey Theater

[Alinite27]

Plan on making to this show. Looking forward to having an Al show near the Tampa/St. Petersburg area. It's one of my favorite areas in Florida, that I don't get to visit near as much as I would like. Checking out pictures of this theatre online, it looks very nice as well. Sort of a more modern venue, rather than the classic theatres that Al plays.

[Hope You Enjoy It]

Just ordered the tix, can't wait for the show

HYEI

[Alinite27]

Got my ticket this morning...4th row Center Pit!

Password is "polka" if anyone needs it...

[Alinite27]

Well, the day didn't start out well...because we had to take Anna to the airport. Her flight wasn't actually until 8:30, when I thought it was at 6:30, so we had a few more hours together...Airport was 15 mins from the hotel...after dropping her off we came back until 11.

I checked the time of the concert, since I just always assume it will be at 8. I'm glad I checked, though, since it was at 7. So, wanting to be there at 6, after the 4 hour drive to St. Petersburg and getting dinner at Cracker Barrel, it was almost time for the show. Made it over to the theatre, luckily this show was on a Sunday...since it was downtown. I have a feeling this area would be a mess during the week...Met up with Monica and her friend before the show. We chatted out in the lobby until they opened the theatre up at 6:30. My seat was actually right behind Jim's family. His parents were at the show and friends of their's...Really nice to see them...

Great show! Only 1 minor line flub. Alternating songs were You Make Me and Good Old Days, my favorite combination. Pre-Show CD was CD 2. The cannons did weird things at this show. Last night they didn't go off at the end, which I figure was just due to not wanting to clean the confetti off of the grass. Tonight for Canadian Idiot, only the right cannon went off and it was just white confetti. Then, at the end, both went off with white confetti. The cannons have done weird things throughout this tour. Not sure if there are reasons for this, whether low on materials, cleaning up or just not loading or operating right. Theatre was a really nice place to see Al. Although, it didn't look to be that full to me.

After show, met up with Monica and her friend again by the bus. There didn't seem to be much of a security reaction to people beside the bus. We chatted awhile and past the time. Until Al's meet guy looked out, and told them to move us back behind a barricade down the street...so, that Al could get out and they could perform The Great Bus Escape...Decided to wait a little while longer, and met up with Wayne who was walking down with his luggage from I guess a hotel that he had in the day. I asked Wayne if they were leaving and he said that he just got the call that they were. He said he figured they would do a meet tonight, but unfortunately, it didn't work out. After speaking to him for another little bit, Monica and I said our goodbyes, since I knew that Wayne would tell me the truth. Anyway, last night's after-show with Anna was worth a whole tour...Fun night tonight, though. Highlight was the theatre and seeing Monica again and meeting her friend.

[Orthography Enthusiast]

My day was one of those comedy-of-errors things. I bought a ticket last night for the Mahaffey, and I also wanted to see something of the Everglades, and as it turned out, my day involved too much driving, WAY too much torrential rain (while Nancy, traveling on a different highway, didn't get ANY), not enough alligators and not enough Al. Some of each, though. I saw one captive alligator at a place that does airboat tours, but the tours were on hold indefinitely because of the weather, so I just bought some more tacky souvenirs (for myself this time) and continued on. But between the no-airboat detour, and the rain, and the fact that my idiot GPS sent me to the Mahaffey's business office, which is nowhere near the theater, I came slinking into my seat (which turned out to be a quite good seat in the orchestra section, and I wish I could have spent more time in it) while Al was slinking around the room wanting to be everybody's lovr. But I want to say for the record that half a Weird Al concert is still a very very good thing, and it cheered me up amazingly. I came in the door, heard the music, and just got all happy inside. "Ah, home!"

Flying home tomorrow. Next concert, Portland, OR.

[Orthography Enthusiast]

A good review of St. Pete show: http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/80s/conte ... sburg-show

[JEDM]

^It saddens me that some people don't know the difference between parody and polka. Other than that, really great review.

[Orthography Enthusiast]

Enthusiastic phone-in review of St Pete show: http://wqyk.radio.com/2010/07/27/weird- ... ic-review/ from a country radio station... The radio guys seemed to think Al stopped making new music in the 80's. Their listener schooled them though.

[TMBJon]

Oh no, I am starting to revert back to my 11-year-old ultra-defensive-of-Weird-Al self...

[OneWAY]

Amazingly, that didn't set off any "Weird Al fan boy" censors in me... and I can be pretty over reactive with these things.

Although, that was pretty stupid, it certainly didn't bother me to the same extent some other things did. Great listener! The guy should have gone to the concert. Poor thing must be living under a rock! Seriously, if the people that said stuff like this actually went out of their way to practice what they preach, they'd know better.