5/12/15, Planet Hollywood, Las Vegas, NV (First Show!)

[Stefan43]

Enjoy everyone!

[TMBJon's Mom]

Happy Birthday Amerah!! Sounds like a great afterparty. Wish I could be there. Enjoy the show everyone!

[Elvis]

NEW MERCH!




I will have better pics later. In a rush to meet TMBJon's mom's son for dinner.

Dave

[Elvis]

Forgot to mention there are buttons and other stuff too. Also, the VIP lounge (which I did not see) is supposedly awesome. Video clips and all.

Also 2 story tall banner (sorry it;s sideways)



Dave

[drewdy9999]

Video clips and all.

What's that mean?

[Elvis]

In the lounge, there are video clips playing.

Banner


Shirt


Buttons/keychains


Gotta go, look for my tweets! #mandatoryworldtour

Dave

[Elvis]

In interest of dethroning Weird Barack and getting my concert review title back, as well as being the first full blown review of 2015 tour, I present my review!

Sorry no pictures, the internet here SUCKS. I may add them at a later date. If so I will share that news here. In the meantime, google search and pretend the pictures are mine, or look at Jackie's facebook as that's pretty much what my pictures will look like except mine will be more blurry and zoomed out much further.

Also, ignore any I will fix typos and grammar at a later date.

Dave

[remmy]

Great review, Dave! It sounds like we're in for an amazing tour. I'm also really intrigued about the new project Bermuda was teasing. Can't wait til they can tell us more!

Also, thanks so much for the setlist updates last night, much appreciated.

[TMBJon]

I'm now back at work after perhaps the most memorable concert I've ever attended, and still in shock about how incredible the experience was. I'd never been to the first show of a tour before, except for Alpocalypse which was more or less the same as the 2010 tour. This was my first time having no idea what would come next. It was really exciting between songs to look out on the stage wings and get little clues about what would be coming next (eg, a keyboard was set up at one point and I spent the next 30 second racking my brain to think of what song that would imply, seeing a band member walking around in a specific costume, etc)

I took off from work, and flew into Vegas yesterday afternoon, then met up with Alicia, Amerah, and Shelley at Bally's. Soon after checking in, we met up with Dave and Jackie at Planet Hollywood. Who better to hang with in Las Vegas than The King? We had a nice burger dinner, then headed over to the show. The venue was on the second floor of the Planet Hollywood casino. You just take an escalator up from the casino floor and suddenly you're in the theater lobby, which is where this picture was taken. At first we thought we had VIP tickets, but when we went over to the VIP entrance they rather confusingly explained that, at least in Vegas, if you got tickets through CrowdSurge you didn't get VIP access. Apparently you had to get tickets through the venue to get VIP. No idea if those guys were mistaken, or if it points to a larger issue, but I guess we'll find out as the tour continues. Either way, when we entered the venue it was all good because our seats were sixth row dead center. Just the perfect view as we could see the entire stage but also every detail of what was going on.

During the pre-show period, the LCD screen behind the stage had a close-up of Al from the Mandatory Fun cover with the radiating red and beige lines emanating from behind his head and slowly rotating around. The traditional warm-up CDs were playing, though it sounded like a new mix. I don't know if it was, and I assume no one on here really cares. Doors were at 7:30, and Fun Zone started at 8:02. Note: From here on, I was kind of in a stunned daze. I'll try to be clear about what I don't remember so the details can be filled in by other concertgoers in the weeks to come.

After Fun Zone, the screen switched to the standard "Please Stand By" intro, with a montage of bizarre non-sequitur video clips. They were mostly, if not all, the same as the last tour. This ended with some of the propaganda footage from the MF teaser videos, which transitioned to the first notes of Tacky. Somewhere in there, Jon, Jim, and Rubén came out and started playing. The video screen then cut to a live feed from outside the venue. The first half of the performance was just like the one on Conan, with a camera following him through the backstage area. Al started outside on a balcony looking out onto the Las Vegas Strip, walked through a bunch of hallways, and even passed Jim at one point who was standing backstage playing guitar by himself. (Jim later joined the stage around the time when Al got there.) Al finally entered the theater via a door about halfway back. He was wearing a variation on the Tacky outfit from the Conan performance: a Loudmouth Golf style jacket, shirt, and pants.

After Tacky ended, they kicked right into Lame Claim to Fame. I believe Al took off the Tacky jacket, but was still wearing the shirt and pants. This was a pretty by-the-books performance as you'd expect from a straightforward rock song like this. Rubén played the cowbell exclusively for this song.

Then Al did the bit where he raised his accordion high over his head in silhouette, to much ovation, and asked the crowd, "Are you ready to polka?????" Then they launched into Now That's What I Call Polka. The backing video is the same as the "official" one we've seen, except for a "NOW That's What I Call Polka" graphic based off of the NTWICM logo which came up at the beginning. The band members sang a lot of the backing vocals, including "po-po-po-polka Gangnam style". I seem to remember that they were doing the Scream and Shout sound effects too. Bubbles filled the stage at the end.

Cut to the first set of video clips of the night. This tour features WAY more Classic Al than in recent tours, and much less focused on the fake interviews and more on cameos and pop cultural references. From the side of the stage, I saw Jim dressed up as a Cheese-head, so I knew Perform This Way was next. A picture of Al that I took seems to have made its way to the forum already, but it is a costume reminiscent of the octopus getup from the paparazzi scene of the video with pink and purple monster boots, and an upside down ice cream cone hat. Steve was still a skeleton, and Bermuda was still a nun. I recall that Rubén was in a new costume other than the beehive, but I forget what it was. I think the song works pretty well in this slot, the same way that Smells Like Nirvana worked early on last time around. It was the up-tempo costume number to get you into the groove of what was to come.

Next they brought out a keyboard, and I was surprised to see the band come out in Devo suits including the red tiered hats for Dare To Be Stupid. This performance stood out only in that Al didn't do the usual "I still can't hear you!!" bit toward the end. I have to echo the sentiment that this was a little disappointing, but I wonder if it's a placeholder for something to come. Maybe an old original song they haven't rehearsed yet, or a new parody that would be written/recorded some months from now when inspiration strikes. Having said that, this is probably the biggest hit original which casual fans are familiar with, so I understand why it's in the set.

Next up was Fat, and boy was it odd seeing "yo, homeboy" so early on in the show. And yet kind of exciting realizing at that point that all bets were off. I actually think Fat works pretty well early on, though there's no question that it's the perfect way to end the main set of the show, especially with the awesome jam at the end. If you've never seen Al live, Fat is probably the best ending. If you have, it is so very refreshing to see it here. During the bridge, Santa Claus came out saying ho ho ho, and Al punched him in the gut.

The first song I was genuinely surprised to see played was First World Problems. I expected that My Own Eyes would be the other original he played, but this was a very welcome choice. Al was wearing a gray dress shirt and tie, and I think the band was in plain black. Amanda Palmer's vocals were left in tact, along with some of Al's backing vocals, though the band also did some of his parts live. At the end, the heavy breathing was a combination of Amanda's pre-recorded track and live breathing from Al. (I wonder if Amanda will one day join Al on stage for this? A boy can dream...)

Surprisingly at this point, Al did not do a costume change. Instead, they performed Foil with Al wearing the same shirt and tie. The performance started pretty basic, with a mostly dark stage. Just Bermuda and Rubén were playing music, while Jim and Steve were standing in silhouette doing backing vocals, somewhat like on White & Nerdy. As the song continued, they wheeled out a cheaper version of the desk from the Foil video infomercial. That, along with the new backing video of foil-related motion graphics, made it look a lot like that portion of the music video. He pulled out a teapot and teacup for the middle. Then the lights started going stark red as Al sang the second verse with even more new cool motion graphics to supplement. This is a really impressive live song given how sparse the song is.

After this was Smells Like Nirvana, which was more or less the same performance he's been doing for the last 20 years, though he didn't "forget the next verse" this time. One technical mistake happened at the beginning of this. The video playing was from There's No Going Home when Al was yelling at the room service guy because the Pat Sajak head had no gooey cream filling and it suddenly cut off. It was clear that they were all expecting a few more seconds to get ready, and Rubén started signaling to Jim to just start playing the song.

Next up, I was absolutely shocked to see Al and the band come out in full suit for Party In The CIA. I was thinking to myself wow, they're keeping that one around?? They did about half of the song, including all the usual moves and backing video, before suddenly they broke into Pentiums. The band wore the full CIA suits for the entire medley, though Al transitioned to the usual all-black getup after Pentiums. However there was a slight mix-up in the transition when a stagehand came out to retrieve the CIA suit from Al and also attach the handyman belt for Handy. They had a hard time getting his white shirt off, so he did Handy in all black with no toolbelt. Another minor mistake happened between Bedrock and Bus. When Fred Flintstone says "Wilma, I'm home...", Al ran off stage to retrieve his accordion. Maybe it was supposed to already be on stage or something because there a second or so of dead air while the band waited for him to start playing Bus. Al made up for it by playing a few extra notes before launching into Bus. Most of the other medley songs were as you would expect. Inactive was performed with Al seated in a recliner wearing a purple bathrobe. He also had a prop inhaler. Canadian Idiot included the maple leaf jacket and they played the entire song, minus the Bob and Doug references and guitar solo, ending with the confetti cannons. After the medley ended, I was left wondering what happened to all the 80s songs. Were they yet to come??

Wanna B Ur Lovr has a brand new Loudmouth Golf outfit with flames on it, and a suave purple hat. At the very end, he singled out one woman in the second or third row to serenade and point at from the stage, going further with that bit than I've seen before. He sang something like "I'm specifically talking to you, yeah you, right there." At the very end, as the lights cut out, rather than writhing on the floor, he was on his feet, squatting, with his butt nearly touching the ground. That could make for some interesting photos...

At this point, the stagehands (not sure if they've ever had so many stagehands helping out with set dressing and props as they did this time around; there were definitely more than three people doing this) set up a bunch of candles on stands as well as five chairs in the front and center of the stage. Sure enough, Al and the band took their seats at the front and each had acoustic instruments: Jon was playing a single snare with brushes, Jim and Steve played acoustic guitar and bass, respectively, and Rubén had one of his keyboards set up.

Now I've seen this referred to as a medley. I'm not sure if I would call it that, though I certainly understand the designation. I think of it more like an acoustic section of the show, rather than a second medley (even though it sort of is). Al came out wearing a loose white shirt (think You Don't Love Me Anymore video). They played Eat It (Layla Version) in its entirety and then paused for applause. Then they played the last verse of Jeopardy including video of Don Pardo (it was an alt take, not the one from the song), followed by an excerpt of Rocky Road, and another one for Like A Surgeon. I can't recall if these three songs bled into each other the way it happens in the medley. I feel like they stood on their own a little more than a song in the medley, but I might be remembering wrong. For all four songs, it was a completely new arrangement of the song that played on the acoustic theme. Al was playing a self-serious, pretentious artist type, based on his facial expressions. There was a bit of a barbershop quartet feel to Rocky Road, I think, with some parts being sung in a silly backup vocal way. Jon left the acoustic setting in the middle of Like A Surgeon so that, at just the right moment, he was able to kick in on his drumset and take the whole acoustic thing to an awesome climax.
He definitely arranged the songs in a way that made fun of acoustic sections of other concerts, although he did achieve real intimacy in the process. Since the rest of the show is pretty rigidly set to coincide with sound effects, videos, etc, it was pretty amazing to watch ten minutes of completely real acoustic musicianship. I hope this section of the show never goes away.

Next up was White & Nerdy. Nothing new here, as far as I could tell.

For Word Crimes, the band came out wearing black shirts with white text - each was a specific punctuation mark. Jim was an @, and Steve was an &. I couldn't see the gents in back, but Bermuda told me he was wearing an interrobang!? Then Al came out wearing the full Robin Thicke costume (including the golden whistle necklace) and delivered an incredible vocal performance which really did this awesome track justice. This is definitely shaping up to be a long-term part of the show, and I really look forward to seeing how it evolves.

Amish Paradise was the last song of the main set, and after the "aaaah, yechh", they transitioned into a James Brown style jam, and Al introduced the band. The stagehand who holds the harmonica during Ode (sorry, I don't remember his name at the moment) brought out a powder blue cape to drape over Al as they marched away. And of course, Al spun around and flung the cape away to say something like "do you people want some more???" and as people started to applaud he said "well I'm sorry, but that's really not gonna happen tonight, we gotta go, I'm real sorry but it's just not practical to keep playing, I shouldn't have even asked" etc as he's being dragged off the stage. The band then jammed out on this new song for a bit (not as long as the Fat Jam... yet) and the show ended.

The expected cheering of "Weird Al, Weird Al" and "We Want Al" continued for a while until Rubén came out and did his usual bit. He didn't play the Addams Family though, not sure which piece he played. Earlier in the evening, the Michael Stipe interview had played which meant then they could do Cell Phones. (Off the top of my head, I recall the Celine Dion interview was the first one, and he also played most of the Eminem one.)

The Saga Begins was pretty by the books. There were four stormtroopers, plus Darth Vader who was a bit of a ham tonight. He did a little wave on the line "That's where we found this boy" and got a huge laugh which Al wasn't expecting and he turned around to see what the fuss was. He did the same wave at the end "I guess I'll train this boy." I'm wondering if they told him to wave at the end, and he got excited so he did it twice.
Yoda was, as always, a show highlight, and the Yoda Chant was indeed extended even beyond what was in the Alpocalypse version. I have no idea what the new pieces are, but I'm sure they'll be identified soon.

After the show, I was lucky enough to run into Steve. This was just my second time meeting him, and he's the band member I know the least, so it was cool to get to chat with him for a while. Steve Jay, what a guy! I also got to chat with Rubén and Bermuda for a few minutes, and at the tail end of the night we got to say hi to Al. Everyone was in a great mood, and I was glad to have the opportunity to congratulate them on an incredible show and wish them good luck on the tour ahead.


You guys as the hardcore fans are going to LOVE this setlist, and I am really looking forward to more reviews. I've been giving a lot of thought as to whether this is the best possible set for a casual fan at their first show. I have mixed feelings about this one. I think at the end of the day, Fat really is the best closer and carries more weight (no pun intended) than Amish Paradise. But I trust that Al knows what he's doing, so I think if they really build up that James Brown style jam at the end into a bigger moment, they may have found an interesting way to breathe new life into a setlist that, while changing with each new album, had previously been following the same formula, more or less, for 20 years. I am very excited to see if they commit to this setlist or, like on the Poodle Hat tour, if they try to switch some things around in a few weeks.

[Bozarth]

Great review! Now I'm even more excited!