9/24/2016 Radio City Music Hall

[YankoSwag 8888]

Oh

[Teh Dingo]

This is pretty much the close of the most successful chapter of Al's career. It has to be very bittersweet.

[Big Spoon]

Oh

And all he could say was, "Oh."

[Sappho]

It was truly amazing to be this close and see that moment. He was very close to tearing up and had a massive smile at the same time.

Sent from my LG-H901 using Tapatalk

That picture up there is beautiful. I always love seeing that moment - when the music ends, the final note has been played and he drops all the acts and is just him and his amazing smile. And the emotion. I just love that it all still gets to him even after decades and thousands of shows. It always makes me want to jump up onto the stage and hug the stuffing out out him (and then get carried off by security I'm sure )

I really feel like this is the end of an era. Mandatory Fun is over.

Now on to the future.

[remmy]

What a fantastic night!

A little bit of context first:
My mom and I went to our first Al concert when I was 14, during Touring With Scissors.  We had such a blast that we ended up doing a mini tourchase, driving all over NY/NJ/PA to see the show a total of 9 times that tour.  At an age when most kids start to rebel against their parents, my mom and I only grew closer from that experience, and it's a time in our lives that we still both look back on with great fondness.  The last time we saw a show together was in 2007*, right after I graduated from college and mere days before I moved out of state. *(Port Chester last year doesn't count; it was so last minute that we weren't sitting anywhere near each other)

I'm 31 now, living about as far away from NYC as you can get while still being in the contiguous US, and I only get to see my parents once or twice a year.  On top of that, without getting into details, it's been a very rough year for my family, particularly my mom.  So for us to be able to see the last show of this tour together, with Czar tickets -- well, it was very special.

The VIP party was huge!  Easily twice as big as I'd seen so far.  Got to see tons of familiar faces -- Alicia (who got her beret for Billy!), Diva (who I think I last saw at the Bethlehem show alllll the way back in 2000), Adrian, Anne, Dave, and Jackie. JW serenaded me and sniffed my armpit during Do I Creep You Out. He also remembered me and my costume contest win from SF last year.

I bumped into Jerry, aka Mandatory Fun Al, and we compared notes on our military regalia and chatted about cosplay for a long time.  We must have posed for at least 20 pictures together too; there must be something about two people wearing the same costume that amplifies photo requests.

I decided not to enter the costume contest this time around.  Dave and Jerry had an intense tiebreaker showdown going on and I really wanted to just watch the whole thing. It did not disappoint!  Dave won for a well deserved eighth time, though Jerry and the Canadian Idiot dark horse contestant fought valiantly as well.

The show itself was fantastic as always. I could tell how stoked Al and the guys were to be playing at such an iconic venue to a completely full house. Was admittedly a little sad that he didn't come near us for Tacky or WBUL, but I've been very lucky other times this tour so it's nbd. I loved looking behind me to watch the arm waves during Amish Paradise and the lit up cell phones during the encore.  Though I have to say, the crowd seemed a little subdued in general.  Or maybe it was just where I was sitting? I dunno. I'm curious to hear if others in attendance felt differently.

Super cool to see Lin-Manuel Miranda onstage during Yoda, and I love that he was as excited as any of us.  Also semi-related side note: I'm kind of flipping out that Tina Fey was in the audience. It's probably for the best that I didn't know about it at the time; she's one of my all time heroes and one of the few celebrities I would actually approach in public and fangirl over.  So... probably good that I didn't have a chance to make an ass of myself.

After the show we went back down to the lounge to line up for the meet and greet. I'm sad that we didn't hang at the back of the line with the rest of the die hards, but it was pretty late already and we had early morning plans the next day so we stayed up front.  The whole band came down to mingle which is a rare treat these days but they stuck to one section of the room. My mom went over to say hi to Steve while I held our place in line, and once he found out I was there he very sweetly came over to say hello and chat for a few minutes. We kind of became buds during Touring With Scissors but he's so elusive after shows lately that we hadn't seen each other in over a decade. It was great to touch base. His son Miles was there too; he's even taller than Steve is!

Shortly after that, Al came out to great applause and the line started moving.  It seemed like they were really moving people along fairly quickly, but who could blame them with the huge amount of czars to get through. When we reached the front of the line, JW thanked us for coming out, and asked if my mom and I were sisters (so smooth).  I posed for a quick pic with Al, and told him I didn't want him to sign anything but just wanted to congratulate him on a great tour and album, and mentioned that I look forward to the next tour. He took my hand and thanked me. Oh and he complimented my costume!  He looked so tired but also very happy.

Sappho is right, this definitely feels like the end of a very important chapter for Al, and I'm sure it feels as bittersweet to him as it does to us. And on a personal note, it's the end of the chapter that started with me dipping my toe back into the WOWAY pool after a ridiculously long absence. Even though I still don't post here a ton, I read the forum regularly and am so thankful to have met some new friends over the past two years and reconnected with old ones. I'm gonna try to stick around this time.

2018 feels like a long time from now but I'm sure it will be here before we know it.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

[Heds]

Al's played the two stages Jeff Lynne played, and they both did it in the same tour. That impresses me so much.
Also makes me feel so happy for the two of them.

[Jigawatt]

The VIP party was huge!  Easily twice as big as I'd seen so far.  Got to see tons of familiar faces -- Alicia (who got her beret for Billy!), Diva (who I think I last saw at the Bethlehem show alllll the way back in 2000), Adrian, Anne, Dave, and Jackie.

It was great to see you again too!

I loved looking behind me to watch the arm waves during Amish Paradise and the lit up cell phones during the encore.  Though I have to say, the crowd seemed a little subdued in general.  Or maybe it was just where I was sitting? I dunno. I'm curious to hear if others in attendance felt differently.

I was thinking the same thing at one point (we were like 2 rows directly behind you, I think), but everybody looked more into it than they sounded whenever I looked around, so I'm wondering if some of the crowd noise just got lost in the cavernous RCMH theater vs. some of the smaller venues they've played. Made for great acoustics for the band, though!

After the show we went back down to the lounge to line up for the meet and greet. I'm sad that we didn't hang at the back of the line with the rest of the die hards, but it was pretty late already and we had early morning plans the next day so we stayed up front.  The whole band came down to mingle which is a rare treat these days but they stuck to one section of the room.

Awww, you should've come back to us! Although I am still recovering from a lack of sleep from the weekend, so maybe don't take my advice.

We took a fun die-hards pic with Al, which I'll leave to Dave to post since it's his (or you can break into his Facebook page).

My mom went over to say hi to Steve while I held our place in line, and once he found out I was there he very sweetly came over to say hello and chat for a few minutes. We kind of became buds during Touring With Scissors but he's so elusive after shows lately that we hadn't seen each other in over a decade. It was great to touch base. His son Miles was there too; he's even taller than Steve is!

Awesome! Anne thought she caught a glimpse of Miles, but she wasn't sure. I'll have to tell her she wasn't crazy. (Or at least, she was right this time. )

And on a personal note, it's the end of the chapter that started with me dipping my toe back into the WOWAY pool after a ridiculously long absence. Even though I still don't post here a ton, I read the forum regularly and am so thankful to have met some new friends over the past two years and reconnected with old ones. I'm gonna try to stick around this time.

Please do!

[You Make Me]

So many awesome videos from last night. Possibly the most heartbreaking one is during the end of Yoda, Al says "Thank you New York City!", and steps away from the mic, with his hands to his face, not able to bring himself to say the closing line for a moment, and finishes off reluctantly with "I love you all, good night!"

Sent from my LG-H901 using Tapatalk

Hey that's the wife and I front and center in that pic!

[minnick27]

I totally knew that, that's why I picked that one. I swear

Sent from my LG-H901 using Tapatalk

[DrSteggy]

So, I had to go back to work this week (boo hoo) and that's why this took so long:

http://s17.photobucket.com/user/drstegg ... NYC%209-24

I'm polishing my slide show, there were a couple images in here that I had to use