Great show, as always!
I had assumed my Mandatory Fun costume would just be a one-and-done affair for the San Francisco show last August, but I made a last-minute decision to wear the jacket last night. I worked too hard on that thing to only wear it once! It was super hot outside and we had done a lot of walking around the downtown San Jose area before the show so I carried it into the venue in a bag (the lady searching my stuff seemed... confused) and changed into it in the restroom, like some sort of less-cool Clark Kent.
Our seats were pretty good, 9th row center, right on the aisle. Looking around the audience I recognized a handful of people I'd met at last year's VIP pre-show. Good to see familiar faces in the crowd. Also, the red berets look so awesome, really can't wait to get mine at Radio City. The front row of seats were set up kind of blocking the aisles so I was concerned that meant Al would take other routes for Tacky and WBUL, but I ended up having nothing to worry about on either count.
The seats directly in front of us stayed empty the whole night and I suggested that we move up a row to get a little closer, but Matt astutely pointed out that the empty seats gave us an unobstructed view of the entire stage, so we stayed put. I also think this ended up working in my favor for WBUL, creating a bunch of negative space in front of me which made me extra visible. I had my camera at the ready and handed it over to Matt, who captured some great video of Al leaning in to let me know that my eyes are even bluer than the water in his toilet.
As I'd mentioned upthread, this was Matt's first Al show. I was surprisingly nervous about this! Somehow, I ended up marrying the only nerd I know who DIDN'T go through any sort of Weird Al phase in his youth, so I wasn't sure if the lack of nostalgic/emotional ties to Al's music would impact his experience. Thankfully, no! Every time I glanced over at him he had a big smile on his face. He was doubled over laughing at Hawkeye holding the harmonica during Ode to a Superhero -- it caught me by surprise that he thought it was so funny, but in retrospect that's exactly his brand of humor. Also, he plays bass, and was predictably mystified by Steve. The first thing he said to me after the show ended was, "That bass player was AMAZING."
On our way out, we passed by a guy in an awesomely accurate Mandatory Fun cosplay (I think his name is Jerry?). We made eye contact and exchanged a smile, but someone else had gone up to talk to him and I was swept up in the crowd anyway, so I wasn't able to chat with him and give him props. While we were outside waiting for some friends who were seated in the balcony section, AiYume and his girlfriend stopped by for a quick hello.
And, as a wonderful coda to the evening, after a long silence during the car ride home, Matt asked, "What was that Nirvana parody about? I couldn't understand the words."
