Okay here we go, final and best review I will give on the Vanity Tour: We left Ottawa at 3am to grab our flight to Calgary for 6am, got us there for 8:45 Calgary time, had the whole day to go to this amazing resort with the most beautiful view of the Rockies, you can see photos on my FB. Checking in we see Joe Satriani who was playing the same stage as Al that night. Since we didn't have anything better to do than toke or gamble in the killer casino we bought some tickets and watched Satriani's show. Was cool to see him shredding and looking so good still.
Took a nice walk checking out the views and met up with Kat for a bit. Next day was AL DAY so we had breakfast with Kat and she told us about the Seattle show and we caught up after not seeing eachother over the last 5 or 6 years. Walked around the building to smoke one after and saw BeElzabus McOrangie and talked to Hawkeye for a while. Did a quick check on my fb in the lobby and Jim was on there so I said hey im in the hotel lobby, he wrote back, I am in the casino, and I headed that way and talked at the bar with him as we walked the resort for about a half hr showing him around and talking about the volcanoes in Hawaii. Steve was walking around and I talked with him for a bit and he went off to learn the cover song
After that I headed up to get ready for the awesome night ahead when I got stuck in the elevator because my keycard was acting up. Then Steve walks in and saved me with his keycard so that worked out well, considering I was just sitting with him 10 minutes prior. Went to room got ready to meet up with Kat and Jess again so we could go get our passes at will call. We headed down to the events center ticket booth and JW was ecstatic to see us again and vice versa. He demanded even though we weren't doing the VIP deal that I be apart of Jeopardy even though he knew it would not be fair to the other contestants. We said we would and then got our aftershow passes at the window and we noticed we could fully hear the band beginning soundcheck. Being diehards it was too hard to walk away so we just sat on the sofa and listened. Was wicked to hear them rehearsing Hard To Handle which we assumed was for us that night, but it was for next day in Regina. We did hear them just playing the one line from Aqualung they did that night..."Snot is running down his nose" BAM. Overheard snippets of Midnight Star and a full That Boy Could Dance, was neat! Me, Jess and Kat had to eat at really busy restaurant in the casino before the show to talk everything Al we could and we knew this may get tricky because it was so busy for Al and we had a Jeopardy invite. So we went to see JW and he was going to be doing it at the same time we would have been eating so we checked out the sets and talked to Lauren, also from Ottawa, who we actually met beside us in Montreal in March! JW understood well as he knows about my Diabetes and how brutal it can be to deal with, "he said ohhh insulin schminsulin", no worries Jonny, you should eat, but I did want to see you do Jeopardy and I really did want to too, but we couldn't miss none of Emo and we made it just in time so it was a good choice in the end.
It was probably the best decision me, Jess, Kat and Lauren made to travel to this show from our respective parts of Canada because we were all treated to the set of our dreams. It was like I had written the set down and handed it to Al and I was planning on with my luck, just hearing mostly songs I'd already heard. So I crossed off everything on my list except Horoscope, Dog Eat Dog, Truck Drivin' Song, When I Was Your Age...not too shabby. Jim said afterwards "yeah it was basically 10%er night!! So happy with my 10th Al concert, was probably my favorite one ever. Emo was even more funny somehow than he was the first two shows I saw on the Tour and a fan close to us starting slight heckling when Emo took a banana from his pants and the fan yelled "happy to see me??". Emo said " not at all....that's why it is flaccid" and he stuck it into the mic stand before just throwing it out to the fan who promptly ate it and offered Emo a bite. Emo then exchanged more words and moved on. He also did a water bottle gag at the beginning where he puts a bottle on the stool and it bounces off and then pulls out another, same thing. And again and again and again. It was the best of the 3 sets I saw him do.
After the show, JW took us back and we did our usual hangout with Steve and Jim and FINALLY for the first time on this Tour I ran into Bermuda. So cool how great his memory is. He remembers every single show I have gone to and the exact city so he said "Yankomaniac, haven't seen you since Ottawa Bluesfest 2015, just couldn't believe it, and I told him how great he was doing on this Tour and how good he was in Toronto and Montreal since he was the one guy escaping us early on the tour. Al came around the corner to greet us and crack a pic before attending to the VIP line out in the event center. While he did his greets, we talked with Jim and Ruben and Emo came out and I finally got to meet and take some pics with him, he is incredibly fun to talk to, him and Ruben were exchanging jokes back and forth basically roasting eachother and Ruben said you don't know but I write all his jokes. Emo said "you need to stop telling people that...they will believe you, they're stupid". We all burst out laughing it was priceless, he assured us about 5 or 6 times after he was joking as we knew that. He agreed when I said people who cannot take a joke should not attend any comedy show, let alone an Al or Emo performance. He seemed happy when I mentioned his role on the Weird Al Show as Dr. Philips. He insisted a few times we have some food but none of us felt right eating the bands catering. They are all so nice through and through. JW really wanted us to hang out after and wait till Al was done with the greets so we did and him and Al came back and we all got some photos with JW.
All the photos are up on my Facebook, or Kat will be putting them in this thread when she has some time. Kat is an Al fan in the absolute truest sense and it was so nice to have her extend this invite my way. Gave her my Dare To Be Stupid watch 'cause she wanted one and Jess already has one, they were from our VIP in Toronto. They had to head out to Regina by 12:30 so they pulled the bus around and we said our goodbyes as it could be a long time before this happens again. Al came out just before he left and asked us if we would like some pizza or vegetable spring rolls (what a saint..in every regard!) Again, we felt too shy to except but thanked him very sweetly for the greatest Tour I think they have ever done and that he made a lot of dreams come true to all the hardcore fans everywhere. I think that was the first time I spoke to him with his glasses and he and JW headed to the bus. We went out for Mandatory celebratory drinks and all agreed there wasn't a single thing to complain about. Best experience ever for all of us, what an amazing honor to finally see my favorite band prove what everybody on here knows I have spouted about since I started on this forum. The original material is amazing as I always claimed. Maybe, I didn't even give them enough credit...nooo, you all know how much I go on about the bass lines and guitar riffs, finally it is no longer a pipe dream.
Thank you all so much for reading this if you did and you may see me in and out of here once in a while but as this tour ends, I shall be a disappearing boy for a while. Biggest thank you of course goes to Al for going through with it and not playing it safe. Best band in the world! See you all down the road.