07/17 - 07/21/07 Costa Mesa, CA Orange County Fair

[Squirrelygirl]

Awww...I just get the warm fuzzies reading all those reviews and thinking about all the fun times we had.

My sojourn started when I left my sister's place in Burbank and ended up having a very bad tire blow-out on a very busy freeway. Fortunately, a tow truck came along about 5 minutes later to help someone else who had run out of gas a couple hundred yards ahead of me. The guy was very nice and I was able to get back on the road with only a short delay. However, the mapquest directions got me totally messed up, so it took about 5 hrs to get from Burbank to Costa Mesa when it should have taken just a little over one hour.

A few days later I ended up getting 2 new tires, but they found additional problems, so the total came to just over A THOUSAND DOLLARS! Thank heavens for credit cards!

Anyway, getting to meet up with my WOWAY friends again more than made up for the car troubles. And fortunately I had great seats for WBUL, and Al was more than generous with his attentions. Tuesday I was (apparently) on fire , Wednesday I had seat A1, and Al got so close up in my face I couldn't even take a picture. Then later on, when he picks on some woman and "gives her the biz" (you know the bit-rubbing his chest & unbuttoning his shirt), he picked me I didn't get a picture that night, but 2 nights later I had the same seat and got "the biz" again.

Wednesday night during Yoda, when Al was having the audience sing Y-O-D-A, he said "OK, now just the sexy people". Well, sometimes when I get caught off guard I have a weird laugh that sounds like a chicken trying to imitate an owl and without even thinking, that laugh came out. Al heard me (since I was in the front row) and gave me a completely incredulous look as if to ask if I was OK. I was sitting next to Nan/Diva, and he kept looking back and forth between the two of us with that quizical look which just made us come unglued from laughing.

One of the funniest ad-libs I saw involved Dave during a line from ISY, but I'll wait to let him tell you about it.

We also had, sorry to say Greg, some problems with the petitions, but since the problems didn't involve me directly I'll let Melissa tell about that, but sufficed to say, the OC Fair will get an angry email from me. The jerks!

Anyway, here are some WBUL pics for now. I'll post more later.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/squirrelygirl/?saved=1

[twinkieweinersandwiches24_7]

Zelda called him "Sugar Uterus."

I thought that's what he said, but I wasn't sure...


Last night was amazing. We got there about halfway through the concert, so we had to stand behind the gates.

Pretty much all of the I'll Sue Ya money flew back onto the stage because of the wind. Oh, the irony

I also thought thw W&N cut-off was part of the show, mainly because of how calmly and naturally Al handled it. RR was a pleasant surprise. Those guys really are prepared with ANYTHING. I knew Al was a good singer and all, but I guess it took singing someone else's song to for it to really click for me. And Al singing it in the W&N garb made it all the better.

The stormtroopers and Vader during TSB were cool. I couldn't really see was they were doing onstage (I was in the bleachers parallel to the stage), but it looked like they were just kind of dancing and grooving.

But I must admit I thought the overall audience enthusiasm/participation was much weaker than Tuesday. Maybe it just seemed better my first night cuz I was sitting on the floor where everyone specifically bought tix, so they were probably fans and knew the songs better. But standing back more outside of the whole arena, it just sounded less enthusiastic. *shrugs*

The fact that they re-did W&N really shows how much the entire band puts their all into each show.

When he "lost his place" during Albuquerque, I really thought they would start ALL OVER AGAIN. I was both relieved and a little disappointed when Al "remembered" again.

And to think I almost didn't even bother going. So glad I did.

[keltraine]

Hey folks, haven't posted here much in a while but hope to see some folks tonight! I'm the guy with glasses and a ponytail and I'll be wearing the olive-green "Trust Me I'm a Jedi" t-shirt and sitting in B5 in Flr1 (wherever that is), though I might move around to my other seats in Flr2 M15/16 if those friends don't show!

Anyway, love that there are other die-hard WAY fans out there, and hope that tonight is the best show yet! Cheers.

BINO

[young dumb and ugly]

truly, this was an amazing week.

this is the most number of concerts ive been to in a row. it was awesome. and 3/4 days i had excellent seats, on wednesday i had front row! it was so sweet seeing everyone again. thanks cid and kev for the ticket. i love al, and al fans. it was just a great time. unfortunately i can't go tonight, even though i want to so badly.

its also kind of a bittersweet thing, too.....well for me at least. cus i know my mom would have loved to have seen him, but i think i posted somewhere on here that she passed away back in october.

and she also woulda been psyched to know that her daughter finally got front row lol

so everytime amish paradise came on i pointed up towards the sky and dedicated it to her, cus that was her favorite song.

Sarah

[Squirrelygirl]

its also kind of a bittersweet thing, too.....well for me at least. cus i know my mom would have loved to have seen him, but i think i posted somewhere on here that she passed away back in october.

and she also woulda been psyched to know that her daughter finally got front row lol

so everytime amish paradise came on i pointed up towards the sky and dedicated it to her, cus that was her favorite song.

Sarah 

I'm very sorry to hear that Sarah. Being an Al fan and sharing with other fans can get us through some very tough times.

[algonacchick]

sg, sounds like you've been getting attention, too. I think Al is just recognizing people, and having fun with them. Nice WBUL pics! :9~

Sarah, I already knew about your Mom, and I think it's sweet that you dedicated Amish Paradise to her. I'm so glad you've had such a good time, and got a front row seat. That's wonderful!

[WEIRDALexis279]

Friday night's show was great. It was really nice meeting a lot of my fellow wowayers like stupidsurgeon, Diva, OE, Kristine, kidcid, Elvis...and a bunch of others (sorry if I'm forgetting you right now, I'm really tired...but it was really nice and fun to meet all of you!). Oh and thanks for the pin again, Diva! I'll post more later, I'm running on literally 1 hour of sleep because of the concert and adjusting to the time differences of chicago time and orange county time.

BUT IT WAS SO MUCH FUN! I'll definitely be going back to the OC fair next time Al's there!

[weirdalisthephantomoftheopera]

I'm glad everyone had so much fun. Even though I saw just one night, it was an unforgettable experience, and meeting you guys and reading your reviews just made it better. I agree with Alexis, I am SO going back whenever Al plays there next. It was worth getting a sunburn and hardly any sleep!

[Big Spoon]

I just got back from the show, and it was great. I met a lot of other WOWAYers there. I'm In Luv With The Skipper was really funny. During Albuquerque Al listed a bunch of different berry doughnuts. (Strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, etc.) At the start of YP when Al "forgot the lyrics" the woman sitting next to me turned to her husband and said "Oh my god, Al forgot the lyrics." That made me laugh.

I'll post more tomorrow.

[Kristine]

It's over!

It was pretty crowded tonight. And we also got our first taste of major video issues. I don't remember exactly when it cut out, but we had no video for a lot of stuff, then we only had the center screen for some, then it was working again, and then it wasn't. WSD only had about 5 seconds of video, then all we got was audio. Al's monitor wasn't working for a couple songs, either. Then on Nirvana it was working too well, and he gestured to Ruben to turn it down. Lastly, Al's voice was pretty shot from a week straight of performance, and there were a couple songs he had trouble on. I know this sounds totally negative, but that's what happened. WAN sounded good, though (we only had the center screen playing). The songs where they usually have trouble were the good ones, haha.