Well, I posted after I get some sleep anyway.
You were so tempting to bite though, after smelling like corn from the Corn Palace.
Yep, my name is Cindy. So boring and mundane, eh, Jared (I think that's right, correct me if I'm wrong)?
I better make some noise during the show. There's something wrong if I don't.
My friends and I left Omaha about 3pm and arrived in Des Moines a little after 5pm and since doors didn't open until 6:30, we hung around at a nearby Dairy Queen. The cashier there asked if Al's show was tonight. I said it was and she said she couldn't get the night off work to go.
My friends and I went over to the venue and parked right near the buses at about 6pm. My friends sat on the front steps while I went petitioning. I went over to a group of people who belonged to the 501st, but weren't rehearsing and asked a lady about a guy named Dave. She pointed to the guy standing next to me. I talked with Dave a little bit. He said he'll be sure to call you, Vikki.
Went to do more petitioning. When they let us in the venue, they were nice there, and my friends sat down, but kept dragging me to the merch booth separately. I just realized my tour shirt doesn't have a Des Moines date on it.
There were also no hats, so that made me sad. But on the way to the merch booth with my friend, Daph, Jared, Jon, and Dan (?) stopped me after recognizing me. They signed the petition and I showed them where the merch booth was because they couldn't find it.
We went back to our seats while I got some more signatures and about 5 minutes before the show was originally suppose to start, a voice said that it would be another 15 minutes until Al and then said their policy on recording: NO. No flash photography, no voice recorders, no origami, anything. Since he said no
flash photography, I thought it was okay if you took pictures with no flash.
I went to my seat about 5 minutes before it started. I spent my time watching my friend's faces and watching Al. It started out like normal and Al was smiling a lot. During Canadian Idiot, security told me to stop taking pictures (never used flash). So I sat back and enjoyed the show. Security was on anyone they caught taking pictures.
Right before Bob, a guy yelled out Albuquerque really loud and Al had this funny look on his face, had his hat and said, "Well, I got a request for a song composed entirely of palidromes. This is Bob."
The show went pretty much like normal (while watching my friend's laughing and their horrified faces).
I just love watching WBUL, Al didn't come near me, but that was okay. I was having fun watching other people.
We got the Saga Begins and on walked storm troopers, biker scouts, and tie pilots, and a large Vader. My friend, Daph, was so happy to see tie pilots. They had some choreography going on there and a couple of them high fived each other during the show.
During Yoda, Al went to pick the microphone up from the stand to hold out to the audience, but hit it wrong and it fumbled to the ground. Al looked horrified, picks it up, and some people were going with it and Al's like, "Okay, you know this part" and holds it out. Some people sang hesitantly and Al, I think, said something about singing it with more feeling. Then he made a woman in front row sing. She sang while she was laughing too.
The show continued on. I noticed during SLN that Jim kept wandering over to play right between the cheerleaders.
Steve also had fun during Amish Paradise as he kept tilting his hat to the side. He was goofing off during the show.
We got the cell phones song with lots of people waving their cell phones and then security telling some people to stop taking pictures with their cell phones.
Albuquerque was nice and we got the Halle Berry donut bit, but with at the end, the donut shop owner said, "No! You already asked me all about those!" It was funny. He also asked a person during the show if someone's water bottle was theirs and he tossed it back to them, saying it was bugging him the whole night.
The show was over and we went outside to wait by the bus. At one point, we were told that Al was doing autographs inside, upstairs. We went inside and found out you needed a pass, so we went back outside and waited. Steve came out and chatted with us, though my brain had left me at some point and I couldn't get the right words out, so Daph served as my interpreter during those moments. I did get quite a few coherent bits out. My friends and I got our picture with Steve and he bent down for us.
I asked him about his bass since he caught it tonight. He asked if I was at the show where he dropped it. I told him yep, that was Orange County. He said said it plays fine, but it's missing a piece of wood from it. He said that was the only night he dropped it. He also said he trying to do Prince with his hat tilting during AP.
Steve hung around with our small group (15 people max). It was quite fun. The bus started pulling out, then a crew member got out and told Steve they were leaving, so he had to leave. I passed on my cookies and brownies for the band to him. I think I'm gonna make Steve some cookies just for him tonight for being so nice and give them to him tomorrow.
My friends and I left, following the bus for a block, but then turned to go our direction. We got home about 1am. The show was a ton of fun though.
Thank you, Steve, for being so nice and hanging out with us after the show.
"Mr. Kim, we're Starfleet officers. Weird is just part of the job." -Captain Janeway
