6/22/10 New Bedford, MA Zeiterion Performing Arts Center

[Alinite27]

You Make Me Not Love You Anymore

[CB Johnny]

Here we go!
So myself and company arrived at the venue an hour and a half before the show began. We saw the buses right away and made a note to find our way to it easily after the performance. Stopped at a local Chinese food restaurant which had two separate tables of other concert attendees. One a family with children and one of some twenty something types. Had some nice fried calamari and waited for my hungry friends to finish eating and then made a beeline to the venue. skipped out on merchandise and found our seats. Made our bathroom breaks and then got settled. Within minutes Fun Zone blares. Couldn't see the rightmost screen so missed some channel hopping clips (including I am a banana...which disappointed me to only HEAR it but I digress)

I sang along to every word, every syllable, including polka face.

You Make Me was better than I could ever expect. Very high energy and I forgot in the "eh, i want Frank instead" mood I was gonna be in that Al's voice.....his modern era concert voice is ten million times as interesting for me personally than the original album. You all know what I'm talking about, heck it sounds different even from the new albums. So seeing him all wild and crazy during that and singing it so well was a treat.


"new Bedford massachusetts!!! ARE YOU READY TO ROCK?!!! well that's too bad because we're gonna do a ballad"
You Don't Love Me Anymore was fantastic and I liked the "put the guitar back down" gag each of the three times. My friend LOVED the guitar smashing more than anything because he didn't expect it on this tour (he attended a New Hampshire show with me last year)

Smells Like Nirvana was great as always. Loved the cheerleaders despite a vibe that their routine got repetitive. Al did his "I forgot the next verse" gag...which I happily sang the lyrics for him in my seat.

SKIPPER DAN.....I loved hearing one of my new favorites this tour. Loved the costume change within the number, loved the energy...loved the opportunity to clap along. Fantastic.

You're Pitiful- LOVE the Atlantic Records Still Sucks shirt

Dare to be Stupid- loved the salute at the end and the hats on Jim and Steve....it was nice to be able to die knowing I've seen teh song performed, but sometimes I feel that's what the DVD is for. Not complaining though.

CNR- LOVED the intro clip and

Canadian Idiot- Al hung the mic stand upside down and sang at one point. Confetti was used for this number instead of streamers.

Wanna B Ur Lovr- good as always, wasn't sitting in the sections he worked towards.

Craiglist- some were wondering so allow me to say Steven and Ruben shared a keyboard while Steve played the lower octave notes.

Amish Paradise- I liked looking around and counting how many hardcore fans arm waved during first refrain.

Fat- best santa ever. a bow around the ho and the sad sulk away as Al skips a line to nudge him away...with his boot. xD

encore- always great. loved the yoda chant.


Loved the clips the entire show, loved.....Dear lord I say "love" a lot. I lied. I hated the entire show, what a terrible unproffesional low quality experience. GAH! >.>....

Now here's the best part....we made a beeline to the bus and we gave cheers of approval for Bermuda as he came out. and Ruben came out to find someone who wanted to buy a cd and he signed my Authorized Al. Later on security told us to make a single line and I realized "oh wow....its gonna happen. I can meet Al AGAIN"
So our new friend Adam agreed to switch off taking photos for each other and we're gonna exchange em via facebook soon.

I approached Al and shook his hand and said "excellent show as always" and oh god I hate that I have an al-induced haze during this but I remember my friend Jim saying "can I take a picture with you?" and (I KNOW you all can picture Al's tone right now) "no actually I can't" looks up at him with a mock serious wide eye look and I hand Al my Authorized Al copy and he was happy to see it. I wish my ma was there (who woulda LOVED to see him) to help me remember exact choice of wording used but he was surprised to see it not having seen it in a long time. I handed it to him on the pages where the band members' profiles are and he shown the roadie and said "this is what Jon used to look like" and flipped through and did the same for Steve and Jim. I said something to the sort of "Yeah, I noticed that myself this morning" (first thing that popped into mind). We posed for photo and we thanked him again and I THINK I shook his hand a second time I don't remember. ....dang it...
and then walked away wondering "did that just happen?"
.......

so........That was as wonderful as I imagined.

[Alinite27]

Decided to skip the pre-show stalking and just made it down to the venue around 6:30. I met Dave outside and gave him some money for concert tickets and traded some cards. I was also able to meet his friends that were at the show with him tonight from Rhode Island. I then made my way into the venue and found my seat a little after 7. I talked to people on my right who had never seen Al, but loved all of his stuff. They really enjoyed the show.

Tonight was an interesting show and it's nights like these that make you really appreciate the talents that the guys possess. They had technical problems all night, but were able to work through them and came out even better. Jim had a lot of source problems, Al flubbed a lot of lines, and a few other things weren't as crisp as they had been.

I got lucky this show because I was able to get the Smells Like Nirvana cup again and after the show pick up a few chips of the broken guitar. It took a lot of smashes of the broken guitar, so as Al repeatedly bashed it, little pieces made their way out to the audience. Nice to get that.

After the show, I was able to see Al very quickly. Talked to Dave who had gotten passes for this show and he said there was maybe 8 people in the backstage pass line. So, Al was out very quickly. They had us form a single-file line and led us to the bus door. It was great to see him again after a few nights. After the You're Pitiful line last night, I told him I called my girlfriend and told her, "Honey, Al just said you were inflatable." He got a kick out of that. Also, chatted a while longer. Took a pic. Told him I'd see him at the next show, and I was off. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see the rest of the band members, as most went to the hotel. Although, I think Ruben was still on the bus, as he was watching some black concert. Before the show, they were watching The Daily Show on the TV.

Very fun night!

[TMBJon]

What are you going to do with your day off tomorrow?

[crazygurl14]

It seems like therehave been a lot of technical problems so far on the tour. O well, still wish he was comming to cincy!

[Keir]

Dare to be Stupid- loved the salute at the end and the hats on Jim and Steve....it was nice to be able to die knowing I've seen teh song performed

My thoughts exactly!

I am very glad that I didn’t read any spoilers before going this time. Seeing the new polka for the first time was great, even though I only recognized one song. And then when they started You Make Me, one of my favorite sleeper songs, I thought I was in heaven. Then to see You Don’t Love Me Anymore, complete with guitar smashing - pure awesome!

I was glad that WYL was relegated to the medley, but the other new songs were really cool to see, especially CNR. WBUL was a highlight as always. I was actually thinking to myself “how does Al know if a woman in the audience is going to be receptive to Al’s advances?” when I looked at my wife leaning into the aisle practically begging to be Kablaammed and realized it was obvious (unfortunately he never made it all the way down to our row).

I don’t know what is wrong with our local 501st Garrison. I saw some of them at last year’s Walk For Autism, I should have asked why they never come to Al’s shows. Whatever, it’s their loss. What a show!

[Alinite27]

Jon, with my day off today we drove up to Springfield and went to the Basketball Hall of Fame and Six Flags New England with Pitbull in concert.

[Elvis]

Sorry my review is late, I was laying low yesterday as I wasn't feeling 100%.

The ride from Verona to Rhode Island was nice, through I mostly kept the air conditioner on as it wasn't really a roll down the window kind of day. I listened to Ruben's CD on the ride over, and it was pretty good. I helped an elderly couple find their way to Foxwoods. I was stopped at a parking area and they came up to me thinking they were lost so I let them know they weren't and gave them directions.

Arrived at my friends house in Rhode Island a little after 3:00. Skye and Steve showed me around their new house, and gave me a can of sauerkraut to make for breakfast, as they had to work the next morning were letting me sleep in and let myself out the next morning.

We went out for Mexican food for dinner, where a ground hog watched us eat from the side of the road across the street and a really creepy looking guy in a car showed up in the parking lot and left a few minutes later. Then we went to a place for ice cream where they had every flavor in the world including "cocolate" "emo" and confetti.

We arrived at the theater and on the way over, Skye said that New Bedford was a whaling town, so we had a lot of fun making whale jokes and looking for whales. We parked in the garage and on the way out, Steve Jay was sitting on the sidewalk near the buses drinking coffee so we said hi, and he had me show my tattoos to one of the roadies. Ruben saw me and came over and asked how I liked the CD. I told him my opinions on the songs and he said he really appreciated my feedback and I could tell he genuinely mean it.

Jeremy stopped by to say hello and trade cards, then we decided to head in. There was a sign that no pictures were allowed, but they didn't check bags or anything. I chose not to take pictures, but everyone else was, so Skye took a bunch The seats in the row in front of us remained empty right up until a few minutes before show time and due to Skye hearing me wrong, she thought I said it was reserved for the Welsh hockey team, which made us both laugh out loud during YDLMA.

I didn't notice as many mistakes as people pointed out, You guys don't think the forgotten lyrics in SLN was a mistake do you? It was intentional, Al's done that many times before. Think about the lyrics and you'll understand.

As mentioned the alternate songs were YMM and YDLMA, and it took many smashes to destroy the guitar for YDLMA. There was a new shirt for YP which had wolves on it, and the Atlantic Records Still Sucks shirt made a come back. The audience was really into it the whole show and drowned out the video clip during Wheel Of Fish.

It looked like Jim's keyboards weren't turned on for AP, as he was checking all the cables throughout the song and looking off stage a lot trying to get someone's attention. The audience sang along so loudly during TSB that Al just pointed the microphone to the audience and let us sing instead. And he threw the microphone into someone's lap in the front row and had them sing.

After the show we waited around with a handful of people and watched the stage get dismantled. Then Al came out of a side door and I didn't even notice at first. When it was our turn, I introduced my friends to Al and Skye got her snorkel and accordion strap signed. Al was really impressed with the accordion strap as Skye made it herself and it had orange flame design on it. Steve shared some stories with Al about them both being DJs on college radio stations, and Al asked me how many more shows I was going to, and whether I had any requests. I put in a request for YDLMA for Asbury Park, and he said if the promoter gives him a guitar, he'll see what he can do. He was really nice and finally meeting him made my friend's evening.

When went outside, there was a huge crowd of people near the buses. Security had everyone line up and there was a rumor Jim was signing stuff, so my friend's wanted to wait. I ran into Michelle and her mom, who I had met last tour, so I caught up with them, until Skye and Steve were able to determine it was Al who was signing stuff, not Jim. Having already met Al and not wanting to take time away from other people, we left the line and went home.

Another great concert experience, and another great evening with friends.

Dave

[TMBJon]

Very interesting. So it sounds like Al is playing/not playing YDLMA based on whether the promoter provides a guitar, rather than at his own discretion.

[RecipeForDisaster]

After all of these shows, pitifully lugging my accordion strap and snorkel around each time, I finally met Al!

The whole night was awesome, the weird loud guy at the Mexican place pointing out a WOODCHUCK near the busy road(he stayed there for most of our meal-the guy did, too)and talking about people wearing sweatpants to restaurants... the Welsh hockey team is an eclectic bunch. I'm not surprised they have not been in the news much lately. Dave's GPS preferred us to go home using the wrong direction on one way streets, then punished us by making us drive on a dead end cobblestone walkway(then told us to make a U turn).

Pictures! http://recipefordisaster.shutterfly.com/626

I like the one of Al with Steve better than the one with me(I prefer snarling to looking friendly), but they are both great. I got satisfying photos during the show, too. I loved the old stuff he played, the new bits, and was super excited to get my snorkel and accordion strap(which Al thought was awesome!)signed finally. Now I just need the rest of the band... Al seemed really impressed that we played DTBS at our wedding(it WAS on the CD and playlist I gave the DJ months before the wedding-even though he claimed no one wanted to hear Weird Al! I wanted YMM at our wedding, too, so was glad to hear it live, at least). My other accordion strap(blue flames rather than red)is signed by all members of TMBG, so my accordion is much closer to being complete. Maybe this will make me play better.

Thanks, Dave, for being the first one to use that bed, enhancing our concert experience so much, and for (?)eating the sauerkraut you were given!

Skye