7/17/15 Hamilton, ON Hamilton Place Theatre

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Alinite27
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7/17/15 Hamilton, ON Hamilton Place Theatre

Post by Alinite27 »

Near Toronto, and even nearer to Niagra Falls! Have to make a visit there!
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Yankomaniac
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Re: 7/17/15 Hamilton, ON Hamilton Place Theatre

Post by Yankomaniac »

Friday night, day of my birthday. Ill be at this show and the Ottawa one 2 days after!
What a racket they're makin', Jack, they keep me up at night playin' their electric guitars!!
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Yankomaniac
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Re: 7/17/15 Hamilton, ON Hamilton Place Theatre

Post by Yankomaniac »

Got the Czar package, 2nd row on Steve's side. Its my 27th so I sprung for the meet & greet, really not that expensive since I am only going to three shows on this tour. Should be a good birthday!
What a racket they're makin', Jack, they keep me up at night playin' their electric guitars!!
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Yankomaniac
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Re: 7/17/15 Hamilton, ON Hamilton Place Theatre

Post by Yankomaniac »

Oh this is coming up quick, been a fast 6 months since ordering the tickets. Getting a nice expensive hotel right around the block from the venue, should be a blast. Will surely post reviews of my vague recollections a day or two later when that time comes. :party:
What a racket they're makin', Jack, they keep me up at night playin' their electric guitars!!
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Yankomaniac
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Re: 7/17/15 Hamilton, ON Hamilton Place Theatre

Post by Yankomaniac »

Less than 3 days!! :accordion: :clap:
What a racket they're makin', Jack, they keep me up at night playin' their electric guitars!!
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Yankomaniac
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Re: 7/17/15 Hamilton, ON Hamilton Place Theatre

Post by Yankomaniac »

Best weekend of my life by far! Will post a pretty in depth write up about the experiences had, but not too in depth. ;)
What a racket they're makin', Jack, they keep me up at night playin' their electric guitars!!
minnick27
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Re: 7/17/15 Hamilton, ON Hamilton Place Theatre

Post by minnick27 »

Dude, don't say you are posting in depth and in the same breath say not too in depth. Don't be all coy and basically say Oooh I'm holding back secrets, too bad you can't hear them

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Yankomaniac
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Re: 7/17/15 Hamilton, ON Hamilton Place Theatre

Post by Yankomaniac »

Well Mike, you can p.m me if you would like to hear the few things I was talking about. Okay, I'll share just about everything here though: Hit the road bright and early for a 5 hour drive and popped UHF in the CD player. It poured rain through Toronto and stuff and it was great we had GPS or we would have taken so much longer and would have got lost a couple times. On the way also got through Mandatory Fun, Dare To Be Stupid, Bad Hair Day, Off The Deep End, Even Worse and the first album. Had to school my mom on the classics. Got to Hamilton at about 12:30pm and it was still raining.

Hotel was right beside the venue so we didn't have to go far before seeing the giant screen at the theatre which said "WEIRD AL" MANDATORY FUN TOUR SOLD OUT. Checked into the hotel and it was pretty amazing with all the stuff you would expect from an expensive 5 star hotel. We also had brought my dog and my moms dog 'cause the hotel allowed pets so that was nice. Mom needed a nice rest and me and Jess decided to go scope out the venue and figure out where we would have to go for the VIP check-in. As we approached the venue we immediately saw the bus and headed over.

The bus was parked beside the venue right beside the performers entrance and we met JW the "Line Nazi" haha Minister of Propoganda. He noticed my Off The Deep End shirt and said he wanted it, I commented on his Cap'n Crunch style Mandatory Fun MOP jacket and we hit it off before we got know who he was and he told us he was in charge of the VIP greets and what not. Told him I was Yankomaniac and it blew his mind, we talked for quite a while and I made sure it wouldn't be a problem to leave for the pre-show party and go have a good dinner and just attend the show and meet. He was such a cool guy and we both enjoyed talking to each other. Was about 3pm now and the band was doing soundcheck so we decided to listen in by the door.

After about a five minute wait, Steve came out and remembered me by name from our previous meets. He even asked why I only phoned him once after he gave me his digits in Toronto, that kind of blew my mind and touched my heart. He talked about how nice the theatre was and how amazing it sounded before saying " hey, why don't you guys come back and check it out". Security guy said "hey hey.." Steve cut him off and said "They're with me." We headed on in with Steve and we had a little photo session with him and Bermuda who was on stage getting everything ready. Got to see our seats which just happened to be front row and not 2nd!! The first row was only a few seats so our seats were directly in front of Steve, knew as soon as I saw the seats how easy it would be to see everything on stage and got extra excited! Got plenty of pics with Bermuda and Steve and talked with Richard, some of you may know him as Hawkeye :D Our camera was just bought to meet Al and what not so Bermuda actually helped us set it up and stuff, was a neat experience to say the least. Pics are up on my FB but I will post them here later.

After that, we continued on with Steve and we talked about his solo stuff and we ended up taking us to the bus to grab some more of his albums I have yet to buy. Got the other two off of him in Toronto. Surprisingly, Steve brought us right on the tour bus and we got to check it out, my girlfriend was wildly starstruck!! Amazing AC blowing in there, and I saw where they sleep HAHA. He gave us a bottle of water and just gave me the albums for no charge and said Happy Birthday, don't be afraid to call once in a while. It was getting closer to the 5pm check in thing so we had to get heading over to that and Steve headed off to eat. We headed just a second around the corner to the VIP check in and got our stuff, JW said hey again and we talked about Seinfeld for a bit making jokes about the "line Nazi" and "soup Nazi" and he basically helped us out to get our stuff and make sure we wouldn't have an issue just skipping the party. Got our free shirt and bag of stuff and hit the merch stand before heading to dinner. Bought the blue tour shirt, hoody, the che shirt and it was good 'cause when we returned later the lines were insane!

Showtime was approaching after we hit the Works for dinner and I fixed my blood sugar levels. (I have bad case of diabetes, it is a bitch) Gave mom her pass and ticket and laminate and implored her not to smoke up before meeting Al :P . On the way in we grabbed a beer and headed to our awesome seats. Steve came out and said hey again to me and Jess before plugging in and then Fun Zone began. After the opening video it was time for me to finally see the Mandatory set which I knew minus the videos and costumes. Steve kept looking right at us being right in front of him and so I spent most of the night singing directly to Steve, it was pretty crazy. So they began Tacky and it was hard to watch Al on screen when we had Steve just rocking that bass in front of us, so Al was singing through the halls of the venue but not outside and in the backstage area. He made his way to the showroom while passing Jim who was holding his guitar upright in a doorway, I yelled "JIM WEEEST!!" and eventually Al emerged and the place went absolutely nuts of course. SOLD OUT floor and 2 huge balcony's! Stage was very low so we could see them all head to toe, Al looked great in his Tacky clothes and was singing very well. After that Kimo came out and began Lame Claim To Fame, I was so excited to see the guitar work live that for 70% of the show I had Steve singing right to us or I'd be looking over to Jim. Polka was great, Jim tends to play lower than Steve regularly and Steve's amp was pointed right at us so at a lot of parts it was hard to hear Jim's guitar, but Steve is the driving force for the band musically, he keeps the rhythm like no other so he must be loud!

First time I had actually heard Al say "ARE YOU READY TO POLLLKAAA???" His accordion solo was pretty tight and the costume for Perform This Way was so much better, god I loved that. Finally my moment of greatness was about to occur, anybody on here who knows me knows that I have been waiting a long time to see Dare To Be Stupid and I headbanged uncontrollably and Steve applauded right to me. He could see how happy I was. The new band steps for Fat was great, definitely proves how great of a band they are and how long they have been together. When Hawkeye came out as Santa and got popped I caught the Tic Tac that flew out of his mouth :lol: Yeah, they are Tic Tacs. The video's were some of the best I have ever seen showing like every single TV show Al has been in, they were so wicked on this tour. First World Problems was prime, and the lighting on Foil was extremely cool. Got splashed during Smells Like Nirvana and Al's energy was pretty high, he yelled that one well and Steve used his index finger for the bass line this night. The medley was awesome too, loved getting to hear Pentiums, Bedrock and Another One Rides The Bus. Gump should always stay in the medley too, it rules. The pink bathrobe with the recliner and inhaler on Inactive was very funny.

Wanna B Ur Lovr was the best I have ever seen it. I had previously talked with Steve about how much I love that bass slappage he provides there and he put it right in my face. I couldn't even watch Al much 'cause I was the only one watching Steve and he was just lookin' at me and grooving right at me. Then Steve jammed out with Ruben for a while and Al came and sang to Jess, she got the "my love for you is like diarrhea, I just can't hold it in" line! She was very happy everything was going so well. Al came around the other side and sang to my mom and some other woman at the same time and the vocal solo at the end was perfectly done. The acoustic medley.....wow. What a band man, the Layla style worked for Eat It SOO WELL. Finally got to hear versions of I Lost On Jeopardy, Like A Surgeon and I Love Rocky Road, was so happy. Love at the end of it when Steve sings "have another triple scoop with me" that was damn cool. I won't go into as much detail on the usual ending, but Word Crimes was extremely fun and he flew out on the Segway so fast for White & Nerdy. The usual ending Amish to Yoda was great as always and the stars around the screen and backdrop were gorgeous and captivating. Was the only one who sang the whole Yoda chant and Steve seemed to enjoy that with that classic Steve Jay grin. :)

As the venue cleared out JW came over to say hey before getting everyone into order and Jim came over so we said good show, shook his hand and then JW called out the VIP names and parties in alphabetical order, he really took charge while answering questions and made sure everyone knew what to do and what not. My girlfriends last name starts with a T so we were near the end of the line. We lined up in the hallway which led to the backstage area where Al was doing the greets. Steve came to the hallway and waved at us and he began going down the line but nobody really said much to him so he shook a couple hands and came over to us and talked with me, Jess and my mom for about 20 minutes while the line got smaller. My mom asked him why he would give some long haired hippy looking guy like me his number and Steve said " from one musician to another!", "he can call me up anytime", again it touched my heart, what a guy. We talked about The Stones, Rush and how Al & the guys are basically one of the longest standing original bands ever and as we were only a few away from Al he said "well..i'm gonna head into the night." Steve hugged my mom and Jess and then gave me a fist bump and said "hope to see you at the Bluesfest on Sunday". He returned another two minutes after and handed me two free hoody's, that guy is a saint. I had bought one already so I gave one to Jess and the other to a kid in front of us.

After that, we got our camera ready and met Al. JW always takes the pics so he assured us he would take a nice clear pic and he did. I got my Even Worse signed and with the exception of Jim it was almost complete. My mom got my UHF signed as her extra item. Jess got her Mandatory Fun signed and since we were near the end we got to do a full family pic with Al. I was fortunate enough to have my 27th birthday and get an extra pic with Al. Will post these pics when I can of course, they are on my FB. After that we went to Smoke's Poutinerie and then had the hotel party. This is where I will end the review because it was then time to party like animals. :peace:

Will post review of last night's show later tonight! \m/ Was the best birthday ever, certainly the lucky 27th!! :peace:
Last edited by Yankomaniac on Sat Jul 25, 2015 5:19 am, edited 18 times in total.
What a racket they're makin', Jack, they keep me up at night playin' their electric guitars!!
minnick27
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Re: 7/17/15 Hamilton, ON Hamilton Place Theatre

Post by minnick27 »

I need more details. How many times did you stop for gas? What kind of snacks? Do you take your shoes off for long car rides?

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Re: 7/17/15 Hamilton, ON Hamilton Place Theatre

Post by mellow weasel »

Yankomaniac wrote:JW the "Line Nazi" haha Minister of Propoganda.
What does JW stand for? I thought of Jim West, but "line nazi" sounds more like a title for a venue/CID employee :?
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