5/12-16/15, Planet Hollywood, Las Vegas, NV

2015 - U.S.A., Canada, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, U.K., Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand!
2016 - U.S.A. ... and more?

Moderators: Moderators, ConcertTracker

Post Reply
User avatar
Elvis
Be jealous.
Posts: 16296
Joined: Sat Nov 03, 2001 2:00 am
Awards: Best Admin
Location: Palace of Wisdom
Contact:

Re: 5/12-16/15, Planet Hollywood, Las Vegas, NV

Post by Elvis »

remmy wrote:
Elvis wrote:And I'm really excited for some upcoming as-of-yet unannounced concert dates! :D :ph34r:
I hope this means there'll be a NYC-area date announced soon. Might be a good excuse to schedule a trip to visit my parents :angel:
Reread my post carefully, I never said anything about a (i.e. single) NYC area date. ;) :ph34r:
27thpilgrim wrote:That's awesome Dave! I have enjoyed your reviews. How were you able to obtain passes if you don't mind me asking.
Thanks! I enjoy writing them! I'm friends with the band, so every once in a while someone will offer me passes. But most of the time I just hang out by the buses after the show with everyone else!

Dave
UFLM! Unverified Fan Lives Matter!
User avatar
remmy
Regular
Posts: 292
Joined: Tue Jul 08, 2003 6:10 am
Location: San Francisco, CA

Re: 5/12-16/15, Planet Hollywood, Las Vegas, NV

Post by remmy »

Elvis wrote:Reread my post carefully, I never said anything about a (i.e. single) NYC area date. ;) :ph34r:
|) :clap:
schultkl
Newbie
Posts: 12
Joined: Sun Jun 17, 2007 5:38 am

Re: 5/12-16/15, Planet Hollywood, Las Vegas, NV

Post by schultkl »

My wife recently won, with about ~50 others, the “Weird Al” Yankovic Mandatory World Tour Contest, so we got to experience the May 16 show, in Las Vegas!

CONTEST PACKAGE DETAILS

* Two round-trip air tickets to Las Vegas, Nevada (for us, on Southwest ~$600)

* Two-Night Complimentary Stay at Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino (~$600)

* Two Complimentary Tickets to Weird Al’s performance on Saturday, May 16th, 2015 at 8:00 p.m., in the Showroom at Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino (~$300)

* Upgraded tickets (slightly modified, as noted), to "The Mandatory Czar Experience" (+~$400):

**** Premium reserved ticket in the first five rows (note: we sat in Row 'R', close to center, with other contest winners, most likely to accommodate seating of customers paying for the experience...this seemed to represent the only modification)

**** Complete Set of 133 Weird Al Trading Cards (including brand new cards from Mandatory Fun) 

**** Mandatory VIP badge

**** Mandatory Czar blue event sticker

**** One Exclusive, Limited Edition Poster 18"x24" personally signed by Weird Al (note: it reads, "Hi Dawn!", followed by his signature)

**** Additional exclusive Weird Al merchandise gift (note: in our case, we received a military-themed tee shirt: "a t-shirt that sort of looks like the dictator jacket which Al is wearing on the cover of Mandatory Fun. Sort of like those tuxedo print t-shirts.")

**** VIP pre-show party, held in the re-purposed Gallery Night Club at Planet Hollywood, starting at 5:30 p.m.

**** VIP after-party, held in the same space as the pre-show

**** $100 Food and Beverage Credit to Planet Hollywood

**** Two Complimentary Tickets to the High Roller at The LINQ (~$75)

**** Ground transportation from and back to McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas (~$50)

Many thanks to Weird Al, CID Entertainment staff (event logistics), and Frosch Entertainment staff (transportation logistics). This easily penciled out to thousands of dollars, per winner and guest! We had a great time and have nothing but love for all the hard work everyone did to pull this off.

NOTES - CONCERT

* Celebrities in attendance at the performance we attended: Andy Richtertwo of Neil Diamonds' keyboard playersTom Lennon (of Reno 911! fame), (?)

* As noted, Las Vegas Magazine had a cover article on Weird Al, in their May 10, 2015 issue

* Highlight, for me: Dare to Be Stupid, live in concert (first time since 2011?)

* First concert, for us, since mid-2013 at the California State Fair

* I felt really salted-out and thirsty from the hot dogs and hamburgers

* The acoustic set reminded me of...a lounge act...in a good way (is that possible? I think so!)

* Confetti streamer cannon during Canadian Idiot

* No drum solo (retired?)

* Music (30 songs, total):

**** Fun Zone
**** Tacky
**** Lame Claim to Fame
**** Now That's What I Call Polka!
**** Perform This Way
**** Dare to Be Stupid
**** Fat
**** First World Problems
**** Foil
**** Smells Like Nirvana
**** Party in the CIA / It's All About the Pentiums / Handy / Bedrock Anthem / Another One Rides the Bus / Ode to a Superhero / Gump / Inactive / eBay / Canadian Idiot
**** Wanna B Ur Lovr
**** Acoustic medley: Eat It / I Lost on Jeopardy / I Love Rocky Road / Like a Surgeon
**** White & Nerdy
**** Word Crimes
**** Amish Paradise
**** Encore:
******** The Saga Begins
******** Yoda

* Albums represented:

**** "Weird Al" Yankovic (1983): 2
**** "Weird Al" Yankovic in 3-D (1984): 2
**** Dare To Be Stupid (1985): 3
**** Even Worse (1988): 1
**** UHF – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and Other Stuff (1989): 1
**** Off The Deep End (1992): 1
**** Alapalooza (1993): 1
**** Bad Hair Day (1996): 2
**** Running With Scissors (1999): 2
**** Poodle Hat (2003): 3
**** Straight Outta Lynwood (2006): 2
**** Alpocalypse (2011): 2
**** Mandatory Fun (2014): 8

* Albums NOT formally represented (note: excluding EPs):
**** Polka Party! (1986): 0

NOTES - PRE-SHOW PARTY

* Event staff wore red berets and military uniforms, in keeping with the propaganda-themed imagery of the album
* Brief, unannounced appearances:

**** Suzanne Krajewski, Al's spouse, and their daughter
**** Andy Richter
**** Jim West, guitarist

* Easels displayed 3'x2' prints of propaganda-themed imagery, from the album art, as we walked to the night club

* Medium-sized lectern with faux-microphones--lots of attendees taking pictures with this as a prop, when not in use by the emcee

* Energy ebbed and flowed, but mostly upbeat and excited

* Spinnable Wheel of Fish with medium-sized blinking red light, at center (initially obscured by black banner with words "Top Secret")

* "Mandatory Cocktail" ($8, I forget the ingredients, but it had grapefruit juice, alcohol, and was served over ice in what looked like a highball glass)

* Four multimedia and poster displays showing a timeline of Weird Al from childhood to present

* Giant (~15'x10'?) Mandatory World Tour banner

* Large (~3' diameter) Mandatory World Tour circular promotional poster of some of the album art 

* Photo booth for taking/sharing pictures, in front of a green screen--note: ours may not have gotten posted to Facebook, even after the initial technical glitch (?)...always take a backup photo!

* Props for the photo booth: glittery mustaches on thin dowels, plastic bandolier, wigs, aloha shirt, metal eyewear frames (basically, you can appear as Weird Al, from the 1980's, or go with a more propaganda-themed album art imagery)

* I wore a wig and a floral shirt (over my floral shirt) and eyewear and bandolier and moustache

* Food and drink:

**** Buffalo wings
**** Mini hot dogs
**** Hamburger sliders
**** Carrots, celery, condiments
**** Cash bar

* Music: variety of Weird Al songs played from all decades

* Party events

**** Costume Contest

******** Six contestants (* asterisk = finalist; ** = winner):
************ ** Smells Like Nirvana
************ * Lasagna chef
************ * Tinfoil hat
************ Tacky shirt
************ Tuxedo suit
************ Corporal (?) Spatula
******** A crowd cheer eliminated three contestants, followed-by a dance-off to determine the winners
******** Winner received a Weird Al Mandatory Tour circular patch, I believe

**** Raffle #1 - Lip Sync battle

******** Smells Like Nirvana contestant called up to stage to go first (did not get raffle ticket called)
******** Lasagna chef contestant from costume contest selected as raffle winner and returned to stage
******** Not sure who won!

**** Raffle #2 - Wheel of Fish

******** Raffle winner (tin foil hat girl?) got up on stage 
******** Emcee revealed...the Wheel of Fish!
******** Winner spun the Wheel, with marker landing on "trout"
******** Emcee offered her a choice of the fish or the box
******** Crowd and winner chose the box, which contained...nothing!
******** Everyone got to take their picture with the Wheel of Fish, after this

**** Prior to leaving the pre-show party, the emcee invited everyone to sing, "Harvey the Wonder Hamster"

NOTES - AFTER-PARTY AND POSTER SIGNING

* Food and drink:

**** Orange, black, and yellow tortilla chips
**** Salt and pepper rippled potato chips
**** Chex mix
**** Guacamole
**** Salsa verde
**** Cash bar

* Subdued energy; people mostly talking in small circles

* Music: same as at pre-show party, a mix of Weird Al songs from across the decades

* Weird Al arrived in a brown tunic shirt and blue jeans after 45-60 minutes (he had other commitments, with other fans, first)

* Al signed 18"x24" tour posters for everyone (one per group)

* One cell phone photo, per group, with random requests considered (for example, Al posed with one woman in a dip dance move; another, he stood and posed, looking off to the distance, as did the fans)

* Jay Levey, Weird Al's manager, quietly observed the signing from the side

* Event staff members took the cell phone photos

OVERALL PRE-/AFTER-PARTY IMPRESSIONS

* Bad news first:

**** Cash bar prices--welcome to Las Vegas!

**** Photo-booth malfunctions (note: per emcee, resolved after he called the photo-booth company president)

**** Emcee seemed overheated in military uniform and overstretched, which seemed to distract him from connecting with the audience, a bit

**** I sensed some awkward energy in the room during two of the unannounced pre-show party events...I think contestants and event staff handled things relatively gracefully but I wonder if event staff might consider discussing a more inclusive way to determine winners (?) Maybe it was just me and everyone had a great time (?) : o )

**** At the after-party, one or two overly intoxicated individuals seemed fired up and edging toward belligerence...overheard the person relate to someone else, in a somewhat defensive tone, how someone earlier had commented on his drinking and/or behavior...he then proceeded to start going off on, "I won a trip to Las Vegas to have fun!", "Don't tell me what to do...", and so forth, and so forth...it set a more edgy tone to things than I preferred, for sure

**** Thinking of things from a family-friendly angle, the night club represented a relatively subdued environment, compared to the Pleasure Pit gogo dancers visible below, on the casino floor, but the night club's back hallway--used as an exit after poster signing--did have a few larger-than-life racy pics...again, welcome to Las Vegas, parents ; o )

* Good news!

**** Emcee--that voice! Great job

**** Technology (other than noted above) had everything on point--multimedia displays, lights, audio, music

**** Props seemed right on point--banners, costumes, accessories for photo-booth, lectern, Wheel of Fish, and so forth

**** Food seemed well done, to me--especially the hamburger sliders

**** Resolved the photo-booth technical glitch

**** After-party went off without a hitch, including food and handing out poster sleeves

**** Al obviously exhausted, his hand seemed clenched like a claw as he signed our poster, but soldiered on (please excuse the pun)

**** Jay Levey appearance!

**** Overall, a smashing success and it speaks very well to the entire team, moving forward!

Note: I regret the weird formatting of this article...I suck and cannot get bbcode to work for lists! I have a formatted version as a blog post.
crazygurl14
Obsessed
Posts: 2631
Joined: Fri Oct 03, 2003 3:14 pm
Location: Fairfield, Ohio

Re: 5/12-16/15, Planet Hollywood, Las Vegas, NV

Post by crazygurl14 »

remmy wrote:
Elvis wrote:Reread my post carefully, I never said anything about a (i.e. single) NYC area date. ;) :ph34r:
|) :clap:

He NEEDS to play Cincinnati so I can get a better seat than the crappy one I had to get from waiting too long to buy for the Kettering show coming up
Concerts i have attended:
memorial day 2000
july 27, 2003
august 22,2004
june 27, 2007
May 29, 2011
2015
July 8, 2016
March 26,2018
July 3, 2019
*****
ACTUALLY GOT AUTOGRAPH & HUG
6-27-13
After show autograph 7-3-19
Al-gal since '99
User avatar
Yankomaniac
Off The Deep End
Posts: 3621
Joined: Fri Apr 15, 2011 3:50 am
Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada \m/
Contact:

Re: 5/12-16/15, Planet Hollywood, Las Vegas, NV

Post by Yankomaniac »

Yeah the ticket site jerked me around a bit too and I got 2nd row for a July show but really off to the side, even though I had gotten to the center seats first, it was very uncool. I'm thinking with a guaranteed pass to see Al, it's not a huge deal but, it was definitely a site issue. Though, not many people had the same issue I did, I was just slightly unlucky I guess.
What a racket they're makin', Jack, they keep me up at night playin' their electric guitars!!
User avatar
DrSteggy
Off The Deep End
Posts: 4210
Joined: Sat Feb 23, 2002 2:00 am
Awards: Winner, Survivor All Stars
Location: Plains of Hyrule
Contact:

Re: 5/12-16/15, Planet Hollywood, Las Vegas, NV

Post by DrSteggy »

Better late than never. I present to you concert pictures from the Las Vegas run of Mandatory Fun. I am not sure where my pictures from the third show went, but I know I took some....

Las Vegas 1: http://s17.photobucket.com/user/drstegg ... gas%205-12" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Las Vegas 2: http://s17.photobucket.com/user/drstegg ... gas%205-13" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Las Vegas 4: http://s17.photobucket.com/user/drstegg ... gas%205-15" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Las Vegas 5: http://s17.photobucket.com/user/drstegg ... gas%205-16" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
"Positioning is everything in life." A. de La Hunta
User avatar
YankoSwag 8888
Obsessed
Posts: 1195
Joined: Fri Apr 22, 2016 4:56 pm
Awards: All of them
Location: Victoria BC
Contact:

Re: 5/12-16/15, Planet Hollywood, Las Vegas, NV

Post by YankoSwag 8888 »

Canadian Idiot is not in the medley
Heds
Obsessed
Posts: 1776
Joined: Thu Jun 25, 2015 2:43 pm

Re: 5/12-16/15, Planet Hollywood, Las Vegas, NV

Post by Heds »

YankoSwag 8888 wrote:Canadian Idiot is not in the medley
Can you please not bring that up here? That is also an old post.

Thank you.
aaaa

//heds

https://twitter.com/birdhousey" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
User avatar
YankoSwag 8888
Obsessed
Posts: 1195
Joined: Fri Apr 22, 2016 4:56 pm
Awards: All of them
Location: Victoria BC
Contact:

Re: 5/12-16/15, Planet Hollywood, Las Vegas, NV

Post by YankoSwag 8888 »

Heds wrote:
YankoSwag 8888 wrote:Canadian Idiot is not in the medley
Can you please not bring that up here? That is also an old post.

Thank you.
No
User avatar
Sappho
Obsessed
Posts: 1105
Joined: Fri Nov 13, 2015 7:37 pm
Location: Hiding in Al's lustrous hair (but not in a creepy way).

Re: 5/12-16/15, Planet Hollywood, Las Vegas, NV

Post by Sappho »

YankoSwag 8888 wrote:Canadian Idiot is not in the medley
Okay, two things:
1. This is completely irrelevant to this topic.
2. Didn't Al himself tell you that it was up to the listener? So if people want to consider it part of the medley then they're not wrong. Just as you are free to consider it separate. Nobody is wrong and everybody lived happily ever after. The end.

Please. Give it a rest.
Love and peace.
Post Reply