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

Post by **weird_el** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 4:55 pm

Hello, I must be going...

This is pretty much just a "drive-by" with last week's highlights.

Both Rachael and I arrived in California on time. That afternoon we walked down to the Vans store and I bought my very first pair of Vans (thanks go to Fred for the recommendation)

Before the show we met up with the WOWAY folks outside the grandstand entrance on the Midway. It was wonderful to see several people I haven't seen in years, and to meet some new people

We had the best seats for the first night -- Row A seats 1&2

Rachael brought her good Canon film camera and she let me use her Panasonic digital with 10x optical zoom, so we just went picture happy all night.

A lot of the first night specifics have been posted already, but I got a WBUL line -- I smell like Fritos.... I smelled like Fritos in Poughkeepsie a few years ago too. I should probably do something about that.

After all the shows we waited around often for over an hour for a possibility of a M&G. It didn't happen on this trip, but at least we spent that time sharing our digital pics with other friends.

The Darth Vader/Storm Troopers chorus line was a great surprise on Wednesday. WDTAHTM was beautiful. Jim and Steve sing such nice harmonies on it and Al goes over by the drums to sit and read the newspaper (Life section -- USA Today) during Rubén's piano solo. I like this better than Bob.

During the day on Thursday, a group of us, Elvis, Cid, Jeannine (SwissAlFan), CindyBob, Rachael and I, spent a few hours at Huntington Beach. The water was a little cold, but when the sun got hot it felt great. I love just standing in surf letting the waves crash over me.

I think Thursday was the night Al did Close To You. It's all a blur to me now. But I loved Al's version of it. The humor lies in the surreality.

During the day on Friday, Rachael and I just walked around the Fair a bit. We agreed the best ride was the Skytram that crossed the entire Midway. The huge ferris wheel was pretty cool too. I tried deep-fried avocadoes for the first time -- Food of the Gods! Fat on Fat

It was so good I went back for seconds.

I LOVED Friday's show best. This was perhaps the best Al show I've seen. This night had my best WBUL moment -- As Al sang to me "You're absolutely perfect, don't speak now you might spoil it": I was singing it back to him. As he walked by he brushed the tip of my nose with his finger.

Even though there we some problems with W&N, I loved how Al just went into Radio Radio. It was also very cool he went back and did W&N during the encore -- it is his biggest hit afterall. And Albuquerque -- during the first run through as Al sang "and she looked at me like a cow looks onto an oncoming train." He was looking right at me. For the second run through, he stopped just before that line. Apparently he suddenly remembered he hated SAUERKRAUT.

After the show on Friday, as we waited for a possible M&G we did get talk with Bermuda and Steve. Bermuda said more tour dates are being negotiated, so keep watch on weirdal.com as soon as they become official. I asked Steve what the African language was they use during the new Yoda chant, and I think he said Zarma -- a language spoken in Niger. He only learned those words phonetically, he doesn't know what they mean.

So, after four concerts that progressively got better and better, Saturday was still good, but kind of a letdown. As soon as the Polka started the idiot in front of us lit up a joint. GAH, ACK. As soon as I saw security, I let them know and he was ejected YAY. It was kinda nice having those seats empty, because it gave us a better view of the stage. Saturday was the only night I didn't take pics. I wanted to have full peripheral vision for at least one of the shows.

There were video issues -- after the Paul McCartney interview, only the middle screen worked. They did manage to fix it before Fat. He didn't add or subtract any songs from the set.

Afterward, we waited one last time for a "possible" M&G with Al, but to no avail

I know fairs are hard places to arrange them, but I was hopeful until the last minute. I was sad, and kinda quiet for the rest of that night, but I do have an Al concert in Sept. in Milwaukee to look forward to.

I'm home now, with 100s of fabulous pics to sort though. Aside from seeing everyone again, I think the quality of the photos we got was definitely one of the best highlights. Five years ago when we went to OC to see Al, I was lucky if I got 6 good pics out of each roll of 27.

Oh yeah, and the quality of the concerts too.

Overall, I love this setlist, and I believe the Paris Hilton verse of Headline News got perhaps the biggest laugh each night.

tombellanca · Post by **tombellanca** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 6:20 pm

Mod Edit: I know, I can't believe someone didn't want to smell pot being smoked at a Weird Al concert! What is their problem?

jerAL · Post by **jerAL** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 8:36 pm

Pot smoking is illegal. And yes, views of Al are precious.

Post by **kaffy©** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 9:08 pm

Wow.

I have nothing nice to say, so I won't say anything. New concept I guess.

Mod Edit: removed quote

Post by **algonacchick** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 9:12 pm

Yeah, really man. Not only was your comment rude, but making Elizabeth out to be the bad gal when she was upholding the law was not cool. You truly don't understand the spirit of being an Al fan. She is not the only one who complained about smelling pot, either. She's just the one who decided to do the right thing.

Post by **Kristine** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 9:13 pm

Oh yeah, how many beers did those guys end up drinking between the two or three of them?? I watched them get up many times.

I didn't witness the smokers, though. I was in 2-C-1.

Post by **kaffy©** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 9:15 pm

algonacchick @ Jul 23 2007, 02:12 PM wrote: Yeah, really man. Not only was your comment rude, but making Elizabeth out to be the bad gal when she was upholding the law was not cool. You truly don't understand the spirit of being an Al fan. She is not the only one who complained about smelling pot, either. She's just the one who decided to do the right thing.

Well said, Patti. I couldn't come up with what I wanted to say.. that was perfect.

jerAL wrote: Pot smoking is illegal. And yes, views of Al are precious.

Post by **algonacchick** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 9:23 pm

Thanks, Kaffy. I've pretty much enjoyed reading this thread, until that post came up. I thought I read one other post that mentioned someone smelling pot, and not being happy about it. Not entirely sure now, though. Regardless, El did the right thing, and had those guys booted out.

Post by **i_love_yankovic** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 9:37 pm

Troll much?

Mod Edit: removed quote

Post by **weird_el** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 9:48 pm

Thanks for backing me up, ladies

As for beer runs, people were usually pretty courteous about waiting for the interstitial videos before they went out on their runs.

During the Medley, four people came in and took the seats in front of us. I imagine they were the rightful owners. A lot of people showed up late. You'd think with seats that good, they'd make an effort to get there on time. Oh well, their loss.