Come on, there was no way the president typed that up. He dictated it to an intern.Yep.weirdallie27 wrote:We got seated in the middle of "You Make Me." As we were running in the door, they were playing "TMZ." So, I'm guessing we only completely missed "Polka Face"?
A couple quick notes...as the president said, there's no real point in recapping the show (which was excellent) but my highlights:
-I got there to the Warner around 7:20 and the merchandise room was already pretty packed. My only Al apparel was a "White and Nerdy" hoodie (which, thankfully, I didn't wear because it was way too warm in the theater) so I definitely wanted to get a t-shirt. I wanted the trading cards too but since I was traveling by Metro I didn't want to carry them around all night...so I'll order a set online soon. The line was long and chaotic so naturally I ended up changing which t-shirt I wanted about 27 times. I finally settled between the AP and SLN ones (my only hesitation with SLN is that the bigger Al picture is on the back; otherwise I would've gotten it no contest) but even when I was next in line I was going back and forth. Fortunately, the guy before me indirectly made my decision for me by discovering that the AP shirt was sold out in his (and my) size.
-As I said, it was pretty warm throughout the theater, and the increasing amount of bodies intensified that as everyone was waiting to take their seats. A woman near me remarked to no one in particular, "Ok, it's getting crowded and hot in here; let us sit down." I turned to her and said, "I haven't been in a crowd like this since I went to see The Who." She gave me this look like, 'WTF, do you think I care that you've seen The Who?' So I clarify, "It's a line from 'Another One Rides the Bus.'" "Ah."
-The pre-show CD was the one with "Middle of the Road" and "Trippin' on a Hole in a Paper Heart" (which faded out and led into "Fun Zone," which was one of the giddiest moments of my life). I was hoping for some Letters to Cleo but yay STP.
-I think the coffee shop mentioned in "Craigslist" was on 5th St. but none of the entries I see on Google sound familiar.
-I took probably about 5 photos during the early part of the show and I haven't looked at them yet but they seemed pretty crappy when I previewed them and plus, since this was my first Al show, I just kind of felt like, 'Why am I watching this through a small screen on a lousy camera when I can see the real deal, like, 8 feet away?' So I'll have to see a couple more shows before I break out the camera again.
-When "You Make Me" started, I let out a high-pitched "Wooooooooooooooo!!!!! Yeeeeeeeeeeeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I thought that the other diehards in the audience would help mask my shriek. I was wrong.
-I was pretty surprised that "Spam" got such a warm reception when it came up in the medley. Obviously not, like, "Amish Paradise" level but much more enthusiasm than I expected for a 22-year-old album cut. Maybe people are still reeling over the REM breakup?
-Since this was my first show, I really had no idea how the meet-and-greet would work. I didn't have a pass but I knew that didn't really mean anything. So I kind of paced around the theater at first trying to figure out where to go and asking various people if they were waiting around for it and/or knew what to do. Everybody was forced to leave the theater so I went out and was still looking for some hint as to what to do. I asked one of the ushers if he knew where to go and he said if I didn't have a pass, I wasn't going to meet Al. So that kind of sucked. Fortunately--subconsciously?--I walked the wrong way as I tried to head back to the Metro and as I turned the corner I saw the "Warner Theater Stage Door" sign and some people waiting...
-There were only about 6 or 7 people...for some reason I was really anticipating a huge crowd because I thought it was pretty common knowledge that Al does meet-and-greets often. But obviously it's better this way. One girl was standing with her mother and they said that her father was at the tour bus talking to Bermuda and Steve. He came out shortly after, and a few minutes later I thought, 'Well, I might as well check it out and see if I can talk to Bermuda and Steve.' I went up and didn't see any sign of Bermuda, but I caught a glimpse of Ruben heading back inside. Steve was out there but he was talking with some woman, although we did get to exchange a quick "Hey." Some guy (I'm assuming a manager) came out and I asked if he knew if/when Al would be heading out. This was around 10:45. He said that Al was talking with a lot of people (the row ahead of me alone had about 14 or 15 people with passes) and then he had a radio interview scheduled at midnight...so he wouldn't be signing anything; basically, he would just be waving from a car. He wouldn't be out until at least 11:45.
-I walked out and told everyone this, and naturally everyone was bummed but understanding. This group of four guys was like, "Did you get to shake Al's hand? Can I shake your hand?" And I was like, "No, I didn't see him...but I did say hi to Steve Jay." "Close enough," one of them concluded, so I randomly had to shake hands with all of them.
Most of us decided to head out, since waiting an hour for a wave seemed a bit excessive. To be honest, knowing me I probably would have waited around if I'd driven up there, but as it is, 11:45 would have been too close a call with the last Metro train. So um...yeah, it was probably better that I took the Metro.-I decided to roam the streets of DC a little bit (read: I took another wrong turn trying to get to the Metro) and eventually made my way back to the stage door. The girl and her mom were still there (it was probably 11:15ish) so I hope they got a chance to say at least a quick hello to Al. Of course I would have loved to meet him myself (I had our conversation all planned out in my head already; it was gonna be awesome!) but last night confirmed that there will absolutely be plenty of Al shows in my future so sooner or later, it will happen.
-To say that the place was full of Secret Service agents would be exaggerating, but I can't imagine any concertgoers didn't see at least one or two around in various places.
