Warning, really long review covering four of the shows.
7/18
I had woken up about 5:30 here in Nebraska and got ready to go to the airport. I made it to the airport a bit after 6 am and got myself checked in and went through security. Three years ago, I didnt have to take off my shoes. Then again, last time I didnt have to put everything into a little baggie. Yeah.
I waited in the airport by listening to my mp3 player and reading Eldest.
I was amused by the fact that the plane landed in Dallas at gate D-21 and my connecting flight was at D-20. That was hard to walk.
My flight to OC went off with no problem and I got off the plane at my regular time and waited for my baggage. I waited for Cid to pick me up and found her looking at the arrivals screen.
We got back to Cids house and dropped off my luggage and picked up Kevin. We went to an I-hop to have uh
breakfast/lunch. I had lunch, they had breakfast.
We back to the house to get ready for the show and drove off to find out that parking lots were full and even more full, so we parked at a nearby high school. We went over to the arena and I got to talk with fans Ive met before and missed and also met other fans I havent met before, which is awesome. I love hanging around other Al fans. I didnt get many signatures because I was having fun catching up.
I went to my seat a bit before the show actually started and ended up sitting next to Cinnamon. I had 3rd row, aisle seat. Wooo!
The show started like normal and continued like normal. I got a lot of nice pictures. We had WDTAHTM that night, which was nice so I could listen to the difference between Ruben playing it and Ben Folds playing it.
Al came down during WBUL (which didnt happen at Summerfest, so the video before and the red suit were wonderful to see). He was singing and came up to me and apparently I need to stop, drop, and roll now because Im on fire. I squealed. Im so happy.
I love the Im in love with a Skipper thing even closer and the Paris Hilton version of Headline News got a ton of huge laughs and cheers. The Kevin Federline interview also gets a huge amount of cheers and laughs.
Then one of the coolest surprises came during the Saga Begins. We had stormtroopers and Darth Vader come out on stage. They were just standing there and then it hit the chorus and they started grooving to the music. I had laughed so hard. I couldnt believe it. They cant dance, but the moves were so funny. That had to be one of the best surprises ever.
There were some miscued lights here and there, but one noticeable one was during Amish Paradise where the red light came on before the hell line. Wasnt that big of a mistake at all though.
During Albuquerque Al added buffalo cookies to the donuts thing. I thought that was funny. Also, there were some really weird pet names this time around. Sugar clavicle was one of them.
After the show, we waited around and talked. A lot of us got our pictures taken with Darth Vader. We did hang around until security kicked us out. Kevin did get some deep fried Oreos and those are yummy. I really like those. We eventually left the fair and went to bed.
7/19
Cid and I went to the beach with Rachael, El, Dave, Janine. It was a lot of fun, the waves were high that day so it was fun to have the wave crash over you and carry you away. The lifeguard kept kicking people out every so often because of the rip tides, I guess. It was weird. Dave and I started tossing sand at each other which somehow resulted in Dave being buried in sand.
We got a picture of us hanging out at the beach and asked a person to take our picture. He turned to be Swiss to, so him and Jeannine had a little conversation. That was really amusing. Such an odd coincidence.
We then went to eat at some gourmet Mexican place and then headed back to our respective places to get ready for the show. We left a bit earlier so I could get some petitioning done. I worked on the line until security started letting the people in who were waiting in line all day. Then I picked a row in the back and they passed the petition from all the way through, which took a while actually. I ran to my seat as soon as the petition got passed all the way back to me.
The show continued on like normal. I had a fifth row seat this time around, next to Cinnamon and Linda again. I was randomly amused by that. We got Bob this day.
We got the stormtroopers again, though there were two less than time. We had only six troopers today. Well, troopers do get killed off easily.
Also, during I'll Sue Ya, New Jersey doesn't suck because Al said that to Dave. Well, more right after he sung the line, he waved to Dave, like he saying, "no, it really doesn't." That was amusing. Al Al flubbed on the next line after that.
This was also the night that as Steve has been tossing his bass up into the air at the end of SLN, he dropped it this night. I flinched when that happened. The poor bass!
It was weird that during the Kevin Federline interview, there was some guy screaming in the back really loud. I couldnt understand what he was screaming about, but it was something. Maybe he was a Kevin Federline fan, I have no idea. It was just really strange.
During Fat, when our ho came out, she lost her feather boa, so Al picked it up and put it on Jim. That amused me to no end.
The rest of the concert kept going, like normal, and there was no cell phones song because we got Close to You. Thanks to my time at Summerfest and finding a clip on youtube, I had it memorized so I could sing along with that too.
Then we got to Albuquerque again and this time around the donuts got really weird. Strawberry, raspberry, Halle Berry
Ill have to find those one day.
Also, another weird pet name was sugar tarantula. Hmmm.
Afterwards, I found Ryan in the crowd and said hi to him and started talking to him as Cid had called me over. Ended up we got Jeannine backstage because Jay found out shes from Switzerland and she needed to go back. You cant come from another country to see Al and not meet him, so by default we got to go backstage too.
I was very happy for Jeannine to go backstage and meet everyone, though Ruben wandered away. He said he would be right back
He apparently has a handy place to hide.
I had Jim and Steve sign my friends fanart. My friend had given it to me after I had convinced him four years ago to send it in to the Mothership, but he didnt have a scanner, but I did. Michael doesnt realize I still have the original fanart, so I thought a really cool gift for him would be to get this signed by the band. Jim and Steve had both asked where to sign it, but I told them anywhere would be good.
I got my Coconut Hat cd insert signed by Jim, which made me very happy. Steve also signed my Tangled Strings insert, which made me happy too. I got my picture with Steve, which a random light crew member ran into the picture and posed with us. So I have a picture with Steve and random light crew guy whose name was never mentioned. Steve just said hes part of the light crew, so hes really important; which he is!
I got in line for Al and told him I missed him and he gave me a hug. Yay! Two hugs that I havent asked for. That makes me so happy. I told him about the fanart and asked him to sign it for Michael. I helped balance it since signing on a folder isnt sturdy to sign against.
I got my picture with him, which makes me very happy. Yay. Ive missed Al a lot.
Cid introduced Jeannine to Al and it so cool to see her meet Al for the first time. Steve also started talking to her in German, I think, when Cid said shes from Switzerland. Im so happy for Jeannine.
Went over to Bermuda and he looked at my iPolka shirt and asked where I got it. I told him the Star Fund website sells them. He said he likes them and that hes seen several people wear it that day.
I had him sign the fanart and he commented that he liked that Michael gave him hair. Lol. Though, Im sure if he looked at it now, Michael also made him a midget because his legs are really short in the picture. *whistles* Got picture taken and yay.
I had also realized that I had forgotten to give Al something very important. I had made a music video to DICYO and I wanted to give Al a copy of it, so I told him about very quickly went away since I didnt want to take up more of his time. He said he would watch it though. Though, I realized later that I didnt give him the letter to go with it, explaining some of it
but I didnt want to go through the line again, so yeah. Hopefully Ill just be able to tell him later or something.
I dont remember much else, except for going to bed. My mind goes blank and a blur backstage.
7/20
We went to go see the Harry Potter movie then went to lunch at In and Out, which has really good burgers.
Cid and I just went because Kevin went to go see another concert in L.A. on his birthday.
We got to the fair and I started to petition the line and ended up meeting Alexis and Andy, which is cool, since they were also at the Summerfest show. We would petition and chat at the same time, until security would tell us to stop because they were about to let the people waiting in line into the arena.
So we stopped and wandered up to the front where they had told us to wait, then they told us we couldnt wait there. We were told we couldnt be let in until 10 minutes before 8; thats odd. They still waited another half hour at least before letting people in after they told us to stop and they us in earlier than we were told. It didnt seem like they knew what they were doing.
When we were let in, I saw Miles over in the audience but I didnt go up to him. He had friends with him. During the show though, Steve would frequently migrate over to Jims side and play so that Miles could see him better.
We also had Bob again. Two nights in a row. Oooo.
Linda got a lot of WBUL attention in front row. Go Linda! Also, while Al was giving a random women attention in the audience and dancing, she got up and danced with him.
I was also in 3rd row this night and I sat right next to Christina. The show went pretty much as normal. We got the six troopers again that day with our lovely Darth Vader.
At some point during the show, a guy came down and started dancing in the aisle, but security sent him back. It was amusing to see for a few minutes.
The show kept going like normal until White and Nerdy came on and about halfway through the song, Al stops and goes, Ladies and Gentlemen. Ladies and Gentelmen. There is no need to play this song. Radio, Radio! Al fans scream, other people look confused.
I didnt even notice a technical difficulty; it seemed so flawless in person. Though, looking a clip on youtube now, I can notice the technical difficulty, but I couldnt tell in person. It was completely amazing to see this live.
Fat continued on like normal and we got cell phones and after cell phones, Al asked if we wanted to hear White and Nerdy. The crowd screams, of course. So we got White and Nerdy in normal clothes, which was cool.
I thought that since we got W&N one and a half times, we wouldnt get an Albuquerque, but then he started playing it, so I thought it would just barebones: no extra donuts or pet names. And hes playing it until he gets to the point where he lost his train of thought, which tends to happen 10 and a half minutes into a 12 minute song, so they started over! Then continued to the point where his mother forcefed him nothing but
He paused, and said now he remembered where he was and resumed his point from before.
Also, Jims guitar solo in Albuquerque was awful, Al said so. We hung around a bit after the show, Miles came up to us and started chatting with us, which was nice. We eventually left to go back to Cid and Kevins house and sleep.
7/21
I had to get up early in the morning because I had to buy my tickets for the Kansas City show and pacific time is two hours behind central time, so I had to get up earlier than when they went on sale central time, if this is making any sense.
Cid and I also went ice-skating which involved me staying glued to the wall until some point later to which I would venture away from the wall a bit more and was actually skating.
We left for the fair semi-early which proved to be a good thing since traffic was awful to get into the fair. We spent an hour just sitting and moving very slowly in traffic and the lot they let us into barely had parking at all. We were almost convinced they let us into a full parking lot.
We went into the fair and decided to go wander around the fair. We saw the art exhibit and saw Kristines pictures that made it in. Those are really cool. We also saw some of the animals. Then we wandered back to the arena and waited for the show to start.
There was also a wardrobe malfunction during Youre Pitiful. The zippers were not working for Al that day. They would unzip right and the gold sparkly shirt somehow came unzipped when Al undid the jacket, so we could already partially see the other shirt underneath the sparkly shirt.
WBUL was a nice special treat today. I got the library card check out line and then while he was coming down the stairs, he started woo-hoo-hooing me. I couldnt hold my camera straight after that. I noticed also as he was in the audience, Cid got some special attention. Go, Cid!
We got even more troopers today. We had ten stormtroopers and Darth Vader. That filled up the stage quite nicely. This night and the previous night they would connect arms and sway back and forth with each other during the last part. Darth Vader also brought out his lightsaber during this! Woo! Al also thanked the 501st infantry for this. That was so cool.
I noticed during the medley that one of Als earpieces kept popping out a lot. He would try to fix it, but it would just come right back out again. It was fixed after the medley. During Drive Thru, I noticed Al flubbed a line. Instead of the wife turning away to get stuff out from between her teeth, he turned away.
The video screen had a lot of issues that day. It really started in on WSD as it played the first five seconds, but then the video went blank, but the audio stayed. Then we only got the middle video screen working after that, least they got it working again though. A new video clip also appeared in there too. Hmmm.
Everyone or nearly everyone in the audience stood during all of cell phones and Albuquerque, which was great to see.
Christina is now also Zelda and we got the Halle Berry donut line of jokes again. Also, while Al lost his train of thought, he looked at one guy down in the audience and told him to stop looking at him and silently judging him with those beedy little eyes. That was so funny.
Then the show was done and we waited around and waited. Eventually most of us left and hung around outside the gate. I went to go grab a funnel cake and happily ate that. Yum, I love funnel cake.
7/22
We eventually went back to the house, looked at pictures, then went to bed. I got up the next morning, packed and got ready for my flight. Cid dropped me off at the airport. I got checked in and waited around a bit for my flight. I got to Dallas for my connecting flight and noticed part of the sky was really dark, so a storm was coming. I took the SkyLink for the next terminal and went to find my gate. Right after I got some food, I noticed they changed the gate I was departing from and delayed my flight by 20 minutes because of the small amount of rain they received. I was suppose to leave at 5:55 pm there, we didnt get on the plane until 6:25 and then we had to wait for other planes to depart, so we really didnt leave until around 7:00pm. We landed about 8:30 which is an hour later than what was suppose to happen, but oh well. I got some, loaded my pictures to the computer and went to bed.
Note: It was great to see the fans that I havent seen in years and to meet people I havent met before. That was awesome. Gigantic, biggest thanks to Cid and Kevin for letting me stay with them again. They are the best people to stay with and so nice too. I cant thank them enough for putting up with me for the 3rd time now. Thanks so much!
