World of Weird Al Yankovic

All I will say about security is that they were constantly annoying me by squeezing in front of me at least TWICE per song to yell at someone to turn their flash off. From my position, and with my Pre's camera my photos came out blurry so I didn't take many, and nothing worth sharing, and only got vids of You Make Me and the Yoda Chant (again, there's already much better stuff up). Half of my row was empty until Amish Paradise, when some late comers finally arrived, so security were using it as their shortcut. Speaking of AP, there were about 20 Amish-dressed people that boarded my train that night. I wonder if any of them went to the concert?

When we headed back to the car, I saw an organized small line of fans near the tour bus. Did that line eventually get to meet with the band, or were they sent home too? I had to run back to my friend's house after the show to get packed, so we weren't able to stick around anyway.

Also, good to know that we didn't see the TYPICAL set of videos for this tour. I kept thinking "really, Wheel of Fish AGAIN?"

It's people like you who announce publicly that they taped something that's going to lead Al and Bermuda to banning all camera. Ann don't bother editing to take that out, I made a screen grab of it.

FWIW, where I was, security was cracking down on ALL cameras, flash or not. After 2 or 3 people around me got yelled at, I just put mine away. I only took a handful, and I don't know if any will be worth posting or not. I made up for it in Stroudsburg, so no big deal. It does sound like there was an inconsistent/not well communicated camera policy though. I can see why they may have whined at Fred's camera, but it sounds like some people with the smaller ones were told to turn them off and others to just turn off the flash?

gtrmu wrote:Ann don't bother editing to take that out, I made a screen grab of it.

So you WANT all cameras to get banned?

Where I was sitting, they were only asking people to turn the flash off. Yet somehow flashes kept going off all around me. When he came down the middle for Luvr, it was like a paparazzi parade.

I don't know if it was like this every night, but this show had less talking to the audience moments than the previous Al concerts I've seen. My favorite part was:

I want to explain this next song, because I've found that most of my fans have misunderstood its intention. You see, this song is about this guy. It's about this guy who have this unnerving desire, or an urge, to be someone's hog.

*LET ME BE YOUR HOG*

And this next song is about Canada....

I threw the pictures I took up on my Mobile Me gallery page...

http://gallery.me.com/neutrogina#100009

For some reason it put the last picture first and the first picture last...Whatever.
These were from sec A row D seats 1-6. I took probably 3 times the amount of pictures. ALOT of them were blurry. I had trouble with the lighting messing up alot of the pictures. The Amish Paradise and Fat pictures aren't all that great.

Gina

gtrmu wrote:It's people like you who announce publicly that they taped something that's going to lead Al and Bermuda to banning all camera. Ann don't bother editing to take that out, I made a screen grab of it.

It's people like you who are complete douchebags. Why did you take a screengrab of that post? To "tell" on him? Guess what. I took videos at the shows I went to as well. So did dozens of other people on YouTube. And dozens more have shared beautiful pictures with us on this forum. Al, Bermuda, and others know this is happening (as happens at every concert by any artist). What do you think you are accomplishing by botching at someone about it? "Aha! Now I finally have proof that someone took a poor quality video in the concert! There of course was NO proof of this phenomenon before right now! Good thing I got that screengrab!"

First of all.....AWESOME pictures Fred. That polka band was great and to see and hear Al with them would have been incredible. As you know, I got there just a bit too late for Al!

As a Clevelander, I feel the need to apologize, on behalf of the city (of which I have no control, but feel the need anyways), for the lousy streets of Cleveland and the poor directions given around town. Just before we left, I looked up the directions and found that there were indeed detours. If I knew that earlier, I would have let people know!!!! I also feel bad about the "Taste of Cleveland" event itself. We have very fine restaurants here but this was just a lame way of showcasing a few area places with overpriced small portions of food, although the food was good! AND, there was little else to do, but eat.They opened around noon, but I don't know what people would do unless they had lots of money and only wanted to eat!

The "security", and I use that term loosely ,was absolutely awful. I followed the directions on the "Taste of Cleveland" sight which said to call the day of a concert to find out the camera policy! Shortly after noon on Friday, I called and the girl never hesitated when she said that cameras were absolutely fine. She said that the only thing not permitted was video cameras. I took my fancy camera that I don't really know how to use and my small camera and was very excited to take pictures. My brother, a camera enthusiast to say the least, brought his big camera and bought a $30.00 ticket so that he could take pictures. He was nastily yelled at by "security" when he tried to take a picture of the band before Al. "Security" was everywhere and their only goal was to ruin everyone's fun.

On a much brighter note.......AL and his incredible band were phenominal and I was really excited to hear "Let Me Be Your Hog"!!!! Even my "camera" brother, who is not an Al fan, really enjoyed the concert and was absolutely amazed at Al's strong and enduring voice. He became a fan of The "Yoda Chant" in a BIG way!!!!

We parked not too far from the buses, so when the concert was over we went to that area and found the nice little line was forming and immediately got in it. Shortly after midnight we ended up having to leave because my sister-in-law was not feeling well, so we don't know if anyone came out to meet with the fans.

It was a very memorable night! Nice to see Greg and his new haircut and Nancy! I think I saw Dave and Jackie just as we were leaving, but we don't know each, although, since you post often, I guess you're like celebrities, too! Maybe someday we will meet!... And Dave...please don't hate the city of Cleveland because of the bad streets..... we do have many wonderful things here, too!!!


~Susie

Now that pic taking has become as much as an "under the table" dealing as taping at most shows, I don't think it's WOWAY's place to say whether people can announce they taped or not.

I'm not coming down on anyone in this topic, I think it just brings up interesting questions that I honestly don't have the answers to.

It's a discussion worth having (Though probably elsewhere). And next time, let's please do it without the accusations or insults.

What would be even funnier is if a venue banned cell phones, the same way that some government buildings, schools and strip clubs do, because just about all of them have cameras now. Al and/or security would have been in for quite the surprise when he asked us to wave them in the air!

Killingsworth wrote:Great mini-review, Dave! Did Al announce that this was going to be the dress rehearsal show for the UK dates at the beginning of the show or did you find this out some other way? I find it a bit strange that apparently he thought the brits would get references to The Beverly Hillbillies and Charles Nelson Reilly but not Gilligan's Island out of all the songs (either that or for some reason Al thought that T-Pain wasn't as big of a name across the pond) but I guess I'm just not as familiar with British culture as some other Al fans out there.

Beverley Hillbillies... Dire Straits is a Brit band so on the strength of that alone Al decided to go with it... The clip that goes with CNR is self explanatory.. (cheesy TV campy guy) a stereotype were familiar with. Gilliagans island was as far as Im aware never screened here.. or if it was its SO long ago that even I at nearly 46 have no remembrance iof it.. and no TPain isnt much known here.