175 - Mandatory Fun

I may have to do the math again just to be sure, but I'm pretty sure that last night was the TWENTIETH TIME I have seen Weird Al Yankovic in concert - an honor I didn't think I was going to experience because of complications in schedule management, cash flow and a serious case of Grown-Up Obligations. Lucky for me I have great friends who will make sure I never grow up THAT much!

Weird Al performed at the Puyallup Fair for what appeared to be a sold-out crowd and I was overwhelmed with emotions and nostalgia from the very first notes of "Fun House" till the very last strains of "Yoda". With nearly every song and transition piece, I was taken back to each of the concerts of previous years. The first one for me was waaaaaay back in 1992, and I haven't missed him a single time that he has come back to Washington State. I have taken all my nieces to see him at one time or another. My daughter's first (and only) concert was Weird Al. I have been on dates that I didn't know were dates at his concerts. I even got to be a part of and experience Instant Karma at one of his shows!

The concert itself was a fitting "farewell" to Al's contract with Sony Records - Mandatory Fun was his final contractually obligated album for the media conglomerate. He hit all the notes that have made his concerts a well-polished multi-media experience, and even brought tears to my eyes reminding me of just how OLD I am by performing "unplugged" versions of his BIGGEST hits - Eat It, I Love Rocky Road, I Lost On Jeopardy and Like A Surgeon - that would have been right at home in a Branson Missouri stage review. It reminded me of an interview I seem to remember where he had said "I don't want to be up here on stage in 20 years doing acoustic versions of my greatest hits", yet there he was and it was incredible :)

The most emotional moment for me was "My Bologna", Weird Al's first "Hit", played exactly as it was *exactly* 35 years ago to the day on the Tom Schnieder Show, with John "Bermuda" Schwartz banging on the accordion case as percussion. Tears of pure joy :)

I'm going to be rambling for a bit, here... just an assortment of my favorite memories :)

• The concert at the Paramount Theater in Seattle just days after Kurt Cobain died, police presence at the stage for in case a riot broke out when/if Al came out to play "Smells Like Nirvana" - There had been much concern that the song would be cut out of respect for the dead. It was really late in to the concert, right after "That Achy-Breaky Song"and then a few of his famed video intervals when the stage went black, and Al's voice came out over the audience saying "This is dedicated to the memory of Kurt Cobain" just before the familiar first guitar licks of the song played to the silent darkened theater. Then the drums kicked in, the lights burst on, and there was Al with the whole six yards - his band decked out in flannel, the cheerleaders in black, and Al in the iconic green striped shirt and scruffy blond wig. The crowd went NUTS. A few folks rushed the stage to try and form a mosh pit (as had been tradition when this song came up in the playlist), but were turned away by the Police. God, it was amazing... I still get chills!
  
• Upon reflection, I think that there were *two* different gentlemen who discovered that I wasn't Gay after taking me to Weird Al concerts on a "Date" that I didn't know was a date. One was a co-worker who was always giving me gifts and saying we should "Go Out" - I kept having to remind him that I don't drink, not knowing I was being picked-up on. We went to the concert together and had dinner together and somewhere half way through dinner he must have realized I wasn't just "playing hard to get" - I really had no clue that I was being hit on HARD. Found out about that one through the grapevine at work. The other was a guy who surprised me with two tickets to see Weird Al, to which I said "Yaaaay I can take my friend Penny with me thanks!" which, upon reflection, I now know the tickets were meant for him an *me*. He ended up buying a third ticket that was in the same row and trying to get them mixed-up so that Penny would be the odd one out, making he and I sit together. He seemed kind of upset and never spoke to me again after that incident... great concert, though!
  
• In Ferndale, just a few years ago, the guy who had a seat right behind us was drunkenly scream-shouting all the way through every song, enough to where our entire group was unable to actually hear the concert. During one of the songs, I just turned around and stared at him intently, which is when I realized he wasn't *drunk*, he was just... I don't know what term to use, "Special Needs"? So I started singing along with him and trying to get him to take it down a notch or two. We became friends for the rest of the concert, and at one point he leaned over to me and said "I'm going to go back stage and meet him after the show!" I figured yeah, sure you are buddy, good for you... but it was legit! He asked me to join him! Back Stage Pass to the Weird Al Meet-N-Greet, got my picture with him and an incredible story for the rest of my life!