Foxwoods Casino
Ledyard, CT
April 17, 2004
When this show was announced, I immediately knew I'd be going to see it with Christina. It had been three and a half years since I had seen her and longer since we had done some road trips together. Foxwoods was always a landmark to me when I went to go see her. I knew when I had reached Foxwoods, I was only about an hour away, so just seeing that come up as a tour date, I knew I had to go with her.
The drive was longer than it needed to be, but I really wasn't on any schedule, so all it did was tire me out a little. I had left to go there on Friday, so I could spend some extra time with Christina and her family. I got to Christina's a little after 7:00 and we had dinner and I got to see Luke for the first time and Erica and Emily again. Luke is the cutest thing, and Erica and Emily have grown so much, but it was just like old times again when I walked into that house.
We spent some more time catching up on Saturday before we had to get ready to meet everyone at Foxwoods at 5:00 for the buffet. We left at 4:00 and got there exactly at 5:00. We were only slightly inconvenienced by a blue car that had gone off the road and was literally stuck up in a tree. It was not something you see every day.
We got an close parking spot in the parking garage, and headed inside and asked where to find the Indian that changes colors, which was to be our landmark to meet everyone. We passed several signs promoting the "Weird Al" Yankovic concert that night, and while I would have liked to add them to my collection, I quickly reminded myself we were in a casino filled with security cameras everywhere.
On the way to the Indian, Melissa spotted us and she joined us on the walk over. We walked nearly all the way around the Indian until I saw a group of people I just knew had to be Curlyfries and Trixie from the Forum. It's amazing how easy it is to pick Al fans out of a crowd. We went over and said hi. Then moments later, Jackie, Allison, and Elsa came up. Adrian and Anne followed, then we all headed off to the buffet of hell.
It was the longest line I ever had to wait in to eat. I felt like I was at an amusement park waiting in the queue to go on the main ride or attraction. After about a half hour of winding and twisting in line, we were finally released into the buffet area where we met up with Skye and Steve.
Due to what can only be explained as incompetence, the people in purple had trouble finding a table for us, and Melissa was threatening to kick some big purple ass if we didn't get a seat soon. I think we ended up commandeering a table for ourselves, which upset the purple staff even more. That's when we found out that Christina had somehow managed to get a table of one for herself. She eventually joined us. I don't know where Trixie and her crew and Curlyfries ended up, but we didn't see them again until the concert.
If you ever want to go out to dinner and have a hilariously fun time, this is the crowd to do it with. There were dancing bananas, and ice cream on the seats, plus a lot of kidding around and joking around from a group of people who haven't seen each other for way too long.
After dinner we headed over to the theater, cutting through the casino. There was a line forming, so we staked our place in line and I headed over to the merchandise area which was set up outside the theater. I ended up buying a grey "Poodle Hat" cover shirt, a black "Poodle Hat" cover shirt, a black Anime Al shirt, a black Al-TV shirt, and a black bucket hat. Christina bought a t-shirt, but after trying on the hat I bought, liked it so much she went back and exchanged her shirt for a hat.
We waited in line for a little bit, and right as we're about to enter the theater, Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz comes out of nowhere and says hi. I gave him a "RockAmerica '85" 3/4" U-Matic with an Al song on it that we were trading, and we made plans to meet after the concert in the same spot.
The lack of assigned seats made things a little disorganized. We ended up sitting in pretty good seats off to the side, split up over two rows. By pure luck, I ended up sitting in seat 27. Christina was sitting next to me, and Melissa was sitting next to her. In the row in front of us, was Jackie, Allison, Adrian, Anne, and Elsa.
We got some drinks, took a lot of pictures, and met up with Whitney at her seats while we waited for the show to start. Eventually some purple people sent us back to our seats, but a few moments later, the concert started.
Instead of the traditional opening of "Fun Zone," the lights dimmed and a graphic was displayed on the video screens stating that the show was dedicated to Nick and Mary Yankovic, Al's parents, who had died a little over a week before. When their names appeared there was huge applause.
Next, the flipping channels video clips came up followed by "Angry White Boy Polka." It was nice to be at a show again. Al was on and off all show. The full energy he puts into every show just wasn't there. Still, not a bad show under the circumstances.
During "Party At The Leper Colony," one of the women serving drinks was standing to close to the stage, and Al went over and started singing to her. Next he did the introduce the band gag, and his cell phone gag for "A Complicated Song." The cell phone gag was changed again since I had last seen it. Al scolded the audience for not turning off cell phones, then Jim West and Rubén Valtierra pointed out that it was Al's phone making the noise.
On top of the drink servers, throughout the concert, there seemed to be a lot of people walking around, and Al took advantage of that during "One More Minute." He would just walk up to them and sing.
"Dog Eat Dog" was one of the better performances of the night. Through the shadows I could see Steve Jay was hanging out by Rubén for most of the song.
Al headed back into the audience for "Wanna B Ur Lovr." He really played it up with the women on this song. He got into their face and sang. When he stopped in front of one woman, and he started to dance, she stood up and danced with him! He also sat on Whitney's lap for some of the song.
"Trash Day" had some new garbage cans lit from the inside, but otherwise nothing new or notable during the song. The medley and "Smells Like Nirvana" were okay too. During "Smells Like Nirvana," he forgot the next verse, and then later threw a second cup full of water into the audience.
The whole audience got into "Amish Paradise" waving their arms, except for a few people in the front row who had to be prodded by Al. Eventually they caved and started waving their arms. "Couch Potato" was probably the best performance of the evening. Either that, or the amaretto sours really started kicking in. It seemed like most of the little energy that he had was put into this song. After "Fat" Al got a standing ovation.
After the show we waited a little for the crowds to thin, then headed out to the lobby area to meet Jon. He only had a minute or two to chat, but he brought me some posters he had been collecting on the tour, before he headed off. So thanks again for those Jon!
We took some more pictures, then after a quick $0.25 gamble by Christina in the casino (she lost), we started to split up and head our own way. The ride home was very peaceful.
More Pictures!!!
You can click on the highlighted words above and below to see more concert photos.
Thanks to Jared Marker for removing the darkness from some of the pictures for me!