Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom
Hampton Beach, NH
July 14, 2004
I left the house at about 11:30 and started on my 4 1/2 hour drive to Melissa's house in Massachusetts. It was a rather uneventful drive, although because my GPS brought me up The Merritt Parkway in Connecticut, it was a very pretty drive. I got in to Melissa's at around 4:00, which gave us some time to relax before we headed out for Hampton Beach for the "Weird Al" Yankovic concert.
When we finally got to Hampton Beach, it was about 5:30, and we immediately ran into Alison in the parking lot. We talked to Alison for a while, and them Marc, and his dad, Vito, found us. They were with someone named James, who was wearing a "Dare To Be Stupid" outfit. He had also worn the same costume to the Foxwoods show, a few months earlier.
We hung out in the parking lot a little bit more, and decided to get something to eat. On the way over to The Purple Urchin, which was a restaurant right above the venue, we ran into Aron and her friend, and they joined us for dinner.
After dinner, we went downstairs to the venue. The security guards took issue with my New Jersey driver's license and refused to give me a wristband, which would allow me to order drinks. So, once we got in, Melissa bought drinks for me. As Melissa ordered us another round of drinks, security came over to check my license again. They finally realized their error, and gave me my wristband.
We had decent seats, off to the side, but close to the stage. We had a good view of the video screen right by us. And the fog machine by Steve Jay was blowing right into a fan, so during the whole show, it looked like there was a storm going on behind Steve.
"Angry White Boy Polka" was pretty high energy, and Al said that people in Hampton Beach liked to hear songs about lepers, so they played "Party At The Leper Colony" next. After that, they did "Your Horoscope For Today," and "A Complicated Song," where much of the audience fell for the cell phone gag.
"Melanie" gave us a guitar solo by Jim West, and then Al said that he wanted to deviate from the usual setlist and asked for suggestions. Jim said that he wanted to play "Sweet Home Alabama." Al said that wasn't even one of their songs, but Jim started playing, and Al sang about a verse before cutting it off. Alison said she heard him practicing the song earlier, so I was kind of expecting it, but it was still great to hear.
They went right into "One More Minute" and walked out into the audience right near us. Al ended up giving a scarf to the woman sitting right across from Melissa. There was really no room for a mobile spotlight for "Dog Eat Dog," so the song was done with a fixed spotlight that sat on the stage. I really liked the way that looked better, as I'm not really a fan of the moving spotlight.
"It's All About The Pentiums" followed, and then back out into the audience for "Wanna B Ur Lovr." This time Al stopped right in front of Melissa and sang to her. I managed to take a picture of that. At one point, Al actually stopped singing because one girl he was singing to was freaking out.
"Trash Day" was pretty low key, and the "Medley" was pretty standard stuff, except for reasons unknown, Ed, the stage manager came out on stage during "Ode To A Superhero" with a giant stuffed vulture-like bird on his shoulder. Jim pat it on the head as Ed walked by.
There was no moshing onstage during "Smells Like Nirvana," and there was a lot of arm waving during "Amish Paradise." During the Eminem video clip, the video clip froze. Then "Couch Potato" had this awful bass feedback thing going on. It was painful to listen to. The rest of the show was "Fat" with an encore of "The Saga Begins" and "Yoda." During "Yoda" he berated somebody way in the back for not singing along.
After the show, we met back up with Marc and his dad again. An online friend, Karen, stopped by briefly to give me some rubber bands for my rubber band ball, and we briefly ran into Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz, who was around long enough for him to say hello, and me to say hello back. We ran into Alison again, and all of us waited outside in the parking lot.
We saw Rubén and Jim leaving the venue, and then the bus pulled away, and Al waved to everybody from a window on the bus. We stayed and talked to Alison for a little while longer, and I showed her friends my tattoos, then Melissa and I headed out.
More Pictures!!!
You can click on the highlighted words above and below to see more concert photos.