The Capitol Theatre
Port Chester, NY
June 2, 2013
It's been a while since I wrote one of these, so here we go.
It's been and continues to be a very busy week for us. Besides the three "Weird Al" Yankovic concerts, we also had a BBQ, and have a Yankees game, a zombie race, and somehow need to fit four days of work in there too. But as always, Al's concerts are fun and a release from real life, so I wouldn't miss them for anything.
The drive up only took an hour and we hit very little traffic. Our luck continued as I drove by the theater, a parking spot opened up practically right across the street. I grabbed the spot, confirmed the meters were off the clock, and we walked over a block or two to Coal's Pizza and waited for Adrian and Anne to arrive. The pizza there was really good. Jackie and I split a pepperoni pizza and Anne and Adrian split a vegetarian pizza.
I wasn't sure what to expect from Port Chester, as I have never been there before. But from what I saw, it was a nice place. The theater was small, yet beautiful inside. It looked like it had recently been renovated.
There were a few new merchandise items, including a new tour shirt, a hoodie, and a woman's shirt. I got laughed at by the merch girl when I told her I wanted a woman's shirt for the collection. She thought I was joking, then told me to come back later wearing it.
We had fourth row seats, over to Jim West's side. There were some new lights on the stage, and the LED video screen is bright and incredible. There was a new logo on the screen, and on the walls over the balcony, as we walked in, which was a W and an A in a circle. It zoomed in on the screen as the show was about to start, which I thought was a nice touch.
The show was really solid, as it should be at this point, and the crowd was very enthusiastic. I was sitting next to a few people who had not seen the show before, and that's always fun to watch and hear them react.
There were only a few minor differences that I noticed, besides the lights and occasional video clip edit, one being that during "You Make Me" Ruben Valtierra and Steve Jay put on 1980s style glasses. Ruben's glasses were white with white shades, and at first I thought Steve was wearing prescription glasses, but apparently not, as it was the only song he wore them for.
In one of the oddest moments, I've seen, during "Eat It", an audience member, dressed head to toe as Al, complete with wig, glasses, Hawaiian shirt, everything, stood up from his seat and causally walked up to the stage, hopped on, and started dancing behind Al. It was so natural that I think the venue security thought it was part of the show. Al and the band, being professionals, ignored the guy, until Al's stage manager escorted him off stage.
The coffee shop for "Craigslist" was a Dunkin Donuts on Route 1. There were only three stormtroopers for "The Saga Begins." The crowd was very enthusiastic singing along and many remained standing through the full encore. Al picked one guy in the front row to sing during "Yoda" and he sang decent enough to get a round of applause from the audience.
After the show, on the way out, we saw Ethan again, and one the way to the buses, we ran into Jeremy. I walked back to my car to drop off the merchandise, then we waited on a street corner in sight of the buses with a family whose name I did not catch, but we had met once before at another concert. They were impressed at the collective number of shows our group had seen, and very impressed that five of Jackie's pictures were in Al's book. The young son had Jackie autograph his book.
They couldn't stick around because they had a long drive, and the venue security asked us nicely to move closer to the bus area. We waited maybe another 10 or 15 minutes and they had us line up by the buses to meet Al.
Because of the way they set up the line, we were at the very front, behind one other small group. Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz came out and chatted with us and others in the line. He dropped some teasers about two originals on the new album, and then suddenly it started to rain, so he sought cover.
As fast as it started to rain, it ended and Al came out and sat on the stairs to the bus. We had a quick chat, did a photo, and then got a history lesson about Upper Darby, PA. Did you know Todd Rundgren and Patti Smith's grandparents were born there? I didn't either, and I'm not sure when I will ever need to know this.
Jeremy headed out to catch a train, and I drove Adrian and Anne back to their car. The drive home was uneventful, except for some spectacular lightning, and the occasional heavy downpour. It was a very enjoyable evening, good show, good crowd, good venue, great times. Billy Dee Williams would approve.