| Concerts Concerts Everywhere! Touring with Scissors February 11, 2000: Touring with Scissors hit Ames, IA. Myself-at the time appreciative of Al but in no way obsessed with him-and a bunch of people I knew (my boyfriend, his friend, his friend's girlfriend, and his friend's family) traveled the many hours up to Ames, singing bits of Al songs and changing the lyrics-such as "Dare to be Bob Ward!". So we finally arrived, ate supper, and just in the nick of time skidded into our near-last-row seats and sat, waiting for the show to start. And waiting. Some kid in the front had a sign-Show Us Your Uvula-that got really old after a half hour. So there we were. Eventually, at about 7:30, the preshow comedienne came on and treated us to a semi humorous look at life-she got a few laughs. She eventually left the stage, and we got on with our discussion. At this point, it was an hour after the ticket said the concert would start. Eventually, the audience figured it out-we started chanting "We Want AL!" with typical Midwest fervor-we quit after about three minutes. We started and stopped several times. Eventually, the Theme Song played and the audience started clapping, cheering, etc. And then he strode on stage-started dancing with the mic stand-and us poor folks in the back are straining our eyes: "Wish I'd brought binoculars!" The show continued much as it did on the video, with the exception of a few gals behind us screaming their favorite lines as loud as they could. Helped me understand the lyrics at any rate-this is before I got "hooked", mind you, so all I owned was RWS-and I thought the concert was really good. After the show, naturally, we had to leave- tres late and the bus had some mean lookin guards around it- so we went home, falling asleep on the ride and reliving the experience. About then was the time that I conned my dear sweet mother into going to Best Buy, where I immediately hit the CD rack. After pawing through and finding CD after CD, I ended up with about, oh, all of the albums I didn't have. I spent the next few weeks cranking them at every opportunity. That is, when I wasn't playing the video.Hitting Al's webpage every once in a while, I discovered the listing of where he'd be. Finding several I couldn't go to-other commitments-I became quite annoyed. Until I saw one-I could go to it. I was determined that I would. After asking friends, the only ones that seemed to be going were me and Ben-and my mom and dad. I ran out and bought tickets the morning they went on sale-and tried like heck to get left side, near the front seats. To no avail. All sold out. I settled for on the aisle center, tenth row back. September 24, 2000: We arrived in Davenport that September evening, myself, Ben, and two other rabid AL fans, Sabrina and Amanda. We pounced on the merchandise, then bearing shirts and assorted stuff, headed into the arena. The Adler is a fun place to attend an Al concert. It packed people in everywhere and then some. The front rows were eight rows of folding chairs. We had the comfy seats. We sat and watched the comedian/puppeteer, he was more amusing than the last one. Since about three fourths of the audience had seen or bought the video, we knew what to do. As soon as the comedian left, we sprang into action with We Want Al. Finally, the song played-I can hear Amanda and Sabrina screaming the lyrics, as I am, and clapping, stomping, our eyes glued to the stage. he came out-we could see him up close!!!!! we could actually see facial features! The sad part was that nothing out of the ordinary (for an Al concert) happened. There were the guys next to us that had props for everything-moist towelettes for Germs, even-and of course, we were all singing at the top of our lungs. Through the whole thing. Can I just pause here to say "Bad MGM!" Smack, smack, smack! The UHF clips were an integral part of the concert experience-why must you remove our fun? Anyway, laughing and singing our way through the concert, we had a blast. And then-it was time for One More Minute. We were really happy, and yet, really sad, for after all, he'll be all the way over *there* and we're all the way over *here*. So he shoots ruben-poor ruben-and begins the song. All us rabid fans are leaning toward him. And then- He jumps off the center of the stage-*right down my aisle*!!!!!! At this point, I'm going nuts-I'm actually frozen to the seat. He meanders down the aisle, pausing when he reaches me to TOUCH MY ARM and then moving down the aisle. Oh oh oh oh oh......I think I hurt my face from smiling so hard. So he's standing there, not three feet from me, singing (and incidentally, staring RIGHT AT ME for parts of it) and then he moves down the aisle with the scarf- passing me over for the chick two seats in front of me. Sigh. But he touched me!! The rest of the concert was great-except no one stood. Ever. It was an audience of living corpses. I'm pretty sure that's why Al looked-dare I say it-kind of bored. He really did. Midwest audiences need to be provided with electric shocks sometimes-STAND NOW. DANCE. And of course, after the concert, we were standing outside, waiting for a ride, when we see a group of school buddies standing out there. They're all dressed in Al gear and looking kinda happy/sad. "What's up guys?" They tell us they bought seats on the left, and Al didn't even go down there. My face takes on a grin. You know the cartoon Grinch, when he smiles and it just keeps going and going? I think I looked like that. "Oh, you mean because he went down the center aisle?" A nod from the guys. "I was sitting on the center aisle-I touched him!!!" The guys stare at me. "No you didn't!" "Yes I did!!" "(insert curses here.) You lucky..." That was the best. Amanda had lost her voice, so she was squeaking at me angrily. As we left the area, we saw a bright red bus-surrounded by people-in Hawaiian and tour shirts-we wanted to stop and see Al and the band, maybe get a signature on a shirt. But the parents insisted we leave, so we didn't get to try for autographs-sigh. Index Orange County Fair Poodle Hat Tour Or do you want the list of concerts I've attended? |
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| Ben, me, and Kerstin after the February concert. |