First of all, the Poodle Hat Tour began at a crazy time.
Actually...let me start over.
Al's bassist, Steve Jay, has his own group called Ak & Zuie. They always do shows in California, but they've never done a show anywhere around where I live. (Well, Ak's been there, but he's been minus Zuie, so what's the point?)
This time around, Zuie was hired on to the Al tour as a drum tech for Bermuda. This meant that Ak & Zuie could do some shows outside of California. I was psyched. This meant I might finally get to see them! I'd been listening to Steve's CD's for a few years at that point, and they totally rocked.
The first dates were released. A&Z were playing in New York...New Jersey...Florida... Houston...anywhere but near me. The same went for Al. He was playing on the west and east coasts, and pretty much avoiding the Midwest.
This would not do.
I persuaded my parents (who at this point were becoming Al fans) to go to the beginning of the tour in California. They agreed.
The first show (or the sound check) of the tour (San Diego) was awesome. Cid had made little poodle headbands for everyone (literally, everyone who was there) and the audience was filled with paper poodle-heads. I was amazed at the length of the setlist. I was thrilled to find so many old and loved songs on the setlist, as well as some of the best from Poodle Hat. (I was sad to see Bedrock Anthem go, as well.)
I didn't go to the Kelseyville show, but I heard it was terribly windy and just a bad show in general, weather-wise.
The next show I went to was the one at the Aladdin in Las Vegas. One of the coolest things I saw in Las Vegas was the giant billboard with Al and the guys on it. Las Vegas was like the biggest theme park ever, with special attention paid to the Land of Slot Machines. If I remember correctly, this show had some fog problems. "I got a call from Cheech Marin...and he asked me for just a LITTLE more fog, thanks," as a huge wall of fog engulfs the stage. Good times.
The third one was the one in San Luis Obispo. This was probably the mother of all Al shows. We had a meal at the Madonna Inn before the show with a bunch of other fans (Cid, Kevin, Elvis, Tony Goldmark, Brenda, Kristi, and too many others to list). We went to the auditorium, and there were people outside with signs begging for tickets. (They ended up getting some, thanks to several generous people.) Speaking of generous people, Cinnamon had an extra ticket, so she asked me if I'd like to come sit with her...in the third row! Of course I said yes!
We were surrounded by rabid fans. Kevin came in full Al regalia-the suit that Al wore on the cover of Poodle Hat, with a Wall Street Journal tucked under his arm...and a life-size cutout of Bela attached to his head! He told me it was held on with wire and tape. (He took it off before the concert started, so that everyone could see.)
We weren't the only ones in the audience, though. Midway through the concert, someone pointed out that Miles was in the audience as well! He was way up in the box on the left, dancing to the music. Steve was playing to him half of the time. He even walked over there before Fat, and when the spotlight accidentally hit him instead of Al, he waved, smiled, and walked back to his spot rather quickly.
The concert was awesome. Camera nazis were everywhere (a common theme this tour, methinks) so I couldn't get any pictures.
There was one event that stood out in my mind. Al has battled with his Saga Begins stool since the beginning of time. I have a nice shot of him sitting upside-down on it after he fell over with it at the Orange County Fair the previous year. So it didn't surprise me when, as he flipped his cape over the stool, the stool tipped and he went down. Al, being the professional that he is, didn't miss a beat. He kept singing and attempted to get the stool upright again. It continued to fall.
Then he chucked it across the stage toward Jon's drums. Everyone cheered (except for Jon and Jim, who I think were just a wee bit concerned for their instruments).
After the show, Bermuda came out first. Ruben came out, and made us beg for him to sign things before he consented to do so. Steve also came out (to smoke, but he also willingly signed things as long as people didn't care about his smoke).
Then Skip came out, and informed us that Al was on his way home to see Suzanne and Nina, and that he only had time to wave. Al came out, waved, blew us a kiss and got on the bus.
At this point, I thought my tour-chasing was over. I was mistaken, happily.
Later that summer, the week after I got my wisdom teeth out, I got a call from Moonbeam. She told me about how well the Al tour was going, and about the first Ak and Zuie gig in New York. I told her how badly I wanted to be out there, and she said "Well, why don't you come out here?"
It didn't seem like a half-bad idea. I could make it there in time for the last two A&Z gigs, as well as seven Al gigs. The bonus was that since Moonbeam was moving out to Iowa, she could load her car with stuff and we could hit the Al gigs on our way to Iowa. It might actually work.
I talked it over with my parents, and after a long discussion or two, they agreed to loan me the cash to go out there. I was on my way tour chasing again!
The entire week of Al shows blurred together in my head. We didn't have the best seats, in fact we had pretty bad ones for some shows, so nothing too exciting happened at most of them. (Although in Westbury, we had aisle seats, and Al chose our aisle to come up during One More Minute. He didn't give us a scarf or anything, but he did sing with us, which was cool.)
The A&Z gig was awesome in every sense of the word. (The first one got canceled thanks to stupid management.) Jim even put in an appearance as a guest guitar player. I got to meet Steve and Pete (Zuie) and Steve's son, Ian.
The shows I remember most from that leg of tour-chasing were the Chicago shows at Navy Pier. The setlists were cut short (very short) but there were two shows, so that made up for it, at least a bit. During the first show, Moonbeam and I weren't expecting anything out of the ordinary to happen. We were seated in row M, which was a long way from the stage. But during Smells like Nirvana, Al wound up and threw that cup full of water directly at us! The guy in front of us caught it, but we got completely soaked. (After the show, he just left it under his chair. I hopped over the seat and grabbed it. Waste not, want not!) For the second show, we had seats on Steve's side, but in front of the speakers in row five. As we waited for the concert to start, we noticed that the front row was empty. We decided to go hang out by the seats so that we could take them in case whoever they belonged to didn't show up.
Well, luck was with us, because they didn't show. (If you had those seats, and you were there, I apologize for stealing your seat.) We had a lot of fun sitting right in front of Steve. For those of you that never take your eyes off of Al, watch the band members sometimes. If you catch them in the right moment, they can do some funny stuff!
After the show, Steve came out and told me that Ak & Zuie were doing a show in Houston, and asked if we'd be there. I told him we'd try, never actually thinking we'd be able to get there.
We had a friend living in San Antonio who offered us her home to stay in. We had a car to get down there. We had time, we had a little bit of money, and we had a craving to see Ak & Zuie once more. Besides, there was an Al show right before it, so it would be doubly fun. We decided to go down to Houston.
The trip was an insane venture to begin with. We were taking Moonbeam's dog and rabbit, since there was no one to watch them in Iowa. (My mom was against my going to Houston. Enough said.) Driving to Texas from Iowa is a multi-day venture. We left early the day before the concert. We were going to drive to Dallas in one day.
We would have made it if we had left six hours earlier. We spent the night in Oklahoma. (And by 'we spent the night', I mean we spent five hours in a hotel sleeping and then got back in the car.)
We squeaked into San Antonio with barely enough time to drop off the animals and get ready for the concert. We hopped in the car for the two-hour drive to Houston and we were off!
I really don't remember too much about the Houston concert, besides Al forgetting the lyrics to Melanie. Moonbeam and I were in such a hurry to get down there that we didn't stop to eat, and we didn't even think about eating, and during the concert both of us were starving. We were so hungry that we couldn't even sing along with Yoda!
After the concert, and after we met up with some people, we scurried over to the A&Z show. It rocked (just like all their shows do) and it was far too short (like all their shows are).
Shortly after we moved in to our apartment, Moonbeam and I got word that Al was playing in Rockford, which is pretty close to here. We decided to go at the last minute, bought some tickets and headed to Illinois.
Outside the venue, we ran into A.J. and Fred, as well as some folks from #dementia. We talked with them for a long time. Finally, it was time to go in.
That venue was beautiful inside. It looked like the courtyard of an old villa at night. There were even little lighted 'stars' in the 'sky' of the roof. It was gorgeous.
The show went really well. It was a very historical show to be at, because it was the first time that Jon had ever missed a performance. (Zuie filled in for him, and did an absolutely splendid job.)
After all our traditional after-show activities, we got back in the car and headed back home.
At this point, our schedules conflict mightily with the Al tour as it sweeps through Iowa...dratted things...but we may get to more concerts yet!