What we wouldn't do to see Al

July 31, 2010 –

Yowser, what a day. In typical fashion, we had overbooked ourselves this week so the serious packing for the trip didn’t really begin until after nine o’clock last night. Beck and I finally felt ready enough to catch a little sleep at about 1:30. We were then up and moving at 6:15 and on the road by 7:30. Without going into too many details, the trip was loooonnnnngggggggg, but we checked into our hotel around 4 o’clock. My dad, Grandpa Edd, and Grandma Deb had driven over from the coast and met us for the concert. They went over to the Deschutes County Fair first to check out the venue while the kids got in a quick swim.

Dad and Deb had saved us some pretty good seats, but there were so many people standing at the concert that the kids couldn’t see the stage very well. Becky, Katie, Grandpa and Deb enjoyed the music and seeing Weird Al on the huge video screens, but Alex, Zac and I found a ramp between the first and second floors where we could lean on the rail and have a great view of the whole stage.

Now for the important part – Weird Al and his band were AWESOME, INCREDIBLE, SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDOSHUS and any other adjective you could think of to describe a mucho cool experience. I think Alex was in heaven. Weird Al has soooo much energy – costume changes, video clips, celebrity interviews, pop-culture Al references, fake movie trailers – this concert had it all. The show lasted over two hours, and Al played most of the kids’ favorites (ok, mine and Becky’s too – although I’m a little sad that I didn’t hear that beloved golden oldie Nature Trail to Hell in 3D. Oh well, I suppose life can’t be perfect.) He also had some great new songs; I think my personal favorite of the new songs was Al’s ode to the magnificent achievements of Charles Nelson Rielly. If you haven’t heard it, go to iTunes and download it right now!

Hey, I meant it. What are you still doing reading this? Go download the song and video to Weird Al – CNR.

Okay, now that you’ve heard this magnificent song, you can finish reading this magnificent blog (or at least today’s post). After the concert finished, we waited for nearly an hour to try to meet Al. Some people made it backstage to meet him, but they had to cut if off after maybe 45 minutes, and we didn’t make it. We’ll try again in Costa Mesa. The kids did get autographs from Steve Jay and Ruben Valtierra in Al’s band, and we cheered for Al and got a wave from behind a chain link fence when he made his way to his tour bus. Not that we're stalkers or anything like that. Overall, we had a great time, and we’re all looking forward to our next Al concert in two weeks.

Rock on, dude.