April 10, 2004

Midwest Wireless Civic Center

Mankato, MN

Concert Review

My brother and I took off for Bloomington at about 10pm on Friday night, and got there around 2:00 in the morning, and we stayed the night at his friend’s house. The next day, my brother and me took a ride in his S-10 with the 283 engine in it (fast man!), and shortly after, we went to the Mall of America. A pretty big place to say the least!

Around 5:00 in the evening, my brother, his girlfriend’s brother, and me took off to Mankato. It was about an hours drive. When we got there, we checked into the Super 8 motel, and then took off for the concert. We got there at around 7:30, then I bought the gray band T-Shirt, and we went to find our seats. We were in the 6th row, which was super close to the stage! Much closer than the 2nd row was at the MN state fair last year! We sat in the last 3 seats of the row, and I was in the middle seat. I was looking around, and I notice the stairs coming off the stage and into the audience were on my side of the stage, and not the other, so I already knew that during One More Minute, Al would come into the audience, and he would be right there, so I traded seats with my brother so I could be right next to the aisle, a decision that would change my whole perspective of Al!

The opening act came on stage. Pretty dull to say the least. It was if I had gone back to pre-school or something for half of her act. The other half of her act was perverted and dumb. I want that half hour of my life back.

A short intermission, and the show began. Funzone wasn’t played. Instead, a note popped up on the video screen that said “Tonight’s performance is dedicated to the memory of Nick and Marry Yankovic”. I was dumbfounded for a few seconds, and I was trying to figure out what that meant. I later found out they passed away the day before, so I was very surprised Al did the show.

The flipping channels video played, and then Al came out and performed Angry White Boy Polka. I remember looking over at my brother with his head down laughing his brains out! I don’t know if it was the videos playing super fast or what, but it got him laughing super hard!

Party at the Leper Colony started out with Al saying how he didn’t know much about Mankato, so he went on the internet shortly before the show, and according to one of the websites he visited, the people of Mankato just love songs about the horrible effects of leprosy. During the song, Al played around with the first row a bit. He squatted down at the edge of the stage as he played the accordion, and did some moves similar to the moves he did during the accordion part of Laundry Day during The Bad Hair Tour and Touring With Scissors. Your Horoscope For Today was performed the same as last year.

The intro to A Complicated Song was a bit different than last year. This time, when the phone rang, he said, “There was supposed to be an announcement before the show to turn off your cell phones. So if you could please do us a favor and answer your phone, that would be great. <ringing continues> What kind of idiot brings in- <Jim looks down at Al’s pocket and points out to Al that it’s his phone, not someone in the audience>, and then the song goes as normal. I liked this much better than last year! After A Complicated Song, Al performed Melanie.

During the last part of Melanie, Jim was playing his guitar a little different than normal. Then Al “introduced” the members of the band, then Jim requested One More Minute. This was the highlight of the evening for me, not to mention, the first time I was able to actually see the entire performance in person. When Al came into the audience, he sat in a girls lap in the 3rd or 4th row. He gave her a scarf, and continued up the aisle. As he walked by, I reached up and touched his arm, and he looked at me and nodded, and continued up the aisle. That was the best part of the night for me! Al went a few more rows up, gave away another scarf, and headed back to the stage. About half way up the stairs, he pulled a pair of briefs out of his pants and threw them into the audience.

Dog Eat Dog was next. This is one of my favorites live. Al didn’t wear his hair in a ponytail like he did in WAY Live during Pentiums. Instead, he wore it back like in the Pentiums music video.

Wanna B Ur Lover was another memorable part of the show. Unlike the MN State Fair show last year, he went into the audience, and sang to the front row. I should have some very nice pics to post when in the near future, once the Al gals are able to drool again.

Trash Day was an awesome performance, lots of energy from Al. Then Al went into the Medley. No new unreleased song, unfortunately. Smells Like Nirvana was awesome! A couple things went wrong towards the end, but added to the performance! Steve Jay’s wig fell of, and Al’s microphone stand fell apart when Al was dragging it around the stage at the end.

Amish Paradise was next. I remember looking behind me, and almost everyone was waving their arms, including myself. The audience was super energetic for this song, as well as for the whole show! Couch Potato was performed next.

During Fat, the “hoe” gag was brought back, and Al punched and kicked Santa. Everybody in the audience stood up for the Fat jam, and stood up for the whole encore.

“Darth Ruben” came out and played with the lights to Star Wars-ish music, then showed off more of his powers by playing chopsticks. Then Al came out to perform The Saga Begins. Al showed us is 100,000,000 watt smile as Ruben started playing The Mexican Hat Dance. Yoda was the most energetic Al was the whole night, showing off his smile through the whole thing. This was my favorite part of the show, besides One More Minute. I was turned on auto pilot during the chant. I did all the moves. I was able to get my hands on a bootleg video clip, so I knew all the new moves and everything. I’m sure many people behind me were giving me strange looks, but I was completely focused on Al. The band started back up, and Al turned on that smile again! He said goodnight and waved goodbye, and walked off still wearing the smile!

I am so happy I was able to be at this show. Al really put on an excellent show. This was by far the best show I’ve seen him put on, and I’m so glad he decided to go through with it. Al, you keep doing shows like this, the people won’t have enough strength to even crawl out of the building they’ll be so worn out! Keep it up man!

Hopefully I’ll see you in Iowa on August 14th!

-Jared

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Jared Marker / the27weirdal@yahoo.com