9/5 & 9/6/15 Portland, OR OREGON ZOO AMPHITHEATER

[pigletk]

There is a great place for standing at this venue - it's a pit really...you have to look up at the stage but you're right there sooo close! I'll be sitting right behind where you gals will be standing

I'm going to Sunday's show and I'm sitting in Section B, Row A, Seat 5

[yankochick38]

So excited for these shows!! I didn't realize this is also Labor Day weekend. Hope Amerah and I can get on planes!!
Really excited for the standing part. Gotta get there earlier to these shows than we did in Del Mar so we can be right at the front of the stage! Maybe we'll finally start a mosh pit during Smells Like Nirvana.

[BullMoose]

You better! He's expecting it now!

[yankochick38]

Short review of 9/5 with HOT POINTS because Portland is waiting:

*The pit was empty at when everyone started getting their places, so we asked if the pit was just open to VIPs when a security lady came over to compliment my hat. She said the pit was open to everyone! So we went right up to the very front.
*This guy dressed as Al from Eat It had a creepy puppet/muppet that was supposed to be Al but it was so creepy and it was staring at me through the whole show and it was singing along to all the songs and I HATED IT
*Al came out for Tacky in the cheetah exhibit and it was great. When he was walking up the boxes to the stage he saw me and pointed at me and sang a line to me and I was like AAAA because does anyone know what to do when Al looks at you????
*I WOOOO'd inappropriately at everything the least bit sexual
*FIRST WORLD PROBLEMS AAAAA he got so sweaty in that shirt by the end of Foil it was really something to witness with the heart shaped sweat stain on the back of his shirt <3 (what am I even saying)
*Around this point I thought I saw and recognized some certain people Al kept going over to and got really embarrased and took my hat off, but later I got a closer look and realized it was not them so I put my hat back on and enjoyed myself again.
*During Fat, I thought he would WOO me but he WOO'd some guy in the group next to us. Don't expect anything!!!!
*After the medley, when we were watching the videos, I was like oh it's mostly like an open standing ish show, Al won't do WBUL. Then Steve came out wearing a scarf but I thought that was just what he wears for the acoustic medley and I forgot. Then Jim came out in the same kind of shirt Al wears for the acoustic medley and I was like wait...they can't wear the same shirt?? Then WBUL STARTED AAAAGGHGG I screamed. Al came right out and over to me and sang the first line to me. I think he knew. He also went through all the people in lawn chairs and it was absolutely insane. People were like following him and like holding stuff up but nobody like tried to grab him or anything. He sang to the elephant girl who had announcements before the show! AND he came back to the stage through the pit??? Like through all the STANDING people?? I was freakin out and just watching him because he was like, in the middle of all of us but then he came up to us bc we were kinda in front of the box stairs he had to go up so he like grabbed my shoulder and pushed me away and I was like oh smurf sorry and he went back up. The whole time he had been ignoring Amerah, who was right there next to me, which I thought was kinda weird. It turned out that he was saving the VERY END for her and I was so happy. I took a video (:ph34r: the only one I took!!!) and it's on my Facebook page which I have linked to on my profile on here so you should be able to find it if we're friends! It was amazing.
*I maybe got a line from White and Nerdy?
*In Amish Paradise, Al kept pointing at me and calling me a FOOL. So rude!
*The people standing center stage next to Amerah left after Amish Paradise. What??? Some small children got to move in closer, though.
*Amerah's phone died before the concert, so she held up her dead phone during Cell Phones. The girl next to me who I briefly thought was someone else earlier was very upset she didn't have a cell phone and her parents were trying to give her one with a flashlight and she finally got one and was so happy. I feel that.
*I had the flashlight on my phone on but I turned it towards the audience because we were so close to Al that when I tried facing it forwards I could kinda see it on him so I was like OOPS
*There were like the poles with the straps going across in front of us, and a pole was in front of me, so I got to lean on my elbows in a dreamy way and watch The Saga Begin.
*Me and Amerah were dancing to Saga appropriately. B)
*YODA was FANTASTIC, as always. The transition between Saga and Yoda, I could see him smiling and it made me so happy.
*It got to the part where he has the audience sing, and he like kept making eye contact with me and I was like oh no and he took the microphone out of the stand and walked over in front of me and Amerah and Amerah tried moving away and I was like, is this happening??? I feel like he was probably trying to give me the Yoda solo? But the stage was too far away? I don't wanna assume or sound like I'm making things up but that's what I felt like was happening there, and Amerah too. It was insane. He went back and put the mic back in and looked at me again and I was like I'm sorry? It would have been awesome to have the Yoda solo but idk if that was even what was happening or if it was just a PRANK.
*Was wary of doing the Yoda Chant along with them, but kinda did it anyway. I think Amerah did a few parts too. The kids around us were just like whaaaaaat is happening??
*Yoda ended and he was all smiley and amazing and sweaty and it was fantastic
*We tried waiting after the show but it was in a weird enclosure and we couldn't see where the bus would be unless it was right behind the stage behind the guarded gate so when security told us to leave we just did. After a mix-up where Amerah and I found out we both bought two tickets to the 9/6 show and I bought two GA tickets to the 9/5 show, we ended up paying just as much as the VIP people did anyway but what can ya do.
*Saw backstage pictures of Al and other people on instagram after the show. Al wore plaid. I cried so hard forever


Can't wait for tonight!!!!!! Hopefully it won't be awkward for Al that we were there last night, too. Last night was my 20th show, and today is my 21st and last of the year, which I feel is appropriate since I turn 21 on the 24th!
Fun times! Here's to more of that!!

[yank]

Thank you so much, yankochick38 for that detailed review. Just read an online review of Al & this show and came here to ask if anyone had any still photos of Al doing the Tacky dance "through the Zoo". How cool would this be! But your review made pictures in my head so it's all good.

Maybe we could get DeviantArt to draw this mental picture some--Al and the animals interacting to his music as he leaps about, like Willy Wonka. Come to think of it, I remember a story about Al donating hundreds of his Hawaiian shirts to Goodwill when he met Suzanne and I was at the time struck with a mental picture of all the homeless men on the streets of Los Angeles, sparkling with the light of a thousand suns from the glitter on those shirts. If Sailor Polka-Moon IS Batman maybe she could draw us a picture.....