weblog.helpware.net

I want to review last nights Weird Al Yankovic concert help at Hamer Hall, Melbourne Australia (23rd March 2007).

Last time we saw Al live in Melbourne was Oct 2003. According to Wikipedia this was Al’s first overseas tour. It’s a lot of work to put on a show this size. Even more to transport it to the other side of the world and perform live while jet-lagged. We love you Al and team for making it to Australia yet again. We love that you always give 110% at all your performances.

There were 10 in our party. 4 adults and 6 kids. AU$80 a ticket. On the way in we waved to various people we new.

So the concert started at 8pm, and kicked off fairly promptly with a local standup comedian. Same comedian and same jokes as the 2003 tour. A bit too crude given the young kids in the audience. Anyway it was over fairly quickly and we all waited with great anticipation for Al.

And we waited. And we waited. We watched for 30 mins as the 3 projectors each continuously performed 5 min countdowns. Eventually there was an announcement that there was in fact technical difficulties and Al would be out shortly to give us the best show ever. Al said later they had problems with the Video server. Lukily Aussies are fairly easy going. After the announcement we all got up and stretched , mingled, chatted, bought refreshments etc.

After 9:30pm on comes Al and… we are blind (talk about that soon). The show featured all the new songs from Al’s new album, Straight Outta Lynwood, and (from memory) kicked off with the Polkarama medley from the album. It was a good strong show. We were delighted that he did the last part of “Trapped in a Drive-Thru” including Led-Zepplin on the radio bit . The usual strong end with “The Saga Begins”, followed by “Yoda”. The the funny Hucka type chant this time included the “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oye, Oye, Oye” cry. Ending with some classics “Eat it” and “FAT”.

Al is never one to disappoint Fan’s. And despite the very late start Al put on a solid encore which the fans loved and so delivered a full 2+ hrs of concert. Finishing at 11:45pm giving fans just enough time to catch the last train out of Flinders Street station.

Thanks Al and team you rock!

Blinded

This is where technology can go horribly wrong. For about 1/3 of the performances we were almost blinded by a spot light. Behind the band were 2 motorised intensely glarey piercing lights. We were in the Circle (first big balcony seating several hundred people. There’s another larger balcony above that). Unfortunately for most of the performance they directed these intense lights directly into our faces (probably over a hundred people were effected). Apart from blinding us, they completely obscured our view of the main performer on stage (since the lights were just behind Al).

Here is some video that fairly accurately shows you how awful it was. The entire night for me spent squinting in discomfort, and wondering if I should disturb everyone by walking out and finding the lighting manager so I could explain this intolerable situation. Well 1/3 of the night.  The lights sometimes swung away, and were turned off during the Videos segments.

or click here to open the video in a separate window

These stills show pretty accurately how the spot light at the rear of the stage obscured our view of Al (forgetting for a moment how uncomfortable it was)

“The Saga Begins” .. I think we can see Al’s legs

Ah… no light. We can see Al

Spoke too soon

 If you were at the concert and had the same problem, here is the official place to complain to:

• Lennard Promotions Pty Ltd. 34 Queens Rd Melbourne VIC 3004. Ph (03) 98664536

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 24th, 2007 at 2:04 pm and is filed under Music, Rob's Stuff. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.