2022 was a good year, as was 2021. There were a lot of fun things we did this year, but if I had to pick one to highlight in this post...It would be the day we saw Weird Al and Emo Philips at Artpark.
A year ago, Emo tweeted that he would be touring with Weird Al in the US until October 2022. And being the Emo Philips\Home Movies superfan, I quickly went to my best friend to tell him the news. Both of us heard the news and I told him I'd see if Al and Emo would be in the area. Luckily, they'd be in two parts of our state. The first venue was a little pricy, and mom knew how much this concert meant to me, so she checked to see if Al was tour and it turned out he was playing at another, slightly less expensive, venue.
Sadly, a week before the concert, dad and I got COVID. Thankfully, we both tested negative and were still able to make it. We arrived at the venue an hour early and I killed some time with some photography.
Once it was showtime, we made a run for our seats. We managed to reserve a decent view of the stage for only $30 per ticket. I waited eagerly with Shannon until it was showtime. Emo started his set in sort of an unexpected way on my part. Here's how it went from my memory.
E: I asked the staff here whether or not this area was liberal or conservative. And they said conservative-
He was then cut off by a group of people yelling out a three word phrase that I won't repeat here. (No offense to Emo, but he was kiiiiinda asking for it.)
Nonetheless, finally seeing the voice talent behind Shannon LIVE ON STAGE for half and hour was probably the best 30 minutes of my life. I even managed to finally rope dad into becoming a fan! I also heard Emo got a STANDING OVATION at their last US performance! We're keeping our eyes peeled for when Shan- I mean Mr. Philips returns to the stand up scene.
We had a brief intermission until Al and his bandmates finally came on stage. Luckily we prepared ourselves by putting in some earplugs. It's not that we don't like Al's music, but one of us (not naming any names) is very sensitive to loud noises and didn't want to deal with having my ears ringing the next day (or a crippling migraine). We made a run for it before the encore at the end, hopefully we can stay for the final song mashup next time he visits the area!
Visiting Paula Poundstone last month obviously is the second biggest highlight of the year, too!
Below are some videos taken by individuals who also attended the Weird Al concert.
Pretty bummed nobody uploaded their performance of "Nature Trail To Hell" (in 3D). But when it comes to cherished memories like this, you take what you can get.
