| I’m sitting in the back row of this huge barn-like auditorium. I’m bouncing around, in pre-concert hyperness. After I notice how far away we are from the stage, I whine to the lady next to me “We’re not going to be able to see Al!" The entire row of people coming in the door, including Ben, look at me, turn around and go back out. “Yeeha!” We tear down the aisle to the front row. I got the seat on the corner-front row and aisle. We wait for the concert to start…and wait…and wait…and then eventually, it starts! Al starts off the show with a full-length “Laundry Day”. We all sang along. Then, he launched into “Albuquerque”. And again, we sang along. (Which I can do in real life-and I perform it whenever the Lunch C crew needs entertained.) Then, he and the band head off to change costumes. Now, there’s no way for a barn to play his films-they didn’t have a screen, or something. So we were playing in the aisles, running and jumping down the slant of the floor and goofing around. We got bored with that, so headed back to our seats. We then discovered that someone had put instruments under our seats. So we start pulling them out. I got a shiny baby blue accordion. Some boy had Bermuda’s drum set under his chair-he hauled it all out and set it up while the rest of us were warming up. Then, we launched into our very own polka medley. It had all of today’s biggest names-Britney, NSYNC, 98 Degrees, Backstreet Boys, etc. So there we are, the audience, jamming away with this really awesome polka medley. Everyone knew the words, so we were all belting them out. (Except for the wind instrument players.) And out comes the band, stopping and staring when they hear this really cool new song. They shrug, and whip out their instruments. It was so cool. Jim and Steve had theirs strapped like swords onto their backs, so they pulled them out and looped the straps over their necks in one motion. Ruben did a funky little spin and his keyboards appeared. Bermuda looked around, found his drums in the audience, and ran down and squeezed in with the boy who found them under his chair. Al, disdaining those antics, strapped on his accordion. And then they joined in. We play the entire concert together. (Including a spanky little accordion duet…) Then he signs everyone’s instrument (even the band’s!) and leaves. And then I woke up. My Take On It Next Dream |
| Are You Ready To Polka? 12/17/00 |