The Drive: Columbia, MO, is about 2 hours away from St. Louis, but inexplicable traffic jams in the middle of nowhere added an extra hour to that. Thankfully the drive home was in the middle of the night, so there was no congestion.
The Dinner: We ate at Shakespeare's Pizza, a labyrinthine hangout just a block off of campus. I'd been there before (my little brother went to Mizzou), but my wife had not, & she was kinda overwhelmed by the floor layout & the paging system for orders.
The Venue: Jesse Auditorium is in the main administration building for some inexplicable reason. (It's a very large campus; you'd think the primary performance venue wouldn't be attached to the offices, but whatever.) Seating took forever, because they only had 1 door into the auditorium open, which caused a 20-minute delay in the start of the show. And the seats were pretty small, too.
The Opener: Al picked his friend & UHF co-star, comedian Emo Phillips, to open the tour. I had no idea what to expect; all I knew of Emo before last night was his slow, sleepy voice. But it was a great stand-up set!
The Headliner: Al & the band were in excellent form, despite certainly being tired at this, the 74th show of the tour. The focus was on more obscure selections, mostly originals, without the usual multimedia display & costume changes & choreography of a normal Weird Al show. This was advertised in advance & was the main appeal for me to go to this tour instead of just waiting for his next STL show.
The Setlist: The set list is actually variable from night to night, especially the "serious" covers in the encore, which are different at every single show.
"Midnight Star"
"Buy Me A Condo"
"CNR"
"One More Minute"
"I'll Sue Ya"
"Dare to Be Stupid" (Grateful Dead version)
"Melanie"
"Stuck in a Closet with Vanna White" (final performance ever)
"Mr. Popeil"
"UHF"
"Don't Download This Song"
"I Remember Larry"
"My Own Eyes"
"Craigslist"
"Velvet Elvis"
"ALBUQUERQUE" (extended)
"Drum Solo"
"Hit Medley: Eat It/I Lost on Jeopardy/Amish Paradise/Smells Like Nirvana/White & Nerdy/I Love Rocky Road/Like a Surgeon" (but not the way you're used to them)
Encore:
"Take the Money & Run/Taking It to the Streets"
"The Saga Begins"
And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"
