Weird Al
My friend KA is a Weird Al fanatic and this weekend Weird Al was in town and playing at a venue close to my house. His normal fellow fanatics were otherwise occupied, and so he offered me a ticket. On the floor center section- awesome seats! Especially for the small arena we were in.
KA and I started off with dinner at Cristina's, accompanied by a few margaritas and then headed over to the concert where we met up with Allen and his wife.
Weird Al has always been on the edge of my radar, with his wacky covers, his cult classic film UHF and references to him in the Simpsons and other media. I was not sure what to expect. I certainly was not expecting them to open the concert with the "Chicken Dance" which quickly segwayed into a vignette of bits of covers of popular songs and an explosion of streamers.
First off, he has changed his image. Gone are the glasses and mustache and goatee. In addition he seems to have lost some weight and it really gives his face a chiseled haunted look more reminiscent of Alice Cooper than the jovial Al I remember. On some songs it was somewhat scary.
But it was an incredibly produced show. In between songs there were comic interviews with Al and musicians on the screen over the stage (where he took an existing interview and changed the questions). Also between songs they had costume changes to match the band they were parodying.
But I knew I was in over my head when he did his cover of Don McLean's "Bye Bye American Pie" ("Hey, hey Anakin Guy"). The band was dressed like Jedi's and most of the audience starting waving cell phones and singing along. I really had to strangle the urge to scream out "Freebird". I probably would have been pummelled by fake lightsabers by the audience.
Some of the other songs he did:
"Pretty Fly for a Rabbi"
"Albuqueque"
"It's all About the Pentiums"
"Bob" (a song where all the verses are palindromes)
"Canadian Idiot"
"Weasel Stomping Day"
"Wanna B UR Lovr"
And a whole lot more. I definitely recommend his show if you get a chance
