Weird Al Yankovic @ Byham Theater, Pittsburgh, PA
Live Reviews | Jul 9th, 2007
Band Links: link
Growing up in the 80’s had an astounding effect on my life…Weird Al in particular. I owe my strangeness and goofball nature all to him. When Weird Al parodied some crappy song like “Bad” or “Like A Surgeon” it made singing along with that song on the radio plausible…even if I was singing Weird Al’s lyrics instead. Well, up until about three years ago, I had never witnessed the multimedia extravaganza, which was Weird Al Yankovic in concert. Let’s just say that, after seeing him live for the first time, I knew that it would only be the first of many. And here you go, three years later and it’s my second time.
I’ve been checking Weird Al’s website since the last time I saw him and lo and behold, he released a new top ten album with a tour to follow. Yes! Pittsburgh was on that list. If it wasn’t, I think that I would have traveled to Ohio or Maryland just to see him again. Thank you, Weird Al, for keeping my travel schedule light. I bought my ticket the minute they went on sale and managed to get a really good seat. Now, I usually don’t get super excited for concerts but as the days counted down, I found myself as giddy as a schoolgirl in a room full of sweaty quarterbacks. Again, this show happened to fall on a Saturday so I got to sit around most of the morning and play video games before heading out. After picking up a Primanti sandwich, the show was on!
Weird Al didn’t waste any time getting the show started. 7:30 and BAM…polka your eyes out! The show kicked off with Al’s latest Polkaramafest with a video mash up of all the videos in it playing on the screen behind the stage. Immediately after that he broke loose with “Canadian Idiot”, his parody of Green Day’s “American Idiot”. As is customary with a Weird Al show, there are tons of costume changes and video clips during those costume changes. Al dressed like Puff Diddy for “It’s All About The Pentiums”, put on his finest Amish hat for “Amish Paradise”, summoned the Jedi suit for “The Saga Begins” and of course wore the fat suit for, what else but “Fat”. He also played some tracks that never appeared on an album or lesser know tracks that he seldom plays live. “You’re Pitiful” is a cover of James Blunt’s “You’re Beautiful” that didn’t quite make it onto “Straight Outta Lynwood” due to Atlantic Records withdrawing James Blunt’s approval for the song to be used. Weird Al dressed in layers for this song, removing a t-shirt every so often much like in the original video, until he revealed an “Atlantic Records Sucks” shirt and then a Spongebob shirt. He then removed his pants to reveal a pink tutu and boxer shorts with hearts on them. Tee hee. He also played everyone’s favorite song about palindromes simply titled “Bob”. Weird Al also does a medley of snippets from his songs at his shows. The particular medley for the night included “E-Bay”, “Couch Potato”, “Eat It”, “Ode To A Superhero” and updated verse in the form of “Headline News” about Paris Hilton getting arrested and going on Larry King. The best part about that was that the last line went like this, “So why are we supposed to care?”. Classic.
Weird Al also played some of my all time favorites like “Yoda”, his parody of the Kinks “Lola” and “Smells Like Nirvana”, which of course is a parody of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. “Smells like Nirvana had the full on treatment as well with cheerleaders and Nirvana outfits. Al almost smashed his accordion on stage. Almost. Of course, he had to get in the song that gave him his first top ten single and his first top ten album, the ode to dorkiness, “White and Nerdy”. How cool is it when someone comes on stage on a segway and performs half a song? How cool is that!?
Weird Al usually closes out the night with “Fat”, his parody of Michael Jackson’s “Bad” where Al comes out in the fat suit from the video but recently he’s been playing the epic twelve minute long Weird Al original “Albuquerque” which closed out “Running With Scissors”. The encore was comprised of just that song. After that, the place went nuts and the crowd gave Weird Al a five-minute long standing ovation.
I can tell that I had a good time when my face hurts from smiling and laughing for two and a half hours straight. Just listening to Weird Al takes me back to my childhood so you can imagine how much fun it was to see him live and in person. His set list was drastically different from the last time I saw him, but as most great performers do, they change it up with each and every show. I got to see some old favorites, some new favorites, more costumes than a circus, a segway, Kevin Federline, explosions, a freak dressed up like a Jedi (and I’m not talking about Weird Al or his band) and most importantly, the funniest man in the known universe, Weird Al Yankovic. Damn, I wish he were playing again tonight.
