"Weird Al" Yankovic concert in Raleigh was FRENETIC!

I'm writing this on Friday afternoon.  It was on Wednesday night that Kristen, Chad, Marissa and I saw "Weird Al" Yankovic and his band in concert as part of his Alpocalypse 2013 tour!  I'm still coming down from the high and I think everyone else is too (especially Marissa who was bouncing off the walls so hard during class at school yesterday that she reportedly had to be sedated with Valium).  And after seeing Al live for the seventh time I have to say: this was easily the best show I've seen him perform yet!  Weird Al and his band were positivalutely ablaze with energy and sheer fun.  They were electrified and enthused as I've never seen any performers in a live concert!  This is a man who obviously loves his work and that comes across very well.  I've also never seen an audience so "into it" as they were at this show :-)

So... wanna hear about it?  Of course ya do!!

Al stormed the stage at 8 on the dot with the "Polkaface" medley from the Alpocalypse album.  They did another number and then the stage went dark while Al and the band (John "Bermuda" Schwartz, Jim West, Ruben Valtierra, and Steven Jay) did the first of their many costume changes.  The intermittent periods are filled with various Al videos, such as his "interviews" with celebrities like Eminem and Umma Thurman, his recent "5-Second Films" series and the "Weird" trailer that FunnyOrDie.com released a few years ago.  There was even the "Dirt" documentary!

"A garage band from Seattle.
Well it sure beats raising cattle."

When the lights came up it was Al in his Kurt Cobain outfit as he and the band did "Smells Like Nirvana" from the Off the Deep End album.  Al gargled water from a red Solo cup during that part of the song then spat it upward and threw the cup into the audience.  The crowd sang along after the "...how do the words to it go" while Al feigned forgetfulness.  This song's video is one of the better ones that Al has produced and the live performance does a fabulous job conveying that same crazy spirit.

From there it was a series of many of Al's more recent works, such as "Skipper Dan", "Party at the CIA" (a parody of Miley Cyrus' "Party in the USA") and "Canadian Idiot" (Al's parody of "American Idiot" by Green Day).  Al and the band were dressed in their finest secret agent finery for "Party at the CIA" and Al was perfectly resplendent in a red-and-white maple-leaf motifed jacket for "Canadian Idiot" (the climax of which saw red and white streamers violently fired into the air above the audience).  My favorite of this set was when Al did "CNR": his White Stripes style parody about Charles Nelson Reilly.  I had a picture of Reilly loaded up on my iPad and was holding it aloft and waving it as Al sang!  Alas he didn't see me but later it turned out to be a good thing that I did that (find out why later).

"You're absolutely perfect. Don't speak now you might spoil it.
Your eyes are even blue-er than the water in my toilet."

Then Al hurried back for another costume change while we were treated to more video clips and when he came out it was with a song that truly has become one of the most anticipated of his live shows: "Wanna B Ur Lover".  It's a style parody of the kind of music that Prince/The Artist Formerly Known As Prince/whatever is known for.  This song is from 2003's Poodle Hat album and when he does it live Al comes out in a Prince-esque outfit while carousing among the crowd and serenading ladies in the audience (unfortunately we were close to the front but he didn't come down our side of the auditorium... and Marissa was seated right on the aisle!  Lord only knows what that girl would have done if Al had chosen to sing that to her :-P)

I'm just gonna post a couple more pictures of Al doing "Wanna B Ur Lover" even though they can't do the live performance any true justice :-)

Is Al channeling Gene Simmons??

"Anyone ever tell you you've got Yugoslavian hands?"

"Grab yourself an egg and beat it!"

Following another costume change/video intermission (one of these was "Wheel of Fish" from Weird Al's movie UHF and of course the whole audience had to scream "STOOPID!!  YOU SO STOOPID!!" along with Kuni), Al and his band did "Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies" then a medley of some of his other songs, like "Whatever You Like", "Ode to a Superhero" (Al's parody of Billy Joel's "Piano Man") and of course no "Weird Al" Yankovic concert would be complete without Al putting on the red Michael Jackson jacket and going into "Eat It"!  Hey, that's the song which not only fired his career into the outer stratosphere, it's what for many of us was the very first Weird Al song we ever heard... and we're still tuned into him almost thirty years later (but more about that in just a bit :-)

"As I walk through the valley where I harvest my grain..."

 "Eat It" wrapped up the medley then it was another costume change... and when the lights came up there was Al "looking plain" in Old Order Mennonite garb.  Of course it was time for "Amish Paradise"!  Some consider this to have been Weird Al's best music video ever (from what many already believe is his best album, Bad Hair Day from 1996) and the first several seconds of it synced up perfectly with Al's on-stage persona.  This is one of his songs that the audience really "gets into": everything from waving the hands to some people even whipping out black hats.  Who'da thought that a song about Amish would be such a hit crowd pleaser?

HE is the Lizard King!

(Who would have also thought that a live concert would feature the word "uvula" not once but twice?!  Only at a Weird Al show... :-)

Another costume change and then it was Al looking like Jim Morrison and all the rest of the band as members of The Doors for "Craigslist".  This was originally part of Al's "Internet Leaks" series from the summer of 2009 and then appeared on Alpocalypse.  It has become one of my favorite songs of his for some reason or another.  Instead of "the Coffee Bean" Al changed the lyrics so that they were about a Raleigh-area cafe.  He did that at the Charlotte concert we attended in October 2011 as well.  Gotta love when an artist goes for the local flavor like that :-)

(As an aside, I finally understand what the Indians and car wreck scenes in the "Craigslist" video are about.  Chad told me about Morrison having seen a car crash on an Indian reservation when he was very young and how it affected him.  It's not a big thing but that level of detail is something that makes Al not only entertaining but educational as well!)

Donny Osmond and Minesweeper. Only at a Weird Al concert!

Another costume change: Al in a peacock getup while various members of the band wore likewise outrageous outfits (Ruben Valtierra with a beehive on his head, Jim West wearing cheese etc.) for "Perform This Way": Al's parody of "Born This Way" by Lady Gaga.  It woulda been kinda cool if Al had wrapped his intestines around himself while being set on fire but I guess there's only so much that can be done without the CGI effects of a music video, huh?  Maybe someday he can wear raw meat and throw chunks of it at the audience!  Hey I'd fight for some of that :-)

After "Perform This Way" it was another brief intermission and several seconds later it was "White and Nerdy" time!  Al's rendition of Chamillionaire's "Ridin'" is another of Al's recent songs that became an instant classic  Al arrived on stage riding a Segway while a crazy montage of clips played on the screen behind him.  We'd forgotten about how much Donny Osmond was in the music video... and there's even MORE of him in the concert edition!!  Another song that the audience can't help but get themselves involved in :-)

Al and the band had performed a hefty number of their tunes for our pleasure, but of course they weren't going to let the evening end without "Fat": Al's parody of Michael Jackson's "Bad".  I've heard that it took Al four hours to get into makeup and costume for the music video in 1988.  The live concert version takes him something like forty seconds!  Is this guy a show-business beast or what?

Considering that it's "Fat", here's Al in an extra-wide photo...

"You know I'm FAT, I'm FAT, you know it!"

Then Al introduced the band members and thanked the audience and said "Good night Raleigh!"

But as any veteran of a Weird Al concert knows: this is NOT the end of the show...

A few minutes later Ruben came on dressed as Darth Sidious from the Star Wars movies.  He played a spooky organ interlude as a Tusken Raider, several Stormtroopers, Boba Fett, Chewbacca and Darth Vader himself (all courtesy of the 501st Legion) paraded onto the stage.  They were followed by Al and the remaining band members dressed as Jedi Knights.  And so it was that Al did "The Saga Begins": a parody of "American Pie" so spot-on that Don McLean complained that for awhile he was singing Al's song instead of his own!

There was one final song to perform.  Not just a "song", but a transcendental experience unlike any other.  You see, "Yoda" is far more than a Star Wars-inspired parody of "Lola" by the Kinks.  It is several minutes' worth of communion with the inner geek we all share.  The culmination of which is the very, very strange, wildly surreal and unbelievably coordinated "Yoda Chat" that Al and his band go into.  How it began and how the guys practice it will likely always be a total mystery but the Alpocalypse 2013 version is certainly the longest Yoda Chant they have done in all my years of attending Weird Al concerts!

 Then Al and the band said their final goodbyes to the audience and we all got up from our seats happy and content and totally, totally exhilirated from an evening of pure undiluted WEIRDNESS.  And a few seconds later we got a surprise: our friend Eric and his two sons were in the audience behind us!  They had come all the way from Charlotte for the show and he'd wondered if he would see us there.  Turns out that my waving around Charles Nelson Reilly's pic on my iPad during "CNR" was spotted by Eric and he knew where to find us after that.  Gotta love how things turn out like that :-)

But of course, we were NOT going to go home without attempting to meet Weird Al.  Fortunately there was a small line waiting at his tour bus and he graciously spent several minutes greeting his fans and signing autographs!  He signed my copies of When I Grow Up and Weird Al: The Book (Kristen got that for me for Christmas).  Then he let us get photos with him.  Here is life-long best friend Chad and I with Al.  This really meant a lot to me, since Chad is the one who first introduced me to Weird Al's music all the way back in March of 1984!  This was his first Al concert.  Somehow, it seems like there's a sense of completion at long last...

Me, Weird Al, Chad

Is Weird Al putting the moves on MY girlfriend?!?

And there is Weird Al, Kristen and me.  We even got to tell Al about how his music was one of the things that we had in common with each other when we first met and how it has become one of the bigger parts of our relationship!  He seemed rather fond and appreciative of that :-)  Before the show we met a couple and the lady was extremely pregnant.  I told her that my girlfriend thought she looked so beautiful the way she was cradling her unborn child and how wonderful they were to be introducing the kid to Weird Al music already!  Lord willing, that will be Kristen someday and if they coincide we will CERTAINLY take him/her to an Al concert before the decanting takes place!

So the four of us and Eric and his two boys all got to meet Al and tell him and the band that it was a terrific show.  One that if you can, you really should try to see sometime during this tour!  It really was the best and craziest and funniest that I've ever seen Weird Al do in live performance.  It was also the best audience that I'd ever witnessed for an Al show.  Like Kristen and I were discussing yesterday afternoon: this world would have been far less interesting and much poorer if it weren't for "Weird Al" Yankovic running loose in it :-)

Mash here for the official WeirdAl.com website and see if he's coming to a town near you!  Buy tickets and then use them!  You won't regret it :-)

(Thanks to Kristen for taking so many awesome photos of the show!)

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"Weird Al" Yankovic makes music history with "Polka Face" video!

Here's the just-released music video for "Polka Face", the medley from "Weird Al" Yankovic's latest album Alpocalypse! And with it, Al has achieved something that to the best of my knowledge has never been done before by any musical performance artist: producing a music video for EVERY track from a single album!

Congrats Al! And the "Polka Face" video is hilarious!! :-)

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Review of ALPOCALYPSE: "Weird Al" Yankovic has conquered again!

Yesterday, June Twenty-First, Two Thousand and Eleven... was a date which will live in hilarity! It was almost five full years coming, but at last we "Yankovictims" (that term will make sense once you watch the accompanying DVD) got a new album from the crown prince of parody: "Weird Al" Yankovic!

Yes folks, the Alpocalypse has cometh!

I drove more than an hour and a half yesterday afternoon so a group of friends could party like true Al-oholics and enjoy listening to Alpocalypse together (contrary to rumor, Twinkie wiener sandwiches were not served... although they were contemplated during the planning stages).

So, what sayeth this life-long Weird Al fan? Alpocalypse was well worth the wait. And going further than that: this is some of Al's freshest and most vibrant material ever. I must confess than when Al began releasing many of the songs from this album two years ago as part of his Internet Leaks collection, that I couldn't help but worry: "If he keeps releasing songs before the album, what's going to be left for the album itself?!"

Be of good cheer, fellow Al-iens! Because this album is so well-balanced and orchestrated, that even if you know the Internet Leaks songs by heart, they'll feel all shiny and new when you hear them on Alpocalypse. How many other recording artists can pull off that trick? Only two honestly come to mind: The Beatles, and Elvis. That alone says much about Al's prowess as a musician, when ya think about it.

Okay well, on to the review!

Track 1: "Perform This Way" - A dead-on spoof of Lady Gaga's "Born This Way". Al released the music video for this song on Monday and it has gone viral big-time! I'm hearing a lot of people say that this is Al's best video since the one for "Amish Paradise" fifteen years ago... and it is definitely a hoot! The song itself is full-tilt distilled essence of Gaga's bizarre wardrobe. Al said earlier that this album was waiting for the next pop culture paradigm shift for him to parody. I would say that with "Perform This Way", mission accomplished! I foresee this song will be hot in demand on the karaoke circuit :-P

Track 2: "CNR" - One of the Internet Leaks songs (first reviewed here). A style spoof of the White Stripes, praising the metahuman might of the one and only Charles Nelson Reilly (similar to the popular "Chuck Norris Facts" floating around the Internet). I love this song! It's just plum catchy and that it's about Charles Nelson Reilly makes it all the more fun. And strangely quotable: "He had his very own line at the D-M-V, he made sweet sweet love to a manatee, oh yeah!"

Track 3: "TMZ" - A parody of Taylor Swift's "You Belong With Me". Is it okay to say that "TMZ" is very entertaining... but it's also something of an indictment against our celebrity-obsessed media, and culture in general? Weird Al songs very rarely engender that kind of sober reflection on real life. But in true Al fashion, he does so with his unique style and good humor. And Al has captured Taylor Swift's style perfectly. I've already heard "Perform This Way" played on the radio and "TMZ" is just as worthy of airplay!

Track 4: "Skipper Dan" - Another song from the Internet Leaks set (first reviewed here). A Weezer-style original song about a poor guy who could have rocked 'em on stage and film, but instead has wound up a guide on the Jungle Cruise ride at Disneyland. Every time I listen to this, I can't help but feel sorry for this dude. But it also ends on a bit of an upbeat note (especially if you watch the music video).

Track 5: "Polka Face" - THIS MIGHT BE THE FUNNIEST POLKA MEDLEY AL HAS EVER ARRANGED!!! Obviously "Pokerface" by Lady Gaga is in the medley (it's the first song to get the polka treatment) and also in the mix are Justin Bieber's "Baby" and "Tik Tok" by Kesha. I would rank this as perhaps my favorite polka medley that Al has done alongside "Polka Your Eyes Out" from Off The Deep End and "The Alternative Polka" from Bad Hair Day. It's just... go listen to it for yourself! I haven't the verbiage to describe how awesome "Polka Face" is!

Track 6: "Craigslist" - Originally released two years ago this month (original review here), this wound up my most favorite song from the Internet Leaks set. Two years later and it seems even more energetic now that it's on a proper album! Al sings about the anarchic Craigslist website, in the style of Jim Morrison and The Doors (with Ray Manzarek himself doing keyboard accompaniment!) At our lil' Alpocalypse release party last night I was wearing my "Craigslist" t-shirt that I got at Al's concert in Knoxville last year (LOOK HERE! :-) and... just couldn't help getting up to imitate Al's performance. Probably a good thing (for once) that that won't make it on YouTube :-P This was my favorite Internet Leaks song and it's one of my favorite on Alpocalypse. And as a dear friend noted, it's likely the only song in existence to make so many references to "styrofoam peanuts"!

Track 7: "Party In The CIA" - Miley Cyrus' "Party In The U.S.A." goes to Langley, as Al sings about the trials, travails and tribulations of an agent of the Central Intelligence Agency. Has "water-boarding session" ever been used in a song before? Well, it sure has now. Another Al song that is inherently catchy!

Track 8: "Ringtone" - First released in August 2009, Al channels Queen and Freddie Mercury to mock the never-ending inanity of cell phone ringtones. Like the other Internet Leaks releases, "Ringtone" seems newly frenetic on this album.

Track 9: "Another Tattoo" - Parody of "Nothin' On You" by B.o.B. featuring Bruno Mars. LOVE THIS SONG!! Maybe it has something to do with how I've been watching for some time that there is too much tattooin' going on out there these days! Seriously people, don't you realize what a tattoo actually is? It's a permanent reminder of your temporary insanity! Something which Al celebrates(?) in this song. Favorite part? Boba Fett... playing clarinet!

Track 10: "If That Isn't Love" - an original song done in the style of Hanson (who I first heard about on CBS' The Weird Al Show back in '97). This one was fun the first time I listened to it and it's starting to grow on me even more. My personal favorite of Al's "love songs" is still "Since You've Been Gone" but this one is pretty good too :-)

Track 11: "Whatever You Like" - First released in October 2008, "Whatever You Like" was retro-actively declared to be the first of the Internet Leaks collection (original review here). Nearly three years later and Al's parody of T.I.'s "Whatever You Like" (yes the parody shares the same name as the original :-) seems even more fitting and appropriate to the times in which we live! A rollickin' fun anthem - or dirge, if you like - for our current economic downturn.

Track 12: "Stop Forwarding That Crap to Me" - I was literally honking with laughter when we played this song for the first time! But it took me awhile to recognize what Al is doing here: a style parody of Jim Steinman, who has written a lot of songs for Meat Loaf and Bonnie Tylor. And Al retains Steinman's signature lyrical flow with this screed-in-song protesting junk e-mail about cookie recipes and Mister Rogers' exploits in Vietnam. An awesome song and in my mind the perfect way to wind down Alpocalypse.

And that is the album itself. But that's NOT all! Because if you choose to buy Alpocalypse in stores you've got a choice between the CD alone, or for a few dollars more the CD along with a DVD with music videos for ten of the songs on Alpocalypse! The video for "CNR" (animated by JibJab.com) was released along with the Internet Leaks single two years ago. So were the videos for "Skipper Dan" (animated by Divya Srinivasan), "Craigslist" (live-action directed by Liam Lynch) and "Ringtone" (produced by Josh Faure-Brac and Steven K.L. Olson). Well for Alpocalypse we also get new videos like the Bill Plympton-animated "TMZ" (which might inure you to the sight of a naked butt, if you aren't already), "Party In The CIA" animated by a bunch of different people and directed by Roque Ballesteros, "If That Isn't Love" helmed by Brian Fisk, "Whatever You Like" (animated and directed last year by Cris Shapan) and the kinetic typographically-animated "Stop Forwarding That Crap To Me" produced by Koos Dekker. But by far the video that will be most analyzed by Al fans is the one for "Another Tattoo": Augenblick Studios' dizzying montage of eclectic body art, some of which has until now probably never been conceived of by mortal man. Or woman for that matter. And yes: Boba Fett does get to play clarinet. You'll see. Along with... wait, what is that happening to Papa Smurf? It's just a shame that the video for "Perform This Way" couldn't make it onto this disc. But word is that Al is even now working on a video for "Polka Face": his first ever for a polka medley! That means that there will soon be a music video for each and every song on Alpocalypse! Hey, maybe we'll get another release of this album with an updated DVD in the near future. I would certainly plunk down more coin for it!

So I'm gonna give Alpocalypse by "Weird Al" Yankovic my biggest-most possible recommendation: it's well worth buying from a store or from Amazon.com or from iTunes, but I must heartily suggest the CD/DVD combo: it's probably the best single original package of music entertainment that I've come across in a heap many moon. On a scale of 1 to 10, I hereby give Alpocalypse a 27... and 1/2!

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ALPOCALYPSE... WOW!

We are now just over three weeks away from the Alpocalypse!!!

Y'know, I'm still giggling more than is probably good for one's health about how Weird Al has taken the place of Famine among the Four Horsemen :-P

So many people tried to access "Weird Al" Yankovic's online store yesterday that they crashed the server!

And no wonder...

- Alpocalypse CD/DVD ($13.99)

- Alpocalypse CD ($10.99)

- Alpocalypse Deluxe Package ($29.99)

- Alpocalypse Super Deluxe Package ($99.99)

Most people will probably go for the CD/DVD set, which includes the standard music disc and a DVD containing music videos for ten of the songs. The Deluxe Package includes all that plus a limited edition 18"x24" gallery quality Alpocalypse album art lithograph. And the Super Deluxe Package? It has the CD, the DVD, AND a limited edition SIGNED AND NUMBERED cover art lithograph, and also a "highly limited run 4'x4' Alpocalypse Wall Mural made by Fathead".

Yowza!! C'mon, spring for the Super Deluxe Package. You know that you're lusting for it badly! And it'll be your chance to clear your conscience for all those Weird Al songs that you've been downloading for years without paying for them, you hooligan!!

Here's the track listing for Alpocalypse!

1. "Perform This Way"
2. "CNR"
3. "TMZ"
4. "Skipper Dan"
5. "Polka Face"
6. "Craigslist"
7. "Party In The CIA"
8. "Ringtone"
9. "Another Tattoo"
10. "If That Isn't Love"
11. "Whatever You Like"
12. "Stop Forwarding That Crap To Me"

Well, "Polka Face" is almost certain to be the traditional medley. But I'm wondering which (if any) of these are gonna be an extra-long which Al has been putting on his albums since 1999's Running With Scissors. Five of these are songs that Al has been releasing during the past couple of years as part of the Internet Leaks collection. 'Course we all know the recent events concerning "Perform This Way" (that its video isn't included on the DVD would indicate that it's still in production). And the rest? "Party In The CIA" especially sounds like a lot of fun :-)

Can't wait until June 21st! I'm gonna go ahead and pre-order a copy... but I'm also gonna be at the nearest big box store bright and early just to behold the sight of a new Weird Al album on the shelves ;-)

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2011: Year of the ALPOCALYPSE!

Pestilence. War. Death. Weird Al?!?!?

Anyone else think it's funny that the man famous for so many song parodies about food has taken the place of Famine among the Four Horsemen? :-P

(Gotta love the use of Orff's "O Fortuna" too!)

Save the date! June 21st heralds the coming of Alpocalypse: the first original album that "Weird Al" Yankovic has produced in five years! And behold the album cover art!

Best. Weird Al. Cover. Ever!

And on a happy note, Al has announced that his parody of Lady Gaga's hit "Born This Way" will be on the new album after all! Not only that but "Perform This Way" will be hitting iTunes on Monday. Turns out that Lady Gaga loved Al's spoof (it was all a misunderstanding or miscommunication or something).

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches toward Lynwood to be born? The Alpocalypse cometh June 21st!!!

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