Entertainment Monday: Weird Al Yankovic
On September 17, my family celebrated my oldest brother Robert's birthday by going to see Weird Al Yankovic perform live at Proctor's Theatre in Schenectady, New York as part of Weird Al's Mandatory World Tour. Of course, Weird Al has been a brand name performer since that 1980s when his first musical parodies of Michael Jackson and Madonna bought him fame and a unique brand that has never really been matched by any artist since. Make no mistake about it either, Weird Al is a musical artist. His band and he are true musicians and performers.
I wanted to share some of the songs we got to hear Weird Al perform at his Mandatory World Tour concert. Weird Al's entrance was one of the coolest aspects of the concert, there is a big viewing screen set up on stage for the concert and concert goers watched as he walked through the hallways of the concert hall, down through the main lobby past workers and late arrivals and into the performance hall and up to the main stage, while performing his opening song. I have heard tale of him doing this at other concerts, so while it was not an overwhelming surprise it was none-the-less a unique and cool way to kick off the show.
The song Weird Al came into was Tacky, his parody of Pharrell's hit song Happy!
Weird Al performed his classic parody of Coolio's Gangster's Paradise, Amish Paradise, dressed in full Amish regalia.
One of the great things about Weird Al's parodies is that they are of songs that are really popular, so almost everyone knows the tunes and the music, even if they don't always know the parody lyrics.
Party in the CIA, pardon of Miley Cyrus' Party in the U.S.A.
Part of the performance was a shortened compilation of songs that Weird Al has parodied. There were also songs where parts of Weird Al's video's were played on screen in the background while he performed live on stage. One of the songs that he performed while the video played on the screen behind him was his parody of Chamillionaire's Ridin', White and Nerdy.
I really thought the entire concert was amazing and one of the best concerts I have been to. The only drawback for me was that I enjoy dancing at concerts (even though I do not dance well) and being we were in a seated auditorium it was not the most convenient venue for dancing in, without causing a distraction for other concert-goers.
As a big alt music fan one of my favorite songs was Weird Al's Inactive, his parody of Imagine Dragon's Radioactive.
I also loved his song Foil which parodies Lorde's hit song Royals.
If you are considering going to a concert but have a limited budget, I think going to see Weird Al is a great choice, especially for families. His parodies cover so many genres and it's a light hearted and fun evening for everyone. If he does chose to tour again I would definitely go to see him again.
I'm a fan of Weird Al. I think he does the best parody songs because he's a good lyricist. My favourite Weird Al songs are White and Nerdy and Amish Paradise. I really liked Foil which was a song I hadn't heard before. I thought it was really funny and I liked Party in the CIA too.
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