Weird Al Yankovic named his newest concert series the Bigger and Weirder tour. For someone like him, it only makes sense that when his entire schtick is being big and weird, he’d promise to outdo himself every time he embarks in the performance world.
But after a 40-something year career where he has offended hip-hop artist Coolio (and probably the Amish) for his Amish reworkings of his rap music, and angered George Lucas by writing a massive spoiler song about the Star Wars prequels based on very accurate internet leaks, you wonder if he can even get much weirder.
Personally, when I went to the sold-out show at the Cuthbert Amphitheater on August 20, I would have forgiven him if he was only an average amount of Al-standard Weird.
But when the show began with a short-film of a giant Weird Al Yankovic trampling through large city streets, crushing buildings and throwing cars to screaming civilians, I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised at all. He’s still got it. And he’s even Weirder.
People gathered at the Cuthbert dressed to the nines, Al style: wigs, fake mustaches and Hawaiian shirts. Someone even appeared wearing Lorax makeup on their face and a Hawaiian shirt. It was true unity.
The show was set to begin at 7 pm and kept getting delayed because “essential concert equipment” had yet to arrive. The food and beverage vendors were happy, as people kept flocking to quench their boredom. From what I could tell, hardly anyone left out of impatience. We were all zealously waiting for this magical evening to begin.
An hour and a half later, the show began and Yankovic explained to the crowd that their most recent show had been in Alaska, and not some, but all of the equipment didn’t arrive until around 7:45 pm that night (which I can attest to, as I watched it roll in on the lawn while I ate my unplanned dinner).
After an emotional and powerful set by opener Puddles Pity Party (a famous sad clown who, for this show, sang sad love song covers to clips of Kevin Costner), Weird Al took the stage. With a wind machine blowing his flowy shoulder-length curls, and an accordion to murder all accordions, he looked truly majestic.
Over the course of two hours, Yankovic covered an impressively wide range of his repertoire, including some very deep cuts. The first part of the concert was dedicated to some of his lesser known and more recent covers and originals. One of the first songs he played was a polka medley of the modern era’s top break up songs, such as Adele’s “Hello,” Billie Eilish’s “Bad Guy” and Olivia Rodrigo’s “Vampire” where he sang the cleaned-up lyric “bleeding me dry like a gosh darn vampire” with upbeat smiley vocals, a hyperactive accordion and occasional honks (specifically over the profanity in “WAP”).
Then, he popped out his costumes and performed the parodies that we all know and love. He busted out jumping across the stage in a blonde wig and flannel, rolling around on the stage screaming “Smells like Nirvana” where he gargled water to achieve the distorted “oh no” effect in the original song “Smells like Teen Spirit.” He ran off stage and came back on a segway and glasses to sing “White ‘n Nerdy,” with a loop of Mormon singer Donny Osmond dancing on the big screen behind him.
Every single person in the 10-piece ensemble who joined him onstage also participated in the costume changes. During “Party in the CIA,” the band dressed up as secret agents and aliens, and during “Fat,” someone came out dressed as Santa Claus so Weird Al in his fatsuit could punch him in the face.
Interspersed between each costume change was a montage on the big screen of practically every time Weird Al has been mentioned in popular media, from adult animation such as The Simpsons (revealing that he’s been animated so many more times than you probably think he has), to even his own movie Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (2022). It was weird and charming, but also quite nostalgic and offered a reflection into the rather bizarre place he has held in popular culture for so long.
It was an incredibly kid-friendly show to the point where he even performed music he’s written for children’s TV and film (such as the Captain Underpants and Disney’s Milo Murphy theme songs). While there was nothing inherently wrong with these performances, the show would have been better without them, as it felt like they brought about a halt in audience energy and engagement. I’m sure the children who recognized the songs were excited, though.
While there were plenty of children, the majority of the audience was simply adults and their Hawaiian-shirt clad friends. It was a collection of die-hards who were all there for the weirdness.
The show ended with a long and epic bluesy, even gospel-esque outro of “Amish Paradise,” with Al repeatedly insisting “I just can’t do one more!” running off stage, and running back on again to ensure the audience that there would be no encore.
And of course, right after, he and the whole band re-emerged, dressed in full Star Wars get-up. Al as Obi-Wan, and the band as Leia, Darth Vader and Stormtroopers returned to perform his Star Wars songs “The Saga Begins” and “Yoda.” The audience raised their flashlights in the crisp night sky and sang along as he finally signed off just after 11 pm.
Though it started almost 80 minutes late, Weird Al delivered a full and fantastic performance with no alterations to the setlist. It was big. It was Weird. It was all we could have asked for.
