Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘“Weird Al” Yankovic’ Category

“Weird Al” Yankovic / Puddles Pity Party (Wind Creek Steel Stage at PNC Plaza, Bethlehem, PA, August 4, 2026) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in "Weird Al" Yankovic, Bethlehem, PA, Puddles Pity Party, Wind Creek Steel Stage at PNC Plaza on August 4, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: August 4, 2026] “Weird Al” Yankovic / Puddles Pity Party

This show was announced at the same time as the one in Holmdel.  I chose NJ because it was closer and I wasn’t sure how chaotic it would be to see Weird Al during Musikfest (which can be pit of control).  We had to blow off the Holmdel one because both of my kids were away.  But this show happened to be right during our vacation week, so we wouldn’t have been able to go anyhow.

Last year, almost to the day, my wife and I saw this “Weird Al”/Puddles show.  My whole family was supposed to go but my daughter wound up working and my son wound up going to a concert in Wisconsin!   So, when this show was announced at the very handy PNC Bank Arts Center, I grabbed four tickets for us to try again.

Well, once again, my daughter was working and this time, my son went to the shore with his friends.  Since we had seen the show last year and I’m sure it didn’t change from last year, we sold the tickets and got on with our day.

I would have liked to see Al for the 11th time and to have my kids enjoy him once more (I somehow doubt he’s going to tour again), but ten times is pretty good.

I would have genuinely liked to see the entire Puddles Pity Party set.  We walked in during his set last time, and I was looking forward to seeing the whole thing.  But oh well, you can’t have everything.

Read Full Post »

“Weird Al” Yankovic / Puddles Pity Party (PNC Bank Arts Center, Holmdel, NJ, July 12, 2026) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in "Weird Al" Yankovic, Holmdel, NJ, PNC Bank Center, Puddles Pity Party on July 12, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: July 12, 2026] “Weird Al” Yankovic / Puddles Pity Party

Last year, almost to the day, my wife and I saw this “Weird Al”/Puddles show.  My whole family was supposed to go but my daughter wound up working and my son wound up going to a concert in Wisconsin!   So, when this show was announced at the very handy PNC Bank Arts Center, I grabbed four tickets for us to try again.

Well, once again, my daughter was working and this time, my son went to the shore with his friends.  Since we had seen the show last year and I’m sure it didn’t change from last year, we sold the tickets and got on with our day.

I would have liked to see Al for the 11th time and to have my kids enjoy him once more (I somehow doubt he’s going to tour again), but ten times is pretty good.

I would have genuinely liked to see the entire Puddles Pity Party set.  We walked in during his set last time, and I was looking forward to seeing the whole thing.  But oh well, you can’t have everything.

Read Full Post »

“Weird Al” Yankovic: Bigger & Weirder 2025 Tour (TD Pavilion Stage at the Mann Center, Philadelphia, PA, July 19, 2025)

Posted in "Weird Al" Yankovic, Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie, Funny (ha ha), Mann Center for the Performing Arts, Milo Murphy's Law, Paul Simon, Philadelphia, PA on July 20, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: July 19, 2025] “Weird Al” Yankovic

This was my tenth time seeing Weird Al.  That’s pretty exciting.

I didn’t know if he’d be doing another tour (he hasn’t put out any new music (aside from soundtrack songs) in over ten years!  But this was a bigger and weirder tour.  In practice, this meant that there were more people on stage than ever before–four other people on stage aside from his long-lasting regular band.

Probyn Gregory – backing vocals, trumpet, trombone, tuba, guitars, percussion ; Scheila Gonzalez – backing vocals, saxophone, clarinet, percussion ;  Payton Velligan – backing vocals, guitars, percussion ; Monique Donnelly – backing vocals, keyboards, percussion.

I asked my whole fam if they wanted to go and all three of them said yes, rather excitedly I might add.  But that was a long time before the show.  And so my daughter wound up working and my son wound up going to a concert in Wisconsin!  I was able to sell my two tickets for basically face value and my wife and I enjoyed the show by ourselves.

I assumed that this show would be a kind of greatest hits show, but it turned out to be chock full of songs I hadn’t seen live before and, some that I had never even heard before!

They opened with Tacky, but there was some kind of technical difficulty, so I’m not sure how much of the song they were going to play.  I would have enjoyed hearing it, but it’s not a big deal.

Then he surprised the heck out of me by opening with Mission Statement, the CSNY inspired song that mocks corporate speak.  It sounded great with the backing singers doing harmonies.  Then came Polkamania!  I knew this medley, but not very well.  I had forgotten that he put it out in 2024 as a single covering the ten years since his last album.  It was really fun seeing Billie Eilish in a Weird Al concert.

After the drum solo, they played Everything You Know is Wrong, a song I simple cannot believe I’d never seen him play live before (I see he never played it before this tour!).  It was amazing. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Puddles Pity Party (TD Pavilion Stage at the Mann Center, Philadelphia, PA, July 19, 2025) [“WEIRD AL” YANKOVIC]

Posted in "Weird Al" Yankovic, Funny (ha ha), Los Lobos, Metallica, Philadelphia, PA, Puddles Pity Party, Tom Waits on July 19, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: July 19, 2025] Puddles Pity Party

I heard about Puddles Pity Party a few years ago. A giant (6′ 8″) man dressed like a clown with whiteface and everything.  Who has an incredible voice.  He’s funny, but also not funny at the same time.

I’ve wanted to see his act but I didn’t think I wanted to see him as a headliner (where does he even headline show?).  So the fact that he was opening for “Weird Al” was perfect.  An opportunity to check him out.  Sadly, two things prevented this from being a great experience.  The first is we ran into a ton of traffic and wound up missing at least half of his show.  The second is that we were pretty far back, so it was hard to get absorbed in the show that interacted with the front rows.

But yes, walking in during him singing Estoy sentado aquí–beautifully, of course–was surreal because who knew if it was suppose to be funny.  By the time we were settled he had started Come On Up to the House.  This is a Tom Waits song that is, unsurprisingly, rather sad.  So it’s kind of funny to see a clown singing it, but it’s not really funny–there’s no punch line.

Up next was In the End, not a cover and also not funny.   But again, wow what a voice. (more…)

Read Full Post »

“Weird Al” Yankovic : The Unfortunate Return of the Ridiculously Self-Indulgent, Ill-Advised Vanity Tour (Miller Theater, Kimmel Cultural Campus, Philadelphia, PA, October 28, 2022)

Posted in "Weird Al" Yankovic, Elton John, Emo Philips, Funny (ha ha), Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Miller Theater, Philadelphia, PA, Religion on October 31, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 28, 2022] “Weird Al” Yankovic

This was my ninth time seeing Weird Al.  I’m shooting for ten.  We’ll see if he can muster up one more tour (why did I skip the Strings Attached tour)?

I was pretty thrilled by the first Ill-Advised Vanity Tour.  It was great seeing so many songs that rarely got played (amusingly, I had seen some of those songs on their original tours back in the early 2000s, which is pretty crazy.

I was hoping that this tour would be a whole new set of obscure old songs.  I thought that for this reprise–The Unfortunate Return of the Ridiculously Self-Indulgent, Ill-Advised Vanity Tour–he might pull out “Buckingham Blues” for the Queen’s death or something really odd like “Slime Creatures from Outer Space” or holy cow, “Genius in France” would have blown my mind.

I see that he actually played a largely different set in NYC (which I considered going to, but decided against).   Including “I’ll Sue Ya” (not a favorite, but I haven’t heard it before) and “Velvet Elvis (talk about an obscurity!).  But he also did the two songs that I would LOVE to hear live….and it might have been worth the hassle of Carnegie Hall just to hear “Nature Trail to Hell” and “Albuquerque.”

Having laid out that complaint, we did get four songs I hadn’t heard live before including a wonderful “Don’t Download This Song” and the sheer surprise of “Buy Me a Condo.”  And this new, improved, extended version of “Craigslist” was outstanding.

I will never complain about hearing “The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota”–and the crowd was really into it.

Of course, any “Weird Al” show is a good time.  Al gave amusing introductions to all of the songs and even did an amusing “encore” bt where he stood at the side of the stage checking his phone and then arguing with the band about whether they were going to do an encore or not.

The encore was worth the price of admission.  He did a (straight and fantastic) cover of Elton John’s “Saturday’s Alright for Fighting.”  And the closing medley of songs in very different styles was outstanding.  I especially enjoyed that someone in the audience was able to do the Yoda chant dance. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Emo Philips (Miller Theater, Kimmel Cultural Campus, Philadelphia, PA, October 28, 2022) [“WEIRD AL” YANKOVIC]

Posted in "Weird Al" Yankovic, Emo Philips, Funny (ha ha), Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Miller Theater, Philadelphia, PA, Religion on October 30, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 28, 2022] Emo Philips

I saw Emo Philips open for Al four years ago.  I rather enjoyed his set.  As I said:

Emo’s comedy is really dark but–delivered in his bizarre manner that goes somehow beyond deadpan–it makes his jokes really hilarious

I wasn’t sure if I needed to see his set again–I wasn’t sure how different it would be.  And so, coupled with a Phillies game, it being a Friday night and it taking place in the center of Philadelphia, I rather assumed I’d be late and miss some or all of his set.

I arrived at the show at a little after 8 and by the time I got to my seat I guess I missed about half of his set.

(more…)

Read Full Post »

“Weird Al” Yankovic / Emo Phillips (Carnegie Hall, New York, NY, October 29, 2022) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in "Weird Al" Yankovic, Carnegie Hall, Emo Philips, Funny (ha ha), New York City on October 29, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: October 29, 2022] “Weird Al” Yankovic / Emo Phillips

I did not see this show when it was in Wilkes Barre in May.  However, I did see this show last night

And it was awesome of course.

I secretly loved the idea of seeing “Weird Al” at Carnegie Hall.  There’s just something wonderful about that.

But, having just seen the show in Philly and knowing that getting to Carnegie Hall is just a huge pain in the butt for me, I didn’t even bother getting tickets.

Which is fine.

I love the idea that I could have seen him three times in a year, especially since this tour doesn’t have as much repeating as his full scale tours do.

Read Full Post »

“Weird Al” Yankovic / Emo Phillips (Kirby Center for the Performing Arts, Wilkes Barre PA, May 13, 2022) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in "Weird Al" Yankovic, Elton John, Emo Philips, Funny (ha ha), Kirby Center for the Performing Arts, Religion, Wilkes Barre, PA on May 13, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: May 13, 2022] “Weird Al” Yankovic / Emo Phillips

When “Weird Al” announced that he was doing another iteration of The Unfortunate Return of the Ridiculously Self-Indulgent, Ill-Advised Vanity Tour, I immediately grabbed tickets to Philly.  In October.

It was crazy to me that he playing Wilkes Barre (less than two hours from Philly) in May!

I’m pretty sure my friend Matt was going to this show, and I thought it would be a blast to go with him since we used to go to Weird Al shows pretty regularly (and had even seen him there decades ago).  For whatever reason it did not work out and I had to wait five months to see Emo and Al.

Read Full Post »

Nathan Rabin–The Weird Accordion to Al: Ridiculously Self-Indulgent, Ill-Advised Vanity Edition: An Entirely Excessive analysis of “Weird Al” Yankovic’s complete discography, UHF, The Compleat Al, The Weird Al Show and More (2020)

Posted in "Weird Al" Yankovic, Batman, Comedy Bang Bang!, Film & TV, Food, Funny (ha ha), Nathan Rabin, Nostalgia, Pee Wee's Playhouse, Reggie Watts, Seinfeld, Smarty Pants, The Compleat Al, The Weird Al Show, UHF on January 3, 2022| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: hiatus

[READ: December 20, 2021] Weird Accordion to Al [Vanity Edtion]

This book came to my work and I said, Hey I have this!  And then I said, but my cover is orange.  What gives?

And then I saw that Rabin, inspired by Al’s Ill-Advised Vanity tour expanded this book.  Or actually, since there is very little information about these books, perhaps he wrote them at the same time and released a shorter and longer version.  But why would he do that?

The first 366 pages are the same but, (and here’s the thing that messed with my head) they are not exactly the same.  Now, I didn’t read the same text in both books and compare them (that would be really insane). But I did flip through the book comparing paragraph and chapter breaks.  The text appears to be the same in both books.  BUT, the paragraphs are not!  For reasons that I don’t understand, in book 1 some pages end with paragraph F, but in book 2, with the same exact text, the page now ends with paragraph E.  Like the spacing of a period threw off all of the justification (Users of Word will know what I’m talking about).

So I’m assuming that both books are the same.

And then the new stuff was added to Book 2 (or taken out of Book 1, whatever).

Starting on page 368 we move on to Other Stuff. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Nathan Rabin–The Weird Accordion to Al: Every “Weird Al” Yankovic Album Analyzed in Obsessive Detail; with illustrations by Felipe Sobreiro (2020)

Posted in "Weird Al" Yankovic, Beastie Boys, Crosby Stills & Nash, CSN, Don DeLillo, Dr. Demento, Felipe Sobriero, Film & TV, Food, Frank Zappa, Funny (ha ha), George Harrison, Happy Birthday, James Brown, Jeopardy!, Johnny Dangerously, Jurassic Park, Language, Michael Jackson, Mick Jagger, Nathan Rabin, Nostalgia, Pac Man, Pixies, Ramones, Smarty Pants, Sting, The B-52's, The Beatles, The Police, Tonio K., UHF, Video Games, Wendy Carlos on January 2, 2022| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: hiatus

[READ: December 20, 2021] Weird Accordion to Al

After writing the “Weird Al” biography, with “Weird Al” himself, Nathan Rabin dug even deeper into his “Weird Al” fandom to write a detailed account of, as the subtitle says, “Every ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic Album Analyzed in Obsessive Detail.”

“Weird Al” wrote the (short) introduction and then Nathan drops the needle on “Weird Al” Yankovic, Al’s 1983 debut album.

Nathan goes into varying degrees of detail on each of the songs.  Nathan was a rabid “Weird Al” fan from when he was a little kid.  And when he talks about how much he loves Al, you can see his deep abiding appreciation for everything Al has done.

Some songs get a paragraph, nut most get a page or so.  He usually talks about how much he likes (or loves) the song (and occasionally dislikes).  There’s nostalgia in the older songs and jokes and observations about contemporary things as well (Rabin’s politics poke through once in a while.  Good thing he’s a smart guy.

Because he did the Al biography with Al, he presumably got a lot of insight into the man and his work.  So although sometimes his insights seem like maybe he’s reading too much into a goofy parody, perhaps he’s on to things.  Maybe Al’s depth is deeper than rhyming Sharona with Bologna.  Which is not in any way to diminish Al’s intelligence.  He’s obviously very smart, especially as his later songs indicate.

Rabin’s tone throughout the book is smart and snarky.  He talks about the songs and the video (if there is one).  He talks about the production quality (or lack thereof) on the first album.  He references Dr. Demento (because the Dr is essential to Al’s career).  He also references Don DeLillo’s White Noise and says things like “Al is in deconstructionist mode.” (more…)

Read Full Post »

Older Posts »