Best Concert Ever

For at least the last 20 years, I’ve dreamed of seeing “Weird Al” Yankovic in concert. Tonight that dream came true.

Holly and I have seen a lot of concerts since we’ve been married. One day I decided to try and list just who we’ve seen and how many times we’ve seen them. I think that I came up a total of around 60 different concerts. (That is including seeing the same artist multiple times.) We’ve seen some pretty entertaining performances: Garth Brooks, Neal McCoy, Joe Diffie, Billy Joel, John Denver at an outdoor venue in the mountains… None of them compared to what I witnessed tonight. It was simply the very best live concert that I have ever been a part of.

The concert was at the Utah State Fairgrounds. I gotta say that I wasn’t expecting much. Well, it’s “Weird Al” so I was expecting a good show but it’s at the fair. The fair is either where country artists perform (self explanatory when you see the fair patrons) or where crappy bands go to postpone their inevitable total fall from the public view before they start selling greatest hits compilations with an unknown actor/actress on late night television. The location didn’t even cross my mind once the music started.

I wasn’t expecting to see an opening act. Who opens for “Weird Al”? Some wannabe that dreams of one day making it big? I don’t think so. I was pleasantly surprised to see Todd Johnson, one of my favorite local comedians, get a 20 minute set to kick of the evening. I’m cool with stand-up comics opening for this type of a show. People are coming to laugh and and have fun. It was appropriate. I think that we had heard all of the jokes that he told but they were still funny.

Finally the moment that we came for arrived. Al came out on stage playing a very slow polka that morphed into Polkarama! from his Straight Outta Lynwood CD, Chicken Dance and all. It was great but a bit disturbing seeing him sing the lyrics “Don’t you wish your girlfriend was hot like me?”

Next up was Canadian Idiot which was abruptly halted after only a few lines of the song. It appeared as though there was some sort of technical difficulties since he was singing but nobody could hear him. He said that we didn’t need to hear that song right now and started singing something that I’ve never heard before. Everybody seemed a bit confused by the abrupt change in the song but once this unknown piece was finished, Canadian Idiot was played in its entirety.

At this point, the night became a blur. Al sang so many songs that I couldn’t keep track of them. He would come out on stage, sing a song in full costume depending on which song he was parodying, then abruptly leave the sage. Fortunately there are plenty of Al TV clips that he was able to show during these brief intermissions.

Like I said, most of the night was a blur. A euphoric blur actually, but a few things stood out. One of those is when he sang The Saga Begins. For those who don’t know, this is a parody of American Pie basically telling the entire story of Star Wars: Episode I. Members of the Alpine Garrison, the local chapter of the 501st Legion, were able to come up on stage to help set the scene for this song. What I wouldn’t give to have been up on stage wearing a stormtrooper costume… Next up: Yoda.

When Yoda started playing, I got really nervous. Ever since this song came out in the mid-eighties, it has been the encore piece. We were about 90 minutes into the show and I started thinking that it might possibly be over. That was the last thing that I wanted; Holly and I were both having way too much fun. Thankfully, the show wasn’t over at this point. He played a lot more music but another standout was White and Nerdy. We loved seeing it performed live. Al came out on a SegwayPT, cruising around the stage and singing. On the video screens, Donny Osmond kept popping up doing some of his sweet dance moves. It was very entertaining. I’ve decided that this is my theme song. I can relate to it all too well. I think that Donny Osmond can too.

Finally, after more than two hours, the show came to an end. But wait! What about the encore? Yoda was already done as were some of his other big hits. He had just done Fat while wearing a disgustingly awesome fat suit. What would be worthy of the final song of the evening? Apparently the song that everyone was waiting to hear was We All Have Cell Phones So Come On, Let’s Get Real. This song comes from an “interview” with Michael Stipe, lead singer of R.E.M., that was aired earlier in the evening. I couldn’t believe that he actually turned this into a song! Everybody pulled out their cell phones and started waving them in the air. It was a pretty cool sight.

So the encore was over. Now what? Wait! That fake, made up song wasn’t the only song to be played in the encore. The band started playing a song that I knew all too well… Hold on, this song isn’t supposed to be played in Salt Lake City. It’s too hard on Al’s voice; he’s said so himself. This song is only supposed to be played in Albuquerque. YES!! I love this song! And it’s an extended version! YES again! About 15 minutes later, the show was finally over and I could stop smiling. (Actually I couldn’t.)

There’s a few things to note, other than the music, about a “Weird Al” show. The first is the diversity of the audience. There were tons of families there with their kids. There was a guy sitting next to me with a fake spatula in his head. In front of us was a guy with a 12 inch tall mowhawk and in front of him was a guy wearing Jedi robes with a lightsaber. There were geeks everywhere. Needless to say, the crowd was very assorted.

The other thing of note is that Al is an amazing performer. The show was almost too much to take it all in. It was that good. By the time that it was over, I was exhausted from being so emotionally invested for more than two and a half hours. I didn’t want it to end but I almost needed it to if that makes any sense. I was on entertainment overload. Any more and I may have started foaming at the mouth. If you ever get the opportunity to see him live, do it. Even if you don’t know any of his songs. I promise that you’ll have a good time.

I’ve given you a few links throughout this post that you can check out at your leisure. However, videos and Al TV clips don’t really do justice to what we saw tonight so here, for your viewing enjoyment, is some live footage of Al singing Yoda. It’s pretty close to what we saw tonight. Enjoy.

By the way, the pic at the top of this post was taken on my cell phone. It’s Al singing Albuquerque.

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2. It’s Almost Christmas
3. One Night Only
4. It’s Back
5. Our Trip To Wendover