My Band Name For Today

Here is where you and I might part ways. I like Weird Al Yankovic. Always have.

Me and the Scooby gang went to the Weird Al Yankovic concert a couple days ago. This tour is supporting Straight Outta Lynwood , his biggest hit album yet.

Al's live show is more vibrant than ever.
Seeing a broad parody act is sort of like seeing 50 bands at once, as there were well-executed costume changes between most songs--except for a bravura central section where Al cycled through a couple dozen tunes, effortlessly segueing between them.

Speaking of segues, "White and Nerdy" opened with Al zipping onstage riding a Segway. Hey, he’s not the only one fluent in JavaScript as well as Klingon.

The show was a huge crowd pleaser. Tool and Godsmack just don’t endear this kind of love in fans. I was surprised at how the old Michael Jackson send-ups brought down the house, as they appeared unexpectedly in the set and were a welcome surprise.

That rule of thumb about Al not doing the epic Albuquerque or the full bodysuit version of Fat in concert any more may not be entirely true.

If you would have told me back during the Eat It days, that in 20 years Michael Jackson would be a perverse footnote and Al would be more relevant than ever…well, I probably would have agreed. Any opinion leader-early adaptor-trend prognosticator should have foreseen it. It was obvious that the world needed Al more than whatever the appeal of MJ was at the time*.

Plus, Al has a gift for cutting to the core of social comment without giving overt offence. Like he says, "Everyone has a cell phone, so come on. Get over it."

*A lot of the appeal of Thriller came from the compounding factors of Quincy Jones, Eddie Van Halen, Vincent Price, John Landis, MTV et al..