Weird Al – August 6th, 2003
On August 6th, 2003, Weird Al played to a sold out crowd in Oklahoma City’s own Bricktown Event Center. The demographcs of that crowd could basically be split down the middle into two even groups. One group consisted of kids, ages ten to thirteen, around the same age that I myself was I was when I first discovered Al’s weirdness. The other half of the crowd was made up of guys like me, people in their late 20’s/early 30’s, who discovered Al early in our adolescent years and never let go.
When Weird Al took the stage, it became clear that we weren’t the only ones who haven’t grown up. With his accordian blazing as loudly as his Hawaiian shirt, Al wasted no time kicking the night off with “Angry White Boy Polka,” a double-time polka happy medly of recent radio hits including songs by Papa Roach, System Of A Down, The Vines, The Hives, The White Stripes, The Strokes, Disturbed, Rage Against The Machine, Limp Bizkit, Staind, Kid Rock, P.O.D. and Eminem.
From that moment on, the stage was set for a wild night of music, accompanied by videos which were projected onto a huge screen behind the performers. While occasionally videos ran behind the band while they were performing, more often they were used to give the band members a few moments between songs to change costumes but keep the momentum rolling. Videos shown included clips from several of Weird Al’s “Al TV” MTV specials as well as several clips from Weird Al’s movie “UHF” (which was filmed in Tulsa, OK).
Weird Al’s twenty year catalog of comedy classics were all fair game during the show. Al played at least one song from each of his eleven studio albums, spanning from 1983’s “My Bologna” (a parody of the Knack’s “My Sharona”) to several songs from 2003’s Poodle Hat, including “Party at the Leper Colony”, “Wanna B Yr Lovr”, “Ode To A Superhero” (a parody of Billy Joel’s “Piano Man”), “Ebay” (a parody of the Backstreet Boys’ “I Want It That Way”), “A Complicated Song” (a parody of Avril Lavigne’s “Complicated”), “Trash Day” (a parody of Nelly’s “Hot in Here”), and “Couch Potato” (a parody of Eminem’s “Lose Yourself”).
Many of those songs included costume changes, not only for Al but the entire band as well. At different times throughout the night, Al took the stage as an overweight Michael Jackson (for “Fat”), a regular-sized Michael Jackson (for “Eat It”), Kurt Cobain from Nirvana (for “Smells Like Nirvana”), Eminem (for “Couch Potato”), Nelly (for “Trash Day”), and even as a pizza delivery boy for his Titanic-theme parody “Free Delivery” (a song which has not appeared on any of Al’s albums).
Weird Al was not the only chameleon on stage Wednesday night. Al’s band, consisting of guitarist Jim West, bassist Steve Jay, drummer Jon “Bermuda” Schwartz, and Ruben Valtierra on keyboards, showed their versitility by changing musical styles between every song, switching from rock to rap to ballads on a moment’s notice. The band covered songs from the 80’s to today all night long without missing a beat.
After playing 26 songs in over two hours, Weird Al left the stage, only to return for a short encore. The encore consisted of two Star Wars related parodies, “The Saga Begins”, sung to the tune of Don McLean’s “American Pie”, and “Yoda”, Al’s 1985 tribute to the little green Jedi master, a parody of “Lola” by the Kinks. As was the case with most of the songs throughout the night, Al and his entire band took the stage in Star Wars-esque robes. During the middle of “Yoda”, Al and the band stopped to perform “The Yoda Chant” (a two minute long silly chant) before swinging back into the grand finale.
In a world of Southpark and Gangsta Rap, it’s nice to see that a silly guy with a few costumes and some funny lyrics can still make kids and adults alike laugh.
Set List:
01. Angry White Boy Polka (polka-medly of current songs, from Poodle Hat)
02. Party at the Leper Colony (original song, from Poodle Hat)
03. Your Horoscope For Today (original song, from Running With Scissors)
04. A Complicated Song (parody of Avril Lavigne’s “Complicated”, from Poodle Hat)
05. Melanie (original song, from Even Worse)
06. One More Minute (original song, from Dare to be Stupid)
07. Dog Eat Dog (original song, from Polka Party)
08. It’s All About The Pentiums (parody of Puff Daddy’s “It’s All About the Benjamins”, from Running with Scissors)
09. Wanna B Ur Lovr (original song, from Poodle Hat)
10. Trash Day (parody of Nelly’s “Hot In Here”, from Poodle Hat)
11. Beverly Hillbillies (parody of Dire Strait’s “Money For Nothing”, from the UHF Soundtrack)
12. Jerry Springer (parody of Barenaked Ladies “One Week”, from Running with Scissors)
13. Jurassic Park (parody of “Macarthur Park”, from Alapalooza)
14. Free Delivery (parody of the Titanic theme, unreleased track)
15. eBay (parody of the Backstreet Boys’ “I Want it That Way”, from Poodle Hat)
16. Theme From Rocky XIII (parody of Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger”, from “Weird Al” Yankovic in 3-D)
17. Ode To A Superhero (parody of Billy Joel’s “Piano Man”, from Poodle Hat)
18. Lasagna (parody of Los Lobo’s “La Bamba”, from Even Worse)
19. Pretty Fly For A Rabbi (parody of the Offspring’s “Pretty Fly for a White Guy”, from Running with Scissors)
20. My Bologna (parody of the Knack’s “My Sharona”, from “Weird Al” Yankovic)
21. Gump (parody of Presidents of the United States’ “Lump”, from Bad Hair Day)
22. Eat It (parody of Michael Jackson’s “Beat It”, from “Weird Al” Yankovic in 3-D)
23. Smells Like Nirvana (parody of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, from Off the Deep End)
24. Amish Paradise (parody of Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise”, from Bad Hair Day)
25. Couch Potato (parody of Eminem’s “Lose Yourself”, from Poodle Hat)
26. Fat (parody of Michael Jackson’s “Bad”, from Even Worse)
(encore)
27. The Saga begins (parody of Don McLean’s “American Pie”, from Running with Scissors)
28. Yoda (parody of the Kinks’ “Lola”, from Dare to be Stupid)