I would have to say that, pound for pound, Weird Al Yankovic gives the best concert performance I have ever seen. I have seen him five or six times prior to last Thursday, and he has never disappointed.
Last week, before the show, there was a man outside the venue with a petition to get Al nominated to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I support this effort 110%. The two main qualifications to get into the Hall is that you have to be innovative and influential. You might say Al is anything but innovative. After all, he is a parody artist, meaning he rewrites other artists songs. Besides, there have been parodist before him, namely Allan Sherman and Stan Freberg.
But if you consider his video parodies, he is innovative. He was the first to parody that medium. And try to make a song parody that works. It's not as easy as all makes it look.
As for influential, Al has inspired numerous drive-time DJ's to make crappy song parodies. That might count against him. But if you look at it another way, look at how many artists over the years have said the knew they made it when Al parodied them. There was a lot and many future Hall of Famers are on the list.
This is the first time I've seen Al perform in NYC since I've lived here. Usually, he goes to places like Westbury and other towns. I guess the success of Straight Out of Lynwood means that he's back in the big time.
He was good as always. It seemed that there was much more costume changes than when I saw him in years past. Not that that's a bad thing, because it mean more AL TV skits.
There was a lot of inside jokes for fans, such as the "Atlantic Records Sucks" T-shirt he wore during "You're Pitiful". A highlight for me was when 12 Stormtroopers and a Darth Vader came out when Al did "The Saga Begins". You haven't lived until you've seen Darth bop along to a Don McLean parody.
So, if you're an Al fan and haven't seen him live yet, you must see him. And if you just like seeing an awesome live show, you should see him.
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