Concert: Weird Al Yankovic, September 20th, 2007, Beacon Theater, NYC

Weird al

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.   

My colossal STUPIDITY.

I had tickets, which I paid $100.50 for the pair, including charges, to see Patty Griffin last night. How was the show? I haven't a clue. I forgot about the concert until right now. $100.50 and an opportunity to see one of my favorite singers down the drain.

 

And they were really good seats too. Damn!   

Concert: Indigo Girls-March 20, 2007-Town Hall, NYC

So, I saw the Indigo Girls concert yesterday. Here is my quasi review of it.

The night started when my wife picked me up at our condo and we rushed to the train station. Rushing was not easy to do be cause I just had my foot worked on earlier that day. What did the work entail? Scraping, bleeding, freezing and pain--in that order. Needless to say, I was Limpy McLimp-limp that night.

We got to the train station, bought tickets and got on the train with seconds to spare. We had a quick (and I do mean quick) dinner at the Junior's in Grand Central and rushed over to Town Hall, which is several blocks away from the station. 

Town Hall was built in 1921, and sitting in the balcony of the venue, it gave me a deeper understanding of that era. For example, in the 1920's, nobody was taller than 5' 7". I mean, if they were taller, then they would have made the seats a little further apart. My 6'4" body has to be squeezed in the to seat with my legs pretzel like. If I had cut my legs off at the thigh, then maybe I would have fit, with my bloody stumps lightly grazing the seat in front of me. Luckily, the two seats next to us were open for some reason, so I was able to stretch out a little bit.

The opening act was a woman by the name of Kaki King. I always try to get to the show to see the opening act. Usually, if I like the main band, I'll like the opening act.

King was good. She was a great guitarist. You could tell she had classical training. She played pretty much only instrumentals (one one song had lyrics) and wailed away on the guitar like a female Eddie Van Halen. One song was played pretty much only on the neck of the guitar, which I found amazing.

She was joined on a couple songs by a trumpetist (if that is a word). When a guy comes on stage with a trumpet, you expect some trumpet playing. Not here. Well, I guess you could call what this guy did "trumpet playing," but it was more like he was using his trumpet to send a mating call to any whales that might be trolling the Hudson or East Rivers. He just played a series of long, barely audible bleats on the trumpet.

For the second song, he played the Electric Bong. At least that's what it looked like--a bong with a wire coming from it.

Kaki was good and really unique. You don't see many artist who do only instrumentals. It was fun to see Amy Ray grooving in the wings during her set.  

The Indigo Girls came out after that. To be honest, outside of their hits, I am not terribly familiar with the Indigo Girls. My wife LOVES them, and so did the rest of the audience. But for me, it was the first time hearing a lot of these songs. But hearing them the first time made me want to hear more of them. Amy Ray and Emily Saliers are great musicians and singers in their own right. They have been sing together and touring for years and it shows--in a good way.  Professional all around.

I was also impressed by the work of the guitar tech/roadie, a woman they called "Sully." Each Girl had about 5 guitars and one mandolin that the each switched off between during the show. Sully did a last minute tune on each one before the current song ended, held Amy's in her left hand, Emily's in her right, and swapped them for the ones the Girls were playing on stage. And it was done with military precison.

The crowd was vocal. The Girls stated that the were going to play song of their most recent album that night, but the end each song was greeted by a chorus of "Play Gallileo" and "Chicken Man."

To their credit, the Indigo Girls listened to their fans and worked their requests into the show. A fan I spoke to while walking out said that usually they keep two stops on the set list open for requests, but tonight they did much more than two. I think this is great. Most bands consider the people who attend their shows as just dollars in their pockets. It's good to see a band take such an interest in their fans and go the extra mile to honor their requests.  

All in all, a good time was had by me and the wife. I will be loading my wife's Indigo Girls CD collection on my iPod to learn more song by them so I may be able to shout out my request the next time they come to town.

Bill