As a fan of a wide variety of popular (and not-so-popular) music from the 1950s (and sometimes even earlier) up through the present, one of my bucket list projects for years has been to put together a list of my 100 favorite songs of all time. At some point I decided that, once I got around to figuring that out, I could put it out on a blog, for the infinitesimally small proportion of the Internet world that might be interested. So, here we are. While the Top 100 will be a major focus, I also plan to post on a variety of other musical (and occasionally non-musical) topics, in which you may or may not be interested. (If a particular posting doesn’t ring your bell, you’re only a few clicks away from a dancing cat video on YouTube.)

Sunday, June 14, 2015

Weird Al Yankovic, Wolf Trap, 6/12/2015


Q: What do you get when a performer makes his entrance on video, winding up coming down one of the aisles through the audience (to the strains of “Tacky”)? When he (briefly) rides a Segway on stage? When he manages more costume changes than Madonna and Katy Perry ever dreamed of?
 
A: Must be a Weird Al Yankovic show. And the sellout crowd loved every minute of the two-hour spectacle.
 
I especially enjoyed the “acoustic set” in the middle, featuring “Eat It,” “I Lost on Jeopardy,” “I Love Rocky Road,” and “Like a Surgeon,” as well as the Star Wars-themed encore with “The Saga Begins” and “Yoda.” (The guy sitting next to me seemed to know every word to the former, which is done to the tune of Don McLean’s “American Pie.”) Other highlights included “Word Crimes” (the big hit from his most recent album), “Fat,” “White & Nerdy,” and Al’s extended foray into the crowd during “Wanna B Ur Lovr.” Many of the videos shown during Al’s costume changes were also hilarious, most notably a mock interview with Celine Dion. The four-piece band did an excellent job throughout. The music covered most of his career, going back to “Another One Rides The Bus”; the only omission that surprised me (given the latest sequel’s massive hype) was “Jurassic Park.”
 
The full setlist is available at setlist.fm.

No comments:

Post a Comment