WEIRD AL

I have always loved the novelty song, and as soon as I heard Eat It, I was in!

Weird Al Yankovic, even his name was cool. But he turned out to be much much more than a novelty act.

In the 80s I had all the Weird Al cassettes, and played them to death, amusing myself with his wit. I loved everything, the covers gone in his own way and the other songs with clever lyrics that made me laugh or smile wryly.

I particularly loved the polka songs.

I had never seen him live, really no one I knew wanted to go.

When I met Andrew, we would tell each other about gigs we had been too. So much overlapped and so much envy, on both sides. Weird Al was at the top of my 'I wish' list.

So when I saw he was finally returning to Australia, I knew we had to go.

I was super excited, but kept my expectations low. Andrew had regaled me with tales of huge stage shows, costumes and so forth.

But the concert we got was very different to that, and so much better.

We really got Weird Al in all his weirdness and nerdiness and I bloody loved it.

After a support act that was best left unspoken, a roadie popped three stools at the front of the stage.

The band came out, a drummer and keyboard player towards the back left and right, 2 guitarists on the outer stools and then the man himself!

Dressed normally, those long curls left to their own devices. He sat on a stool and started talking. He said he hoped we all got the memo about it being a parred back show with no big hits. I must admit I was a little peeved and thought huh, I got no such memo. But it didn't last long, I just had a feeling we were in for something special. And I was not wrong, nor disappointed.

He sang a lot of the album tracks and a lot of early stuff. Stuff I had quite simply forgotten, I knew pretty much 90% of what he sang. And some were really tricky and complex vocally and lyrically. He was on freakin' fire.

4 songs in he sings Bob, which is probably one of my all-time favourites of his. I was in heaven, he delivered. There was accordion playing, and the band was tight, very tight.

Al, himself, sounded great, and was spot on with some very detailed lyrics.

The crowd slurped it all up. It was a very diverse crowd, from oldies to kiddies.

The encore of a very click, You can call me Al, was clever and brilliant, and the finale of a string of his big hits and some covers showcased the superb vocals, not only of Al, but the entire band. Their harmonies were so very good and spot on.

We left the show knowing how very lucky we were, and what a special evening we had witnessed, and to see it together was the cherry on top.

Setlist

1. Lame claim to fame

2. Why does this always happen to me?

3.  Close but no cigar

4. Bob

5. One more minute

6.  Drum solo

7. I'll sue ya

8. your horrorscope for today

9. Skipper Dan

10. The night Santa went crazy

11. You don't love me anymore

12. Drum solo

13. CNR

14. Craiglist

15. Good old Days

16. Albuquerque

Encore:

17. You can call me Al

18. Amish Paradise/Smells like Nirvana/White and Nerdy/Word crimes/Yoda

Enmore Theatre, Wednesday 15 March, 2023