The Comet's Flame

I had a fun time at the Weird Al Yankovic concert in Des Moines on Sunday night.

I arrived at the venue about an hour and a half before the show, and there were already quite a few nerdy Weird Al fans milling about the parking lot. A girl wearing a Hawaiian shirt and checkered Vans sneakers came up to me and asked if I would sign her petition to get Mr. Yankovic inducted into the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame. I said sure. If Frank Zappa (whose “humorous” music often consisted of little more than rhyming profanities) can make it into the Hall of Fame, then certainly a truly humorous and talented individual like Weird Al deserves to be there! Anyway, I happened to be wearing my checkered Vans as well, so me and this girl had a nice conversation about shoes.

As a few long-haired Vans-wearing guys walked past, I began thinking to myself… wow, I feel like I fit in here! Well, unfortunately, the “fitting in” didn’t last for long. My seat was in the second row, exact center, and apparently that’s where all the snobby rich kids were. Oh well… I guess in America, one must learn to deal with snobby rich kids.

Weird Al came onto the stage with his accordion, playing Polkarama! (which is a polka medley including such modern rock songs as “Beverly Hills” by Weezer and “Float On” by Modest Mouse).

Al’s band was absolutely amazing. Jim West played guitar/banjo/mandolin, Steve Jay played bass, Jon Schwartz played drums, and Rubén Valtierra played keyboards.

NOTE: although Weird Al’s parodies are very family-friendly, the ORIGINAL versions of many of the parodied songs (i.e. the ones by the original artists) contain strong language. Listener discretion is advised before listening to the original songs. That said, some of my favorite songs from the performance were… “Canadian Idiot” (parody of Green Day’s “American Idiot”), “The Saga Begins” (a Star-Wars-related parody of Don McLean’s “American Pie”, complete with stormtroopers and Darth Vader dancing on stage), “White and Nerdy” (generic hip-hop parody), “Amish Paradise” (parody of some hip-hop song, featuring the band members wearing plain black Amish attire and long beards), “I’ll Sue Ya” (hilarious song about suing everybody), “Couch Potato” (parody of a rap song by the infamous Eminem), and “Smells Like Nirvana” (parody of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”).

My absolute favorite part of the show was the middle of the painfully long and boring hip-hop song “Trapped In the Drive Thru,” when the band suddenly went into a hard-rocking rendition of Led Zeppelin’s “Black Dog.”

During the song “Wanna B Ur Lovr,” a suave and well-dressed Al came down from the stage and sang cheesy pick-up lines to the girls in the first few rows. Between the songs, clips of “Al TV” were shown on the screen. These featured hilarious fake “interviews,” where Al would typically ask a celebrity like Madonna something like “Would you say my new CD is better than anything you ever did?”, and she would respond with “Yes, of course!”

The encore included an incredibly long and rambling song entitled “Albuquerque,” which somehow had something to do with… sauerkraut!?

All in all, the Weird Al concert was a pretty good show — an excellent combination of numerous musical styles, awesome lighting, theatrical stage production, and comedy.

I highly recommend the music (especially the live music) of Weird Al Yankovic.