On the night of July 21st 2010, Weird Al Yankovic came to Orlando and performed a concert at the “Hard Rock Cafe” at Universal Studios City Walk. It’s been awhile since I last went to one of his concerts, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I got a T-shirt and some trading cards there. Good thing my sister and I arrived early.
- These are only a few from a set of 50.
Weird Al opened with a polka medley with songs from Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, Justin Bieber, and others. Then came some classic songs like “You Make Me” and “Good Old Days”, both of which come from the album Even Worse. They weren’t among his bigger hits, but I remember them well.
Of course Weird Al also performed other big hits like “Smells Like Nirvana”, “Fat”, “Eat it”, “Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies”, “Amish Paradise”, “Dare to Be Stupid”, and “White and Nerdy”. He even included some new songs like “Skipper Dan” and “Craigslist”.
Weird Al was a really smooth dancer when he performed “Wanna B Ur Lover”. He came down from the stage and sang to the ladies in the front row. It was so funny. Then while performing “Ode to a Superhero”, a guy had to hold a harmonica for Weird Al while he was playing the accordion.
In between songs there were many channel flips on the screen. Among them are “interviews” with celebrities like Celine Dion, Avril Lavigne, Snoop Dog, Eminem, and Jessica Simpson. (Or is it Sampson?) I figured that Weird Al needs that time for all those costume changes.
There were also plenty of short segments, where Weird Al was animated on other shows like Johnny Bravo, The Simpsons, Futurama, and Celebrity Death Match. That even includes other shows that so much as even mentioned Weird Al as a reference. I never realized there were so many. It was set up very well, much like Robot Chicken.
Weird Al also mentioned that July 21st was an anniversary of when UHF premiered. Everyone was cheering, including myself, because we know that movie is a real classic.
After the concert, there was an encore with a Star Wars theme. I thought it was appropriate with Star Wars Celebration V coming up in August 2010. But first, Weird Al sang about cell phones. There wasn’t much to it, but if you had a cell phone, you could hold it up while hand waving to the song.
Then came Weird Al’s two Star Wars songs, “The Saga Begins” and “Yoda”. Just before finishing “Yoda”, Al and the band did some other kind of singing that sounded like random chanting. I admit, that choreography was tight, as it had appeared unexpected.
I’ll tell ya, Weird Al Yankovic is better than ever. I wonder if he has a new album coming out soon.
