I got my husband two tickets to see Weird Al Yankovic in Richmond last Tuesday. I'm not really a huge fan but I've always enjoyed his spoofs. Matt was so excited and we kept hearing about what a great show Weird Al delivers. I'm delighted to report that there were no disappointments last Tuesday.
The event was at The National, a renovated old theatre that recently opened in its new incarnation as a rock venue. It has the same owners as The NorVa in Norfolk, a venue I frequent pretty often that boasts really nice acoustics. The National may not have the exemplary acoustics, but the facade inside around the stage is gorgeous, boasting carved Greek-inspired detailing. It's also easily accessible off of the interstate.
Weird Al looks bizarre. I think he's had a lot of "work" done. He looks very different that he did twenty years ago, but I don't think it's just a product of age. His nose is very slender and the area around his eyes has a strange look. It was distracting to me at first, but I got used to it after a few songs.
It was a "greatest hits" show, and Weird pulled out all the stops. It was a multimedia event with a ton of video interludes featuring skits and clips from tv shows. There were costume changes for almost every song. He ran the gamut from "Eat It" to "Amish Paradise" to his latest hit, "White & Nerdy". He even played "The Saga Continues", his ode to Star Wars by way of Don McLean's "American Pie" backed by a group of dancing storm troopers. I suppose it was all one could hope for in a Weird Al performance.
The audience was populated with nerds. Nerd families, nerd children, nerd rockers, nerd oldies, nerds like Matt and nerds like myself. It was nice not to be in a sea of hipsters like at the Rilo Kiley show where I saw people wearing those damned skinny jeans than I saw in freakin' Brooklyn, NY. There were no pretensions at the Weird Al show, just good spirits and good humor.
Despite the years and all the changes in pop culture and the media, Weird Al has really kept on top of the game.
3 comments:
I second the praise, and I thank you again for one of the best birthday gift / concerts ever! I sport my "White n Nerdy" t-shirt with pride!
Glad you kids had fun. There were probably several people from the newspaper there. Newspaper nerds love Weird Al -- and They Might Be Giants. Sorry that The National doesn't sound as good as The NorVa. But at least it looks good.
Nah, no plastic surgery. Just the LASIX surgery to replace the glasses back in '98, losing the facial hair and letting his hair grow long. But Al is always pretty slender, and when he's on tour and working hard for two hours almost every night, he loses even more weight. That might be why his features seemed thin to you. ~OE
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