Weird Al Yankovic (Hammersmith Apollo, 4.10.15)
Weird Al Yankovic brought his "Mandatory Fun" tour to London last night, opening the show by singing his opening number in the street, walking through the crowd and ending the song on stage. It was a bold, distinctive opening to a terrific show.
The performance particularly sparked into life during a polka medley of recent pop hits, Yankovic picking up his trademark accordion for the first time. Excerpts from the videos of the original songs played behind him, with LMFAO's "Sexy And I Know It" seemingly particularly ridiculous.
In terms of performing parodies, Weird Al goes all out. I doubt I'll ever see another show with so many costume changes, with video clips used to cover them. Any aspiring multimedia comedians should study Weird Al, as his videos between songs are expertly curated, featuring snippets from his previous work and references to him in pop-culture. There were too many funny moments to mention, but the highlights were a bizarre fake interview with Celine Dion, a superb pastiche of Whiplash and a trailer for a Weird Al biopic with Aaron Paul.
Back to the songs and there's a lot of fun to be had, whether it's Weird Al dressing up as a morbidly obese Michael Jackson to sing "Fat" or mocking Kurt Cobain's incoherance during "Smells Like Nirvana". I personally prefer his newer material, like the excellent "Word Crimes"*, but Yankovic's older work gets an airing during a couple of medleys. There is something endearingly strange about a man performing a solo parody of "Another One Bites The Dust" using just an accordion. The song that may well live the longest in the memory was "Wanna Be Ur Luvr", with Weird Al thrusting his way around the Apollo's stalls like the world's sleasiest lounge singer.
After some James Brown style showmanship came an encore with two tributes to Star Wars delivered in full Jedi garb. "The Saga Begins", a spoof of Don McClane's "American Pie" proved oddly moving as the audience joined in unison for the chorus. It was followed by "Yoda", a take off of "Laila" featuring the prescient lyric "We'll be making these movies for the rest of time". In this year of all years, it felt especially apt.
It may have been mandatory fun, but no coercion was required as Weird Al and his band delivered a two hour extravaganza that I'll remember fondly for a long time.
*I'm willing to bet that there is no other number one record in US chart history that has a song that features the word "nomenclature".
The performance particularly sparked into life during a polka medley of recent pop hits, Yankovic picking up his trademark accordion for the first time. Excerpts from the videos of the original songs played behind him, with LMFAO's "Sexy And I Know It" seemingly particularly ridiculous.
In terms of performing parodies, Weird Al goes all out. I doubt I'll ever see another show with so many costume changes, with video clips used to cover them. Any aspiring multimedia comedians should study Weird Al, as his videos between songs are expertly curated, featuring snippets from his previous work and references to him in pop-culture. There were too many funny moments to mention, but the highlights were a bizarre fake interview with Celine Dion, a superb pastiche of Whiplash and a trailer for a Weird Al biopic with Aaron Paul.
Back to the songs and there's a lot of fun to be had, whether it's Weird Al dressing up as a morbidly obese Michael Jackson to sing "Fat" or mocking Kurt Cobain's incoherance during "Smells Like Nirvana". I personally prefer his newer material, like the excellent "Word Crimes"*, but Yankovic's older work gets an airing during a couple of medleys. There is something endearingly strange about a man performing a solo parody of "Another One Bites The Dust" using just an accordion. The song that may well live the longest in the memory was "Wanna Be Ur Luvr", with Weird Al thrusting his way around the Apollo's stalls like the world's sleasiest lounge singer.
After some James Brown style showmanship came an encore with two tributes to Star Wars delivered in full Jedi garb. "The Saga Begins", a spoof of Don McClane's "American Pie" proved oddly moving as the audience joined in unison for the chorus. It was followed by "Yoda", a take off of "Laila" featuring the prescient lyric "We'll be making these movies for the rest of time". In this year of all years, it felt especially apt.
It may have been mandatory fun, but no coercion was required as Weird Al and his band delivered a two hour extravaganza that I'll remember fondly for a long time.
*I'm willing to bet that there is no other number one record in US chart history that has a song that features the word "nomenclature".
Comments
Post a Comment