Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit writing.

I was not available to write today [June 26] because I had an appointment with the great Weird One.  I thought I was done spending money to go to any more concerts, but I saw Al was playing nearby so that went out the window.  If you can only accomplish one thing in your pitiful life, seeing a Weird Al concert is probably the best choice.  If you can only accomplish two things, you'll need to see a second concert.  This is the third time I've seen him and the first time I did not meet to get a picture and autograph, but that's probably Trump's fault.

The opening act was Puddles Pity Party, a clown who does cover songs.  A decade or so ago, he had a popular youtube video where he covers The Who's "Pinball Wizard" to the tune of Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison" and that was included in his live set.  Most of his songs were unknown to me, I assume they're from the big band era or Tin Pan Alley, but he's a very good singer and an entertaining performer.  Don't really get what this act is supposed to lead to, but it's a fun novelty, the sort of opening you might expect at a Weird Al concert.

Al and his band were as entertaining as ever.  I'm still astounded by the fact that his main musicians have been with him for over 40 years.  They're all quite old but this has been a beneficial career.  Still amazed at how many costume changes they throw in, how well they recreate the effect of the studio recordings as well as the music videos.  The funniest part of the show is still the guy holding Al's harmonica while they play [blanking on the title] "Piano Man" detailing the plot of the first Spider-Man movie.  Looking very bored and checking his watch when he isn't holding the harmonica up for Al to use.

It's a very-well planned light-hearted entertainment.  There's probably more going on than you can see from your own particular seat and it's clearly done in very specific detail.  You can see that with the several minutes of gibberish the band recites perfectly in the middle of the final song.  For that matter, there's all the video clips shown to get the audience's attention while the performers are changing costumes or whatever.

That is impressive in itself, that Al realized how early on he needed to keep access to his work on other IPs, so there's appearances from tv, movies and animation he's taken part in.  Just think of how many corporations he'd have to get through to have all of that footage available, then there's all the other celebrities included in it, as well as parodies of other celebrities from his other media work.  I never saw Weird:  The Al Yankovic Story, but they include a clip where they make fun of John Deacon of Queen challenging Al to do a parody of "Another One Bites the Dust."  How do you get Deacon's permission for that?  That's the thing about Weird Al, he can even get John Deacon's permission.  You try it, see how easy it is.

Anyway, the point is that Weird Al has prevented me from writing for over 24 hours, so he must pay for that.  Oh yes, he must pay.  Wait, did I say that?  What I mean was gosh, I sure like Weird Al!