Comedy Music history was made on September 14th, 1980 when Weird Al Yankovic performed “Another Rides the Bus” on the Dr. Demento show just a month before his 21st birthday. Yankovic would meet Jon ‘Bermuda’ Schwartz who would keep the beat with Yankovic’s accordion case and has been playing with Yankovic the last 46 years. Yankovic a native of Lynwood, CA played the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA September 19th. Yankovic released his debut album in 1983 and did a small tour of east coast and midwest venues under 1000 capacity along with Dr. Demento. On the debut album, Yankovic added in bassist Steve Jay a member ever since then and Rick Derringer who passed away in May last year played guitar on it and produced the first five Weird Al albums.
The second release was 3-D in 1984--this would be the first album with guitarist Jim “Kimo” West who has been a member since. From 1984 to 1991 the band would be Bermuda, Kimo, and Jay. During the Dr. Demento 20th anniversary special, Yankovic would meet keyboardist Ruben Valtierra and soon after he would join the band. Now nearly 35 years later, Yankovic has had a 4-piece band.
Yankovic’s last album was Mandatory Fun in 2014 and since then he would do a massive world tour on that album between 2015 and 2016 performing over 200 shows including two historic nights at the Hollywood Bowl with the L.A. Philharmonic. After taking off two years, Yankovic’s next tour would be the Ridiculously Self-Indulgent, Ill-Advised Vanity Tour which was acoustic shows at intimate venues without all the costumes and production as the previous tours. The songs performed were all originals with the exception of a parodies medley, a different cover song for each of the 77 shows, and “Saga Begins” and “Yoda” as the closing songs. Yankovic would return again the following year (2019) with the Strings Attached with a local orchestra for each show.
Following the COVID-19 pandemic, Yankovic would return to touring in 2022 with the second Ridiculously Self-Indulgent, Ill-Advised Vanity Tour which just like the first one featured a different setlist each night and cover song. Two years after that tour completed Yankovic came back with the Bigger & Weirder Tour. The Bigger & Weirder Tour began last year and was Yankovic’s biggest tour including stops at Madison Square Garden and the Forum. The tour returned this past May. Puddles Pity Party has been the opener since last the tour began last year.
In addition to Yankovic’s longtime band, there have been four more musicians added for this tour who all play multiple instruments and also have acting roles. The new additions to the band are Long time Brian Wilson guitarist Probyn Gregory, Men at Work and Dweezil Zappa Saxophonist/percussionist Scheila Gonzalez, vocalist Monique Donnelly who has been on numerous film, TV shows and albums as well as performing with Yankovic on the Strings Attached tour, and keyboardist/guitarist/vocalist Payton Rose Velligan who has toured with Boston frontman Tommy DeCarlo.
This tour has all the songs, humor, outfits, and classic video segments for the wardrobe changeovers any fan would want. Yankovic, now 66, still puts on a two hour show with all the costumes.
Just like on the Mandatory World Tour, Yankovic opened with “Tacky” which starts with him walking through the backstage and Puddles can be often seen with a pie being thrown on his face, This tour includes another six songs you can always expect to see performed with the exception of the two vanity tours which are “Smells Like Nirvana,” “Dare To Be Stupid,” “Fat,” “White & Nerdy,” “Amish Paradise,” and his usual closers “Saga Begins” and “Yoda.”
These have been his closing songs on every tour since Touring with Scissors in 1999 except the Straight Outta Lynwood tour when they were performed earlier in the set and the second vanity tour only Yoda” was performed. “Yoda” had first been a closer in 1985 and has been the closing song on nearly every tour since.
On opening night “Fat” was performed for the first time since 2016, “eBay” since 2003, “ “Stop forwarding the Crap to Me” since 2018, White And Nerdy,” and “Amish Paradise” since 2019. Also a few songs were performed for the first time whether they were recorded since the last tour or had never been previously performed on tours before this one, “Mission Statement” from Mandatory Fun, Yankovic’s latest polka medley “Polkamania!,” “Everything You Know is Wrong” from Bad Hair Day (1996),” Captain UnderPants” theme song, “Now You Know” from Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, the theme to the Disney animated series Milo
Murphy’s Law It’s My World (and We’re All Living In It) as Yankovic said it’s the shortest song he’s ever performed. Although it’s been 11 years since Mandatory Fun, Yankovic has put out a Polka medley of songs from Broadway sensation Hamilton and “Polkamania!” which consists of covers going back to Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” (2014) to 2023 with Miley Cyrus’s “Flowers” and Olivia Rodrigo’s “Vampire,” and also included Billie Eilish’s “Bad Guy,” Adele’s “Hello,” “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” from Disney’s Encanto, Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road,” Lusi Fonsi’s “Desposito,” Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You,” Bruno Mars’ “Uptown Fun,” Cardi B. and Megan Thee Stallion’s “WAP,” and Ariana Grande’s “thank u, next.” For each song the actual music video for it appeared on the screen. Since Yankovic’s second album in 1984, he has put out a Polka medley of covers of the biggest hits at the time and this was a compilation of hits since his last album release.
There have been 13 Weird Al albums plus the UHF Soundtrack. Of the 13 albums There were one to four songs performed from all except for his fourth release Polka Party!. The most songs were performed from Dare To Be Stupid totaling four.
For the first five songs the outfits stayed the same minus Yankovic’s blazer for “Tacky,” and Yankovic put another blazer on for “One More Minute With You,” and on that song he comes through the audience singing right in people’s faces. The first video shown since the intro video was the “Another Rides The Bus” scene from Weird The Al Yankovic Story featuring Daniel Radcliffe as Weird Al, Rainn Wilson as Dr. Demento, and Jack Black as Wolfman Jack. When the stage lights came on there was Yankovic and the band dressed in their Nirvana outfits for “Smells Like Nirvana.” Yankovic spit water onto the front row during the gargle solo. The next video was various clips of Yankovic followed by him and the band coming out in their Devo style outfits for “Dare
to Be Stupid.” This year marks 40 years of that song and album of the same name.
Another video played of various clips ending with Yankovic and The Simpsons to allow for the next wardrobe change for the parodies medley. The medley began with everyone dressed in suits and sunglasses for “Party In the CIA,” then Yankovic took his blazer off for “It's All About the Pentiums,” then removed his button down shirt and sunglasses and had black shirt under for “Bedrock Anthem”. During the Flintones clip from the music video Yankovic picked up the accordion for “My Bologna” and “Ricky” off his first album, at this point of the show it showed just how long of a career Yankovic’s career has had how much it has evolved since the first album. During “Ricky,” Donnelly plays Lucy. Next came “Ode to a Superhero” with one of his crew members holding the harmonica while he played it and accordion together. The medley continued with “I Love Rocky Road” also from his debut album. Yankovic put on his “Beat It” jacket for “Eat It” and did the Michael Jackson dance moves just like in the video and also switched to keyboard. This was the first time since the first vanity tour in 2018 tour it had been performed, however it was part of an acoustic medley that tour and the last time the entire song was performed was in 1985. The medley continued with another early hit “Like a Surgeon” which he wore a doctor’s cap for. Yankovic stepped away from the keyboard and moved around the stage for “Word Crimes” and then put on a red and white maple leaf blazer for “Canadian Idiot.” The band played song to song without stopping.
Before “Fat” the opening from the music video played and out came Yankovic just as he looked in the music video. Yankovic would go back to a Hawaiian shirt for the next six songs and there would also be a cover of David Bowie’s Suffragette City.” For “Skipper Dan,” Yankovic wore a skipper hat just like you see on the Disneyland Jungle Cruise Ride. Following “Stop Forwarding That Crap to Me,” one of the best videos of the night played. It was a parody of the movie “Whiplash” with Yankovic on accordion and just like in the movie J.K. Simmons as the teacher. Next would be a Jeopardy clip with the late Alex Trebek and the categories were titles of Weird Al songs. Out would come Yankovic on a segway for “White and Nerdy” dressed as he did in the video with the band wearing short sleeve button downs with pocket protectors and pens as well as wearing glasses. There would be another wardrobe change for the last song before the encore which was “Amish Paradise” with everyone dressed just like they were in the music video. Yankovic would announce the band before they all left the stage. Rather than a video segment for the wardrobe change the stage went dark.
For the encore, Valtierra dressed as Emperor Palpatine from Star Wars came out and got the crowd cheering then plays Bach’s “Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565” followed by Yankovic and the rest of the band coming out in their Jedi attire just like in “The Saga Begins” video and now having female members, Velligan and Donnelly dress as Rey and Gonzalez as Princess Leia as well as members of local 501st Legion dressed as stormtroopers, a sand trooper, a scout trooper and of course Darth Vader. At the Shoreline Amphitheater show there were two snow troopers, and a Chewbacca. At MSG there was a remote controlled R2D2. Yankovic also brought back “We All Have Cell Phones” as the beginning of the encore taken from an interview with R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe which is shown earlier in the show. Following “Saga Begins,” the legion exits the stage while Valtierra plays “Charge!” which you hear at baseball and hockey games and Yankovic, Jay, West, and Gregory all remove their Jedi robes and Yankovic picks up the accordion for the final time. During “Yoda,” Yankovic lets the audience sing the chorus and then him and band go A capella for three minutes with different chants, “Grim Grinning Ghosts’ from the Haunted Mansion Ride at Disneyland, The Rivington’s “Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow,” and more before finishing the song. Bermuda had two “drum solos” during the show and the joke was it was just a single hit on the snare drum.
Setlist:
Tacky
Mission Statement
Polkamania!
Drum Solo
Everything You Know Is Wrong
One More Minute
Smells Like Nirvana
Dare to Be Stupid
Party in the CIA / It's All About the Pentiums / Bedrock Anthem / My
Bologna / Ricky / Ode to a Superhero / I Love Rocky Road / Eat It /
Like a Surgeon / Word Crimes / Canadian Idiot
Fat
It’s My World (and We’re All Living in It) - Milo Murphy’s Law Theme
Captain Underpants Theme Song
Now You Know
Suffragette City- David Bowie
Skipper Dan
Drum Solo (Reprise)
eBay
Stop Forwarding That Crap to Me
White & Nerdy
Amish Paradise
Encore:
We All Have Cell Phones
The Saga Begins
Yoda
