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, a native of Lynwood, CA, played the KIA Forum in Inglewood, CA for the first time this past Saturday, August 30th. 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. Just a few months ago, it was announced that Dr. Demento has retired from his show after 55 years. Dr. Demento, as well as Jay Levey, Yankovic’s long-time manager and director of UHF and a number of his music videos, were in attendance. On the debut album, Yankovic added in bassist Steve Jay—a member ever since then—and Rick Derringer, who passed away in May of this year played guitar 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 a 4-piece band.
Yankovic’s last album was Mandatory Fun in 2014, and since then he would do a massive world tour in support of the album between 2015 and 2016, performing over 200 shows including two historic nights at the Hollywood Bowl with the L.A. Philharmonic. After taking two years off, Yankovic’s next tour would be the Ridiculously Self-Indulgent, Ill-Advised Vanity Tour, which was acoustic shows at intimate venues without the costumes and production of 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 Tour 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 and cover song each night.
Two years after that tour wrapped, Yankovic is back with the Bigger & Weirder Tour. The tour kicked off at the Venetian Theater in Las Vegas, NV with three shows, followed by one in Riverside, CA, and another three shows at the Venetian. Leading up to the KIA Forum, Yankovic has played over 70 shows including historic shows at Madison Square Garden and a return to Red Rocks. On the last tour, comedian Emo Philips was the opener, though for this tour, it was none other than Puddles Pity Party.
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.
During “Smells Like Nirvana,” Gonzalez and Donnelly played the cheerleaders and Gregory played the janitor roles (like those in the music video). If you know Weird Al’s videos, you know many look exactly like the original reference while highlighting jokes and even including the same actors.
This tour has all the songs, humor, outfits, and classic video segments during the wardrobe changeovers that any fan could want. Yankovic, now 65, still puts on a two hour show.
Just like on the Mandatory World Tour, Yankovic opened with “Tacky,” which started with him walking through the backstage while Puddles could often be seen with a pie being thrown on his face. It was none other than the star of A Minecraft Movie Jack Black who stole the show during his appearance in the music video for “Tacky” (and he also played Wolfman Jack in Weird: The Al Yankovic Story). This tour included an array of songs you can always expect to be performed—with the exception of the two Vanity Tours—which were “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, with only a few exceptions).
On opening night, “Fat” was performed for the first time since 2016, “eBay” since 2003, “ “Stop forwarding the Crap to Me” since 2018, and "White & Nerdy” and “Amish Paradise” since 2019. A few songs were also performed for the first time: “Mission Statement” from Mandatory Fun, Yankovic’s latest polka medley “Polkamania!,” “Everything You Know is Wrong” from Bad Hair Day (1996),” the "Captain UnderPants” theme song, “Now You Know” from Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, and the theme to the Disney animated series Milo Murphy’s Law, "It’s My World (and We’re All Living In It)." 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 of Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off," Miley Cyrus’s “Flowers,” Olivia Rodrigo’s “Vampire," 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 Funk,” 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, there have been 13 Weird Al albums plus the UHF Soundtrack. Of the 13 albums, he performed one to four songs from each, except from his fourth release Polka Party!. The most songs were performed from Dare To Be Stupid.
For the first five songs of the show, the outfits stayed the same minus Yankovic’s blazer for “Tacky,” and yet another blazer for “One More Minute With You" (on that song he came through the audience singing right in people’s faces). The first video shown after the intro 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 compilation video played, ending with Yankovic and The Simpsons, to allow for the next wardrobe change before 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 he removed his button down shirt and sunglasses to reveal a black shirt for “Bedrock Anthem”. During The Flintstones clip from the music video, Yankovic picked up the accordion for “My Bologna” and “Ricky” off his first album. At this point, it showed just how long of a career Yankovic has had and how much it has evolved since his first album. During “Ricky,” Donnelly played 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 it had been performed. The medley continued with another early hit “Like a Surgeon” for which he wore a doctor’s cap. 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 without stopping.
Before “Fat,” the opening from the music video played and out came Yankovic just as he looked in the video. Yankovic would go back to a Hawaiian shirt for the next six songs and there would also be a cover of Paul Simon’s “You Can Call Me Al,” which has been performed multiple times throughout the tour. 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 played 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 & Nerdy,” dressed as he did in the video with the band wearing short sleeve button downs with pocket protectors and pens as well as sporting glasses. There would be another wardrobe change for the last song before the encore which was “Amish Paradise." Yankovic would announce the band before they all left the stage.
For the encore, Valtierra, dressed as Emperor Palpatine from Star Wars, came out, 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 appearing in their Jedi attire just like in “The Saga Begins” video—now having female members Velligan and Donnelly dress as Rey, 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.
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 exited the stage while Valtierra played “Charge!” (which you hear at baseball and hockey games) and Yankovic, Jay, West, and Gregory all removed their Jedi robes and Yankovic picked up the accordion for the final time. During “Yoda,” Yankovic let the audience sing the chorus while him and the band went 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—the joke was that it was just a single hit on the snare.
A number of artists Yankovic has parodied, such as Madonna, Michael Jackson, Billy Joel, Billie Eilish, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nirvana, Joan Jett, Lady Gaga, Backstreet Boys, and Avril Lavigne, have all played the Forum. Yankovic’s first concert was Elton John at the Forum, and there he was again in 2019 during Elton’s farewell tour. Now, it was Yankovic’s name who was on the marquee, immortalized with every other artist to have played the venue since 1968.
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
- Captain Underpants Theme Song
- Now You Know
- You Can Call Me Al - Paul Simon
- It’s My World (and We’re All Living in It)
- 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
Photos by Alex Kluft
