This last weekend Weird Al passed through my city on his Bigger and Weirder tour. This is his current tour that is huge. He has sold of Madison Square Garden, The Forum, Vegas (for multiple nights), and more across the country. I had heard about the tour last year, and when I found out he was coming to the Boise area I knew I wanted to go with my family. My kids had never seen him live and my wife saw him over 20 years ago at the Arizona State Fair with me.
I didn’t buy tickets right away. I was hopeful that they would go on sale during the yearly Live Nation concert week ticket sale they do in May (or June), and sure enough they did. We were able to score lawn tickets for $30 each for myself and my kids, but not my wife. My wife found out that the weekend of the concert there was also a special Girl Scout Glamping event and she wanted to go to that. I was in full support so she went there and the girls and I were going to go to the concert.
The day came and we headed over early to get a good place in line so we could get a good place on the lawn. It went well, we did get a pretty good place on the lawn. It wasn’t close, but it had good line of sight to the stage in a straight shot.
The opening act was Puddles Pity Party. A guy dressed as a clown and he sang songs. I had looked him up beforehand and wasn’t really impressed. But once he got going it wasn’t that bad. He did a few musical numbers where he had videos related to Kevin Costner going on behind him that made things pretty funny – assuming you knew who he was and the movies the scenes were from. I watched most of his show while standing in line for mini doughnuts.
Then it was time for Weird Al. He started the show with Tacky and was inside the Ford Idaho Center complex and walked all the way out with a camera leading him – similar to the music video for Tacky; which we got to watch on the big screen. It was fun. Then he informed the crowd that he was required to do a power point presentation and sang Synergy while the music video went on for that. After that he sang his most recent popular music polka mash up Polkamania! That was fun and the girls knew some of those songs. Then he sang One More Minute. During this song he wandered into the crowd wearing a silk robe and acting all suave. Then he was randomly take a scarf and rub it on himself and give it to a lady in the audience, and the final lady got a pair of boxers he pulled out from his pants. All very funny. We were treated to Another One Rides the Bus on the big screen from the Weird Al movie.
Then to a costume change and they all came out looking like a grunge band and we got to hear Smells Like Nirvana. Another costume change and they came out looking like Devo and they sang Dare to Be Stupid.
Then another costume change and he proceeded to do a very long melody of songs consisting of: PArty at the CIA / All About the Pentiums / Bedrock Anthem / My Bologna / Hey Ricky / Ode to a Superhero / I Love Rocky Road / Eat It / Like a Surgeon / Word Crimes / and Canadian Idiot. And during this continuous melody of songs he was changing outfits slightly (jackets, ties, a surgeon cap, leather jacket, etc) it was great. I think it went on for 15 minutes.
Another costume change and he came out in a fat suit and sang Fat. Then while the next costume change was happening we got to watch the theme from the Captain Underpants Movie on the big screen. It was funny, and apparently Weird Al did the theme song. After that he came back out and performed the song that was under the credits during the Weird Al movie. The Puddle Pity Party came out and they performed Happy Together (yes the actual song not a parody of any kind) together. Weird Al then sang Skipper Dan, Ebay and Stop Forwarding that Crap to Me.
Then it was time for another costume change and when he came back out we got to hear White and Nerdy (one of my favorites). Another costume change and we got Amish Paradise. Then he said the show was over. It was about 10pm at this point (he started at about 8:10pm). I knew he wasn’t done, having seen him before a few times, but a lot of the crowd started leaving. I was surprised.
After a few minutes a cloaked figure came out – he looked like the emperor from Star Wars, and he started having the crowd clap based on where he was pointing. Then after a couple minutes of that the band all came back out in Star Wars garb and there were Stormtroopers and Dark Vader on the stage as well. They sang The Saga Begins, and at that point I assumed it was over.
BUT then they did Yoda as well, and in the middle of Yoda they did this crazy chanting thing that went on for many minutes, and then concluded the song. It was great and it ended the concert at just about 10:30pm.
It was a lot of fun. He always puts on a great show and I think the girls both enjoyed it a bunch as well.
Here are some pictures – sorry for the poor quality it was low light and I as zoomed in a bunch for some of them.
