Photos and Review by Jeff Palmucci
Galleries: Weird Al, Puddle’s Pity Party
Weird Al stopped by the Wang in Boston for a stop in his Bigger and Weirder Tour. Don’t know who Weird Al is? Well then you owe it to yourself to see the 100% factual biography Weird: The Al Yankovic Story. I had no idea about most of that stuff before watching it!
Al’s opener for the tour is Puddles’ Pity Party, a one clown act that came to fame on America’s got Talent. There was no backing band, and he didn’t speak between songs, instead relying on visual humor. In one bit he shoved a cell phone camera into people’s faces and put them on the giant video wall behind them. This guy must’ve had a target on his face because Weird Al singled him out too. In another bit, he invited a little girl out to play a fake guitar on stage. The look on her face is priceless.
The photographers got to shot song number 6-8 this night, which is unusual. Usually we shoot the first three. The reason why became evident as he came to the stage through a meandering backstage video while singing Tacky. I won’t ruin the video with any spoilers here except to say that Puddles’ and that little girl had a really funny bit with Al on his way to the stage.
That wasn’t the only video in the show. In fact there were tons of them, all hilarious. The band used most of these to perform quick changes for the different songs. From Smells Like Nirvana to Dare to be Stupid (nailed the facial expressions) to Party in the CIA to Ricky to Like a Surgeon to Canadian Idiot. Most of these were in a medley which counted as song 8 for the three that we were allowed to shoot. Thanks Al! I would have cried if I was forced to watch this without my camera!
If you are going to a Weird Al show, you are signing up for the comedy. It is Monty Python level ridiculous being both completely hilarious and very very silly. There was one bit where Al was switching between the harmonica and the accordion. He had a roadie who looked like he just got back from a Teamster’s meeting come out to hold the harmonica to his face for the brief riffs. Then, in between, the guy was forced to stand there looking uncomfortable for most of the rest of the song. I laughed my ass off.
If you love goofy humor (and you do, otherwise what the hell are you doing reading this), you need to go see Al live. This is the most fun show I’ve been to in a while.