Weird Al concert

On Sunday, June 27th, my wife and I went to Asbury Park, New Jersey to see "Weird Al" Yankovic in concert. It was the fourth time that we have seen him in concert, the first time was back in 2000, before we were married.

There was some confusion in the week leading up to the show. It was originally scheduled for the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, NJ. About a week in advance, I read on-line that it had been moved to the Paramount Theater in Asbury Park. (The reason for the move was never given; apparently it was Ticketmaster's decision based on ticket sales.) My biggest concern about the move was in relation to seat assignments. I was worried that it would be open seating at that we would have to get in line very early to get decent seats. Fortunately, I was finally able to speak to a representative from Ticketmaster on the Thursday before the show. I was told that the original tickets would be exchanged for assigned seats in the new venue.

The show was scheduled for 8:00 PM, but we arrived a little after 4:00 in case there were any problems. To their credit, the ticket exchange went very smoothly, and we ended up a couple of rows closer than we would have been at PNC. The only drawback was that we had a lot of time to kill before the gates opened at 7:00. So we had dinner at an upscale restaurant right off the boardwalk. It was a bit fancier than we really wanted, but a long meal would allow us to spend as much time as possible in air-conditioning.

Anyway, on to the show itself. As always, Weird Al and his band put on a fantastic show. A couple of songs in, Al acknowledged the venue switch by apologizing for the late start; saying that he thought the show was in an entirely different location.

The first song was Al's latest polka medley. On each album, he takes a couple of lines from a bunch of popular songs and puts them to polka music. He then performed a couple of original songs from about 15 years ago: "You Make Me" and "You Don't Love Me Anymore". After the second of these songs, Al smashed his guitar on the stage. Throughout the show, there were at least ten costume changes, keeping with the themes of the songs and/or the artists being parodied. During the changes, they play videos of Al conducting mock interviews with celebrities.

The show kept on going with some of Al's biggest hits mixed in with some new songs that will be on his upcoming album. During his seductive song "Wanna B Ur Lovr", he left the stage and sang directly to several women in the audience. We had aisle seats and were only about five feet away from Al before he had to turn around and go up the other aisle. The big encore contained Al's two Star Wars-themed songs - "The Saga Begins" (parody of "American Pie") and "Yoda" (parody of "Lola") - complete with dancing Storm Troopers.

Once again, Weird Al put on a fantastic and thoroughly entertaining concert. We are definitely looking forward to the release of his new CD and hope to see him again someday.