Weird Al

[Thad]

Blog post with further thoughts on the show I saw. Plus, he's got recordings of the entire tour up on Stitcher Premium. It is not difficult to sign up for a free trial, cancel auto-renewal, and then download all 77 MP3s (they total about 10.6GB). Plus you can use the rest of the month to grab whatever else you want on Stitcher; they've got the ad-free versions of a bunch of my favorite podcasts, and I hear good things about Wolverine: The Long Night.

I listened to the Poughkeepsie show last night. It's going to be fun listening to the tour from the beginning, because the difference between the first show and the one I saw (the 53rd) is pretty significant. The Poughkeepsie show is a little rough; there are a couple of flubbed lyrics and false starts (and not always on songs you'd expect; they have to restart One More Minute, which, as Al notes, used to be a regular part of their set list; I'd seen them perform it live at least twice before this tour). After Jackson Park Express, he says something like, "That's going to sound a lot better by the end of the tour," and he's right, it did sound a lot better 52 shows later.

As polished as Al's shows always are, it was fascinating listening to one that was a little rough. Still great, it should go without saying, but I know it gets better as they go, and it's going to be interesting following along as they find their groove.

I'm sure some enterprising soul will eventually split these things up into individual tracks. I look forward to that; it'd be cool to be able to put together a playlist of the full versions of the 77 covers in that video.

[Thad]

If you want an object lesson in the importance of a good audio mix, look no farther than the difference in sound quality between the first and second show. Second show sounds a lot better.

It's not quite perfect -- backup vocals are too quiet on Don't Download This Song, and then lead vocals are too quiet on Traffic Jam and My Own Eyes -- but it's a huge improvement over the first show. The first show sounded fine, but the second really pops.

[Grath]

If anyone's interested, I have a link to where someone went through the shows and cut out the first playing of each original and each cover, in case anyone wants an approximation of probably the longest single-tour live show album ever made.

[Grath]

I've been slowly working my way through all of the concerts - currently on #39, Springfield. Still enjoying it, although I have started skipping Jackson Park Express.

[Mongrel]

A rare image of Regular Al Yankovic:

[Yoji]

Weird Al got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame!

He also had a request for everyone regarding that:

[Grath]

Continued working through all of the concerts... I just got to Calgary, which is a notable exception to Weird Al's usual high quality. You can tell very blatantly that the playing is live since someone keeps playing in the wrong key at the beginning of every couple songs.

[Thad]

Weird Al announces his 2019 tour will include orchestras

Two weeks from today – Monday, Nov. 12 – we’ll be announcing the dates for my 2019 tour, which we’re calling Strings Attached.

We’re going directly from my most scaled-down, low-key show ever (this year’s Ridiculously Ill-Advised Vanity Tour) to my most full-blown, over-the-top extravaganza ever. Not only are we bringing back the costumes and the props and the big video screen, but also… every single night we’ll be performing with a FULL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA. For real. No, we’re not cramming an orchestra on our bus – it’ll be a different orchestra in every city. Sometimes it will be a “branded” local orchestra (like, say, the Colorado Symphony), and other times we’ll basically just be putting together our own orchestra with local musicians.

And yes, we’re back to PLAYING THE HITS… but we’ll also throw in a few deeps cuts too (including a couple songs that we’ve never played before – not even on the Ill-Advised Vanity Tour!) Of course it’ll be the same amazing band as always – Jim, Steve, Ruben and Bermuda – plus, for the first time ever we’ll be touring with female background singers (Lisa Popeil, Monique Donnelly and Scottie Haskell – incredible vocalists who have appeared on many of my studio recordings).

I think it’s really going to be a special show, and I can’t wait to get started! I’m not allowed to say much else about it before the 12th, but I will say that it’s basically a 3-month summer tour, and yes, we’ll be playing a bunch of places that we didn’t get around to on the last one (hello, Vancouver, Las Vegas, and the entire state of Florida!) But sadly, I’m afraid that, once again, it’s just a North American tour – hopefully we’ll hit Australia, Europe, and other parts of the world some other time.

Anyway, tickets go on sale Friday, Nov. 16 at 11:00 AM Eastern… all dates and info will be on weirdal.com. Hope to see you on the road next year!

[Thad]

Regarding "songs that we've never played before" -- I really hope that the full orchestra means they can do songs that were too complicated for the last tour, like Genius in France and Hardware Store. (Maybe Everything You Know is Wrong? I think that one would actually have been doable with just the five guys in the band, but it'd be much better with an actual horn section.)

[Rico]

I found a karaoke bar with Genius in France once. I had forgotten it was 9 minutes long and also has basically 0 breaks. I remember now forever.