World of Weird Al Yankovic

minnick27 wrote:Where exactly is this archived?

Yes, this, and.. is the backstage interview included in this? I missed it.

When I first moved to Los Angeles and found myself meeting my hero, Weird Al, within a month of my arrival, I realized that I had discovered an unintended benefit of living in this area, and that was the chance to see Weird Al in person many, many times. It is no secret to the jealous among us that I have had several opportunities in the last year alone to make this happen, and now it's at the point where I can afford to be discerning in which events I actually feel like attending, and which I'll just skip over. I find this to be somewhat ridiculous, given my fandom, but it's certainly a comfortable place to be to only attend Weird Al-related events that I would be interesting in going to anyway. As a huge fan of The Pixies, this certainly qualified as one of those events.

Having said that, I was nothing short of ecstatic to hear that Weird Al was going to be performing with The Pixies, one of (if not the) most influential alt-rock bands of all time. I gladly bought tickets and grew more and more excited as the list of performers became known. Flea!! Tenacious D!!!! I was very excited going into the event, and, even after standing in place for SIX hours straight, I am still blown away by just how much fun the show was last night.

A word on the organization of the show: I thought Black Francis and crew did an excellent job of organizing all of these bands, getting them to play on schedule, and giving each and every artist a chance to do their thing. Additionally, Francis (I have a hard time not calling him Frank Black, but if that's what he wants...) played nearly every Pixies hit I would have liked to see. The only song he didn't do that I would have liked to hear was "Hey" but that's acceptable. I liked that he started the show off with a Pixies song to get the mood right. While this may have been a charity event, it was obviously also a tribute to the Pixies, a band that didn't quite technically play at the show, but for all intents and purposes was wholly represented.

The opening acts ranged from excellent to downright awful and I'll quickly go through those: The first band, The 88, is a local LA band I've heard of but never seen. I thought they were a great opening act and were one of the better opening bands. I would definitely go see them again. Grand Duchy I had never heard of before, but turned out to be Black Francis's new band with his wife. How many bands does this guy have?? I am certain I've seen releases by this man under at least four or five different incarnations! Anyway they were pretty enjoyable and it was fun to see Francis fronting a group I knew zero songs by.

David J was another highlight for me, and I found it amusing that he was more recognized as being "the guy from Love and Rockets" rather than a member of seminal gothic rock band Bahaus. I enjoyed his set which covered the entire oeuvre of his works in both bands as well as, I believe, solo. And he even did the first Pixies cover of the night, Monkey Gone To Heaven, which he pulled off quite well. He was the first of several performers to openly worry about butchering the Pixies song he was playing, and of course he did no such thing. Meanwhile, Michael Penn was so god-awful I contemplated leaving. I don't care who his brother is, he sucks.

Thank God Tenacious D came on next and was certainly the best act yet. I have barely heard a word from that band since their movie bombed, and sure enough the very first lyric of their first song directly referenced the fact that their movie bombed; the entire song was about rising from that grave like a phoenix. Very funny. I had never heard any of the songs they played. Are they on the verge of a comeback? And their cover of "Oh My Golly" with Black Francis was another great moment.

I forget when exactly this happened in the show but at one point the couple whose son the show was benefiting came out to introduce themselves and talk about what the charity was all about. I feel like everyone had a vague idea that we were raising money for a baby born with some disability but we had no idea beyond that. The woman who spoke seemed like she had no idea either. She was so nervous, she had a list of things to say which she accidentally exposed to the audience. Still, she said nothing about Baby Winston or what his conditions are. I left the show with zero knowledge of this kid's disabilities, which seemingly contradicts the purpose of the event.

Black Francis started his set right on time - 11:20, as advertised - so I really have no idea what all the complaining was about on Twitter. His set was surprisingly long given the late start time, and at times was a little self-indulgent. Did anyone really go to that show to hear Frank Black & the Catholics songs, let alone Black Francis solo material? Regardless, he is a living legend in the rock world and it was awesome to see him play Pixies material in such a TINY venue. Their last tour took them to large-scale clubs with capacities of 4,000-5,000. The Echoplex holds 325. Amazing to see them so close up and for about a third of the price.

Highlights of Black Francis' set: OKGO, announced at the last minute, were a great first backing band. Their singer pounded through "Debaser" with such vitality, it was clearly the best cover of the night, if not the best performance overall. She Wants Revenge was less interesting only because I was less familiar with their music. They were clearly in awe of their situation the entire time. I was surprised that Francis asked them to play one of their songs without him rather than OKGO. At least the latter has a couple of top ten hits that anyone in the room would know. The first two backing bands Francis brought out were definitely overkill. I would have cut at least one song from each of those sets.

The obvious show-stopper, of course, was when Francis brought out Joey Santiago and David Lovering for the remainder of the evening. It was a real shame that Kim Deal could not be there, but getting to see 3/4ths of the Pixies standing on stage ten feet in front of me was worth the price of admission alone. Watching Santiago play guitar with his signature sound was incredible and distracted me from the various singers multiple times. Hearing them play classic hits like "Where Is My Mind", "Velouria", "Nimrod's Son" and - my favorite Pixies song of all time - "Gouge Away" was mindblowing.

The replacement Kim Deal bassists were all interesting and each brought a different feel to the show. I was surprised but cool with the fact that they started out without a bassist at all. Eventually they brought out some other chick named Kim from the band The Muffs, then Francis' wife, and finally motherfucking FLEA, people!!!!! That's right. Flea filling in on bass, playing Pixies songs including "Where Is My Mind." Does it get any better than that?

Of course, the answer is no. But damned if Weird Al didn't come extremely close. This year has seen Al jam with The Roots, collaborate with Paul McCartney, record a song with Ray Manzarek, and style parody The White Stripes, The Doors, and Queen. Yet even after all that, he STILL managed to blow my mind by appearing on stage covering one of The Pixies' most underrated songs completely straight. He didn't do anything zany or kooky. He didn't make any of those facial expressions he often makes. He didn't try to be funny at all. He did a very faithful rendition of the song, and even managed to mimic Frank Black's vocal stylings quite accurately, certainly no easy task. I, along with the throngs of hipsters behind me, was quite impressed.

This is the first time I've ever seen Al do a straightforward cover performance in person. I've seen the YouTube clips of Al performing with Ben Folds, and heard about his appearances with Presidents of the USA and Barenaked Ladies. But all of those bands play lighthearted shows to begin with, so they were more natural fits. This time, Al walked onto a stage of legends, including one (Flea) who is about to be inducted into the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame, and more than held his own. It wasn't just the Al fans who thought he was one of the night's highlights, but nearly everyone. I heard people buzzing about Weird Al all around the room, both before and after he played. Some of them even said they wanted him to play another song! After the Pixies went off stage and it seemed like an encore was going to happen, I even managed to get a pretty healthy WEIRD AL WEIRD AL chant going for a bit.

I also enjoyed the fact that Al was saved until the end. Obviously Black Francis recognized that Al was one of the "bigger" names appearing, and treated him as such. No derogatory comments. In fact he even mentioned that Al's appearance was the "unspoken thing in the back of everybody's mind." It was clear that everyone in the band recognized Al's talent and were delighted to play with him. And it was also abundantly clear that Al himself was a huge Pixies fan. He was the only artist I noticed in the wings watching for almost the entire Black Francis set. Kyle Gass joined him for about half of the time, and others were going in and out. But I saw Al there more than I saw Francis' wife or the couple the benefit was being held for. He was nodding his head to the beat and occasionally singing along. I couldn't help but notice most of the other people back stage weren't really talking to him as much, but he kept himself busy looking at his iPhone several times. I assume it's safe to say he was checking Twitter much of that time.

Overall, this marathon five-plus hour show was one of the longest non-festival concerts I've ever been to and I had fun the entire time, save one or two acts I wasn't particularly digging. I am so grateful that Al decided to join this line-up, especially that he did so during the music night rather than the comedy night. The performance was truly one of a kind, and it will forever be one of my greatest Weird Al-related memories, right up there with the first time I met him and appeared in the W&N video.

THANKS, AL!!!


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Now that my review is done, there's something I have to address and I really don't care who I upset or offend here. You people on Twitter seriously need to SHUT THE smurf UP with all the whining about the show last night. Are you guys kidding me??? "Weird Al" Yankovic just played a show with one of the great modern rock bands of ALL TIME, and you are complaining that he didn't play for long enough?? That it took too long for him to come out??? That you didn't like the opening bands?????????????????????

You should all consider yourselves lucky that you got to watch this show at all. Live!! From the comfort of your own homes. Sitting in a chair! FOR FREE! Oh, poor you, staying up until ridiculously late at night or waking up ridiculously early in the morning. For a webcast that YOU KNEW FOR CERTAIN WAS GOING TO BE ARCHIVED!!!!! Ten years ago, anyone outside of Echo Park would have been smurf out of luck. You guys got to watch this performance on your own computers in real time. So shut up.

Did you really complain that he only got to play one song? Seriously? "Weird Al" Yankovic, a figure who has been mocked and maligned by mainstream music fans for the majority of his career, has the opportunity to play a song with one of the most influential bands of the last twenty years, and rather than being blown away by that fact, you only complain that he didn't get to do another song? I know that if Black Francis had let him do ten more songs with them, you would have been complaining that he didn't play ten more. Al was part of a massive line-up in a charity event. With shows like this, you take what you're given.

I couldn't believe my eyes after seeing some of these true rock legends appearing on stage and then looking down at my phone to see comments about How long is this going to take? or Who is this bald guy? or Gee, Al, it's getting late! or Well this is stupid. IF YOU FELT THAT WAY WHY DIDNT YOU TURN OFF THE WEBCAST??? Are you seriously criticizing the event for being boring simply because you were not personally a fan of the music? If that's the case, WHY DID YOU WATCH IT? If I knew Al was going to be playing with ten country music legends, I would have waited until the next day and watched the archived portion that was relevant to Al's performance. You chose to sit there for six hours simply so you could see a three minute performance by an artist you love obsess over idolize retweet everything he says for no reason respond to every single tweet he has ever made with three or four comments of your own really like. What did you expect was going to happen for the five hours and fifty seven minutes of the concert that did not pertain to Weird Al?

Weird Al fans can be SO smurfin' annoying sometimes. Seriously.

It's also pretty clear from the list posted on page 1 that this was a Black Francis show. Sure, he had some guests but they were there to raise awareness for the concert and therefore the cause, not share the spotlight. I don't think this was ever intended to be a Live Aid sort of thing with everyone getting a showcase. Besides, Al is definitely the odd man out on that bill. As cheesy as it sounds, it's an honor that he was even invited to take part in a show that definitely wasn't up his usual alley.

Awesome review Jon and very fair, particularly in acknowledging there was some self-indulgence involved, but as to the slagging off. Well I didn't have the privilege of seeing Al as the show ran on past 9 am and I had to go out so I feel perfectly justified in not being thrilled about that. Also The Pixies may be some huge megastars to you but were totally unknown to me.Yes I liked them. I liked everything I heard, but forgive me if I was underwhelmed by the length of time that Black Francis held the spotlight overall. I agree some people went WAAAAY over the top in their criticisms though. It was a good gig. My only beef was the timing.
As for criticising how other people's fandom manifests itself, you would do well to recall that you are indeed lucky to live where you do and to be able to be relaxed and nonchalant about the whole business. There are other people here, and I count myself as one, for whom their fandom is one of the brightest and most treasured things they have to brighten a far less rosy picture in the rest of their life, and as such it seems to me most churlish to denigrate that. To me, your admiration as expressed here, for the Pixies seems inexplicable but I would defend to the death your right to say those things and share your enjoyment with those who are into that.
Just because you do things differently, and see the world in a different way to some of the rest of us doesnt necessarily make you 100% infallible, and your rant against your fellow fans seems far more childish than I would expect from you Jon. Basically, (and this goes out to those who were really HYPER critical of the music last night too) If you haven't anything pleasant to say, it's almost always better to say nothing at all and let it go

Jon, I don't blame you for saying what you did, but only about the complaining. As far as what you said about us as Al fans, that was a bit much.. I'll admit I was a complainer, but most of mine were about the late hour. I feel a little ashamed now, and I probably should be. I did enjoy the other acts *most of them* and some of the Frank Black stuff was alright. I thought Al did great. Yes, the song was short, but I think he really did something different than he's ever done before, and he should be proud of that. I will say I was not one who thought he should have done more than one song. Not sure who did say that, but I'm grateful that he did what he did, and I told him so on twitter. I suppose I could have waited and watched the archived footage, but, like I said, I did enjoy some of the other acts. I'm glad you had a good time at the show. Thanks for the review.

I agree with Jon 100 percent, and that's all I'll say. I ain't getting into it with anyone (No one's killing the mood I've been in...that's an order, soldiers!!!!)

Wizzerkat wrote:

minnick27 wrote:Where exactly is this archived?

Yes, this, and.. is the backstage interview included in this? I missed it.

Danny Krug (Host of The Rock N Roll Super Show) told me that the interview was not archived as far as he knows at present but he hasnt seen all of the tapes yet and it might still turn up

You can see the stream archive on the page where you watched the show (that Al Tweeted b4 the event, and on the You-Tube he tweeted today

To those who complained about the late hour: Well, duh, it's a normal multi-opener concert... in California. Therefore, it will run very long and late even for us locals- so of course if you add in timezone changes it will be very late into the evening and early morning. I don't complain about things being taped in New York while I'm working or eating dinner- I either work around the schedule or watch it later during a rerun (or, in this case, an archive).

Technology is a blessing and a curse. We get to watch something LIVE from anywhere in the world, but now we're all spoiled by the speed of information and the internet.

Yes, I realize that, Kristine, and I was well aware that it was going to be a late night for me. I did say I was a bit ashamed for complaining about that. I also didn't take into account that there was really no specified time that Al would be on. It just said Frank Black and friends, starting at 11:20. I did make it, and I'm glad I watched the show.

That was an awesome review, Jon. It was really awesome to watch it, even if it did last until three in the morning for me. I thought it was very cool and enjoyed it a lot.

And LOL @ Twitter comments. What a drama that was...