THUNDER BAY -- I’m not going lie, before I get any further into this review – I wasn’t really a Weird Al Yankovic fan growing up.
Sure, I laughed my tail off when Eat It came out in 1984. Michael Jackson was the hottest thing on the planet, and this guy came along and turned the song upside down.
But by the time he took Madonna’s advice the following year and turned Like a Virgin into Like a Surgeon, my attention had turned back to Dire Straits, Tears for Fears and Wham – you know bands with huge futures in front of them.
Ok, I did catch Tears for Fears at Bonnaroo a couple of years ago and they were spectacular. But the year before at that same Tennessee festival I skipped Weird Al for another ‘80s icon, the snarling, still fun as hell Billy Idol.
Born in 1969, I think I was half a generation too old to really get the polka-loving Yankovic, a fact I discovered this week in the newsroom when I happened to mention I was going to shoot the show, which set off a flurry of YouTube clicks and hearty guffaws as my mid-30s colleagues took a walk down memory lane.
Needless to say, I entered the Thunder Bay Community Auditorium more curious than excited.
I was pleasantly surprised.
Yankovic, the valedictorian of his high school at 16, put on a pretty good show, part theatre, part musical, part comedy.
Short of Prince, who repeatedly refused Weird Al’s attempts to parody one of his songs, and Paul McCartney, who preferred fans listen to Live and Let Die the way he and Guns ‘N’ Roses intended it, there really aren’t too many popular musicians whose songs haven’t been skewered by the 56-year-old Yankovic.
The California-born musician brought out all the big guns during his most recent Thunder Bay stop, starting with his grand entrance through the doorway at the back of the auditorium, marching his way to the stage singing Tacky, his send-up of Pharrell’s Oscar nominated Happy.
Moments later he pranced out on this stage in a purple octopus costume, complete with an upside down ice cream hat on his head and launched into Perform this Way, his take on Lady Gaga’s Born this Way.
It wasn’t all fun and game for Yankovic, who began playing the accordion at a young age. He and his band put the polka touch on a medley of modern pop hits, including Foster the People and Daft Punk, before returning to the parody parade.
There was Fat, in his famous full-figure body suit, Smells Like Nirvana, as the grunge king Kurt Cobain, and Party in the CIA, his take on Miley Cyrus.
I’m Handy, Gump, Inactive and eBay, sung to the tune of the Backstreet Boy’s I Want it That Way, followed.
While the obligatory costume changes could have been an annoyance, Weird Al filled the time with a carefully orchestrated video montage that featured pop culture references to the artist and clips from Al TV.
Eat it, I Lost on Jeopardy, I Love Rocky Road and Like a Surgeon got the unplugged medley treatment, a slight disappointment.
But Yankovic and company finished strong.
He zipped around the stage on a Segway for White and Nerdy, lifted Robin Thicke’s black and white pinstripe suit for Word Crimes and leapt in the air during Amish Paradise, his chest-length beard flying in the air.
The encore featured Yankovic’s two best-known Stars Wars parodies. A garrison of storm troopers and R2D2 joined him on stage for the Saga Begins, then finished with the Kinks-inspired Yoda, the packed house finally on its feet.
After two hours, I didn’t regret a second.
And I even learned something from the show: never drive anywhere with a wolverine in your pants.
Now that's sound advice.
