WEIRD AL COVERS LIVE Vol. 3 The Eighties & Beyond! features fantastic "straight" covers of songs by; Devo, Violent Femmes, David Bowie, Stealer's Wheel, Elvis Costello, & The Talking Heads!
Weird Al Yankovic is the most successful comedy recording artist of all time, & has sold more than 12 million albums. His Mandatory Fun was the first comedy album in history to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. It won Yankovic his fourth of FIVE Grammy Awards.
Even the casual fan knows Dr. Demento, was the first person to play Yankovic’s music on the radio when Al was still a student at L.A.’s Lynwood High School. He went on to be the most-played artist in the history The Dr. Demento Show. Al & Al's Band generally include a serious cover in their live shows & I've collected the best of these, & attempted to break them into general eras.
Weird Al's audience started including young kids when Radio Disney became popular & started playing his songs—but his audiences are “made up of men who have not been 12 for quite a while, except maybe on some internal, spiritual level” as Brandon Choe wrote in the wonderful Los Angeles Times article most of this info came from: L.A. Times.
Choe wrote: Whether they all would self-identify as nerds is hard to say, but when Yankovic’s opener, veteran comedian Emo Philips, begins a joke by saying, “There’s probably no one here who was not bullied,” he will have to wait out a long and seemingly cathartic laugh before adding, “… today.”
Emo Philips appeared in Weird Al’s first feature film UHF, and the two geniuses are old friends who joined forces for THE RIDICULOUSLY SELF-INDULGENT, ILL-ADVISED VANITY TOUR.
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ReplyDeleteLet’s turn the attention on WEIRD AL’s two most famous support acts: EMO PHILIPS (quoted above) and PUDDLES PITY PARTY.
Can you share a story, a joke, or an observation about them, or any other opening act you’ve been impressed with.
I’ll go first: I went to see WARREN ZEVON live, and the opening act was BRUCE COCKBURN who blew me away. Here’s my homemade LIVE VERSION of the LP he was supporting: https://jonderblog.blogspot.com/2020/12/wondering-where-dragons-are.html?sc=1774441940281#c409852327514566975
Here’s the link:
WEIRD AL LIVE COVERS Vol. 3 The Eighties & Beyond:
https://pixeldrain.com/u/Xkeyc6vN
Never heard, let alone saw, the two bands you mention. My band opened a few times for "bigger" bands. Once, opening for The Blubbery Hellbellies we got thrown ashtrays (full), chairs, beerglasses (emptied) verbal abuse at us, and after 5 songs were "politely" asked/ordered to f-off. The scene at the Blues Brothers with the fence is mild compared to our gig. Those were the days.
ReplyDeleteBlubbery Hellbellies is a good name. At least your band elicited a PASSIONATE reaction -- what would be worse than bored indifference?
DeleteHey there!
ReplyDeletei cant seem to log in, but I go by BigdogDave.
Puddles used to live in the Richmond Va area, the same place im from. I worked in a record store and him and his brother would come in alot, nice guys. He was also friends with a lot of my employees, who were also musicians. When i saw his act, i was like hey i kinda know him!
Hey, Big Dog Dave, thank you for your remembrance.
DeleteI spent a lot of time in Richmond in the 1990's--it's a cool place, & I always used to hit PLAN 9 Records. Before they were all over the radio, I saw The Spin Doctors live, on one visit. They put on a great show.
Wow, thanks so much for these Al posts! I saw Puddles in a theatre several years ago and he was great! Perfect opener for Al. My favorite opening band was Half Japanese opening for Moe Tucker in the late 80s. They were delightfully unhinged!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome, Jay Dee Gee! There's more Al to come!
ReplyDeleteHALF JAPANESE & MOE TUCKER? What a pairing!
LOVE that there will be more AL! And yes, Half Japanese then backed up Moe. It was one of my favorite shows of all time!
DeleteI'm so glad to hear that you're into what we're posting. There are two more WEIRD AL posts in the pipeline. One available nowhere else (as far as I know!).
DeleteSpeaking of stand-up comedians, I saw Todd Barry open for Yo La Tengo on one of their Hanukkah shows at Maxwell's in Hoboken. I'm pretty sure he did his "VH-1 Behind the Music" routine (you can hear it on his first CD, Medium Energy).
ReplyDeleteIt is hilarious. "Behind the music? I didn't know Billy Idol liked living his life to the fullest!"
That is hilarious, James. TODD BARRY is great! Jon & I are both big YO LA TENGO fans, so it's safe to say that we're both jealous.
ReplyDeleteI went to see STEVE MARTIN live around when SNL made him a household name. I'd seen him on daytime talk shows after school, like Mike Douglas & Merv Griffin, so I was already a fan when he made the jump from opening for bands to headlining theaters promoting his first album.
There was a big screen (which was uncommon at the time) and the show started with his short film THE ABSENT-MINDED WAITER starring Terri Garr & Buck Henry.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRMfXlJMmPU.
Then JOHN SEBASTIAN came out with just his guitar, sat on a stool & played all his LOVIN' SPOONFUL hits, and his current #1 hit; the theme to WELCOME BACK KOTTER. If the show had ended right then, I'd have gotten my money's worth. Then STEVE MARTIN came out & did material that showed up on his next two albums including something Steve said he'd worked up especially for the people in the balcony: "The DISAPPEARING DIME trick!"
One of the best shows I've seen, hands down.