Live: Weird Al in Indy
Weird Al Yankovic has been doing some experiment tours the last few years. Recently he did the deep cuts tour where he played obscure songs from his career. This year he embarked on the Strings Attached Tour, which saw him backed by a 40-piece symphony orchestra and the tour hit Indianapolis this summer.
Coming through Indy’s White River State Park, the show looked like it was going to be an interesting one, with Yankovic opening with a medley of “I Lost on Jeopardy,” “I Love Rocky Road” and “Like A Surgeon” that was only backed by the orchestra and no band. However, things exploded quickly with “The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota” which saw Al’s signature band jump in and it was no looking back.
The orchestra played a huge role on certain songs- “The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota,” “Jurassic Park” (which was song completely in Japanese for the first time ever), and “You Don’t Love Me Anymore” all had an added explosiveness with the orchestra backing and fans got to hear the songs just like they originally sounded.
Later in the set, Yankovic threw in songs that required costume changes, during which the giant screen on stage showed videos of pop culture clips of Yankovic references and appearances.
Then, to end the night, a posse of Stormtroopers, Darth Vader and R2D2 took the stage while Yankovic closed it out with a Star Wars two-punch knockout of “The Saga Begins” and “Yoda.”
-Reggie Edwards