Weird Al Yankovic was a little late taking the stage at the BMO Harris Pavilion at Summerfest on July 4th. Although he was just 15 minutes behind schedule, the lateness is more noticeable at festivals- considering the bigger acts tend to perform at the same time and most people try to watch as many shows as possible. Nonetheless, Yankovic took the stage at 10:00pm and ironically opened his set with “Tacky.” He definitely had a ton of loyal fans in the audience, and so the energy in the building was at an all time high. Yankovic’s career spans over 20 years, and he did his best to cram all of his biggest hits into one set. His set also included “Perform This Way,” “Dare to Be Stupid,” “Fat,” and “First World Problems.”
The majority of his setlist included songs from his Mandatory Fun album, which was dropped last year. The album features parodies of songs by Pharrell Williams, Iggy Azalea, Robin Thicke, and Lorde. Yankovic performed “Lame Claim to Fame,” “Foil” (Lorde’s “Royals”) and “Word Crimes” (Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines”). It wouldn’t be a Weird Al Yankovic show without his accordion, and he played a polka medley entitled “Now That’s What I Call Polka!” The medley is a spoof of Miley Cyrus’ “Wrecking Ball,” One Direction’s “Best Song Ever,” and “Pumped Up Kicks” by Foster the People.
I found it a little hard to really get excited about watching an artist perform parodies, considering it’s just listening to comedic covers of other people’s hit songs. Although Yankovic performed a solid show, it was more entertaining watching his audience- who were dancing around in the crowd and having a blast. The singer also performed a medley of some of his most successful songs including “Smells Like Nirvana,” “Party in the CIA,” “It’s All About the Pentiums,” “Eat It,” “Like a Surgeon,” and “Another One Rides the Bus.”
Before closing his set, Yankovic performed his parody of Chamillionaire’s “Ridin,'” which is famously named “White & Nerdy.” He also sent the crowd into a frenzy by performing “Amish Paradise,” the parody of Coolio’s platinum-selling single “Gangsta’s Paradise.” The last song of his set was “Yoda” (The Kinks’ “Lola”), which is from his Dare to Be Stupid project.