‘Weird Al’ Yankovic gives Pier Six crowd Mandatory Fun
“Weird Al” Yankovic performed his Mandatory Fun tour, named after his first Billboard chart-topping album, in front of a packed Pier Six Pavilion overlooking the Inner Harbor on Saturday night.
Fans began arriving more than two hours before the Weird One played the first note of “Tacky,” off the Mandatory Fun album. The crowd covered all age groups, as young mingled with old, with some in Hawaiian shirts and others donning aluminum foil hats.
Yankovic, a 55-year-old whose real name is Alfred Matthew Yankovic, followed with “Lame Claim to Fame” and “Now That’s What I Call Polka!,” which were both off his most recent album.
Yankovic, who changed his apparel in between almost all of the 30 songs, treated the audience to a huge video screen that included his appearances in “The Simpsons,” “The Flintstones,” “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,” “Family Guy,” “Adventure Time,” “The Cleveland Show,” “Big Bang Theory” and “Scooby Doo,” among others.
Yankovic took the crowd on a journey that spanned has spanned five decades, urging the crowd to sing along with him to hits like “Fat,” “Eat It,” “White & Nerdy,” “Smells Like Nirvana” and “Amish Paradise.”
And when it came time for “Wanna B Ur Lovr,” Yankovic sang pickup lines to females in the front row.
“It was great to see a mix of his old and new.” said John Iler, a lifelong fan of Yankovic.
Yankovic had no problem getting the audience to sing along, considering he’s sold more than 12 million albums, performed in more than 1,000 shows and won four Grammys since releasing his first single, “My Bologna,” in 1979. Since he has so many hits, he cranked out shortened versions of “Another One Rides The Bus,” “Handy,” “Party in the CIA” and “All About The Pentiums” one after another without a break.
Yankovic ended with a three-song encore “The Saga Begins” and “Yoda,” which are both based on Star Wars. So of course, Yankovic dressed like Obi-Wan Kenobi while his band wore Stormtrooper and Darth Vader costumes.
“As a lifelong fan, I couldn’t have asked for more,” Iler said.
Costa Swanson is a Computer Engineering major at UMBC who has worked for the Baltimore Post-Examiner since 2015. He loves music and sports, especially his Stanley Cup champion Washington Capitals.