Obama or Romney? - St Paul's High School

Volume 66, Issue 2 October 31, 2012solos, which led to a standing ovationfrom the crowd. (Or maybe just me. Iwasn’t paying attention to anyone elseat that moment.)After another short costumechange, he came out with cheerleaders,a veritable small army (two of them).Just by looking at his short blondwig, striped shirt and faded jeans, theaudience knew what was coming up:“Smells Like Nirvana,” his cover ofgrunge anthem “Smells Like TeenSpirit.” He truly got into the mindsetof the grunge stars of the 90’s, even“forgetting” an entire verse of thesong.He then played three songsfrom “Alpocalypse:” “Skipper Dan,”an homage to failed actors everywhere,“Party in the CIA,” making fun of thetwo most fun-makeable things in theU.S.: the CIA and Miley Cyrus. Finally,he ended the set with “CNR,” a tributeto game-show host Charles NelsonReilly. It highlights all the remarkablethings he did over his illustrious career,all proven with scientific fact!Fortunately for him, the crowddidn’t turn on him when “CanadianIdiot” started up. Rather, just abouteveryone in the crowd was singingalong, making fun of themselves tosupport their favourite singer. To thankthe crowd, he treated them to anotherof Schwartz’s world-famous drumsolos. After that was the only love songthat can even come close to “You MakeMe,” which is “Wanna B Ur Lovr”from the 2003 album “Poodle Hat.”This song is truly the best song to useto impress your girlfriend; if you useany of those lines on her, I guaranteeresults.Arts and LifeThen a short clip from “UHF”was shown, which every hardcore fanrecognized as a prelude for the classicrock cover “Money For Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies.” This song wastruly monumental in his career, as ithas such a long name to stop him frombeing sued, and it is the only song (todate) where a member of the originalband played with him on the originalrecording. Mark Knopfler of Dire Straitssaid he would only allow him to parodythe song if he could play guitar, to whichAl provided the only reasonable answer,“YESYESYESYESYESYESYES!”Next up was one of his famousmedleys, in which he would play aminute or two of a number of differentsongs, with virtually no stop betweenthem. He included newer fare, like“Another Tattoo” and “Whatever YouLike” from “Alpocalypse,” as well asclassics like “I Wanna New Duck” and“Theme from Rocky XIII”. He endedit off with his breakthrough song, “EatIt.” He went full Michael for it, withthe red jacket and silver glove that justscream MJ.After another costume break,he played another of his biggest hits,“Amish Paradise.” This was the onlyone of his songs to cause controversy,as the original artist, Coolio, said thathe hadn’t given his permission for theparody. However, they reconciled in2006, and “Weird” Al was “relievedhe could stop wearing his bulletproofjacket to the mall.” This was followedby “Perform This Way,” his lead singlefrom “Alpocalypse.” A satire of LadyGaga, he makes fun of all the stupidcostumes she’s worn throughout hercareer.The last two songs he playedwere crowd favourites, and two of hisbiggest hits ever. First, he rolled ontothe stage on his Segway to start “Whiteand Nerdy.” And after the last costumechange of the night, he burst onto thestage in his fatsuit to perform his otherMJ parody, “Fat.”As you can tell, he reallygets into… Wait, there’s more! Aftera short break, Rubén Valtierra, hiskeyboardist, started playing some eeriemusic, before getting the crowd to startchanting. In the middle of the noise,“Weird” Al returned to the stage oncemore dressed as a Jedi. Everyone knewwhat was coming: “The Saga Begins,”his parody of “American Pie” aboutThe Phantom Menace from Obi-Wan’sperspective.After Valtierra led the audiencethrough the theme from the AddamsFamily, he finished the night off withhis other Star Wars song, “Yoda,” aspoof of the Kink’s “Lola.” And, astradition with performing this songlive, about halfway through he and hisband broke into a semi-religious chantof nonsense words as well a differentmusical types. Words can’t describe theexperience of witnessing them in suchrandom unison. They then finished thesong, and said goodbye for the night.All in all, he put on one ofthe best concerts I have ever seen. Hetruly brought the performance aspect,while not sacrificing one note of themusic. The next time he comes around,everyone should definitely go see him.Score: 9.9/1035