Last August “Weird” Al Yankovic came in concert in Denver. We got tickets for the whole family! This tour was announced in 2014 not long after Weird Al’s Mandatory Fun album was released, and our boys absolutely loved the songs and music videos.

Unfortunately, with Colorado’s more liberal marijuana laws, it’s hard to avoid any kind of music concert where someone isn’t smoking it. That someone was sitting right next to me. Know that it’s illegal to smoke marijuana in any public venue, and I had to remind the person next to me of that law. My sons were with us! Luckily, the person next to me (he appeared college-aged) was receptive to my feedback and chose to partake somewhere else.

The concert itself was amazing! The boys really enjoyed it and were singing along with most of the songs. Weird Al reached back over 30 years to play some of his earliest hits. I was looking forward to hearing his accordion and polka music live, and he did not disappoint there. He covered most of his Mandatory Fun music, and in many cases (such as with “Tacky” and “Foil”) he reproduced the music videos.

He changed up many of the songs we knew from the 80s and 90s, such as a skat version of “I Love Rocky Road”, a jazz style of “I Lost on Jeopardy“, and (my favorite) “Eat It” in the style of Eric Clapton’s Unplugged “Leila”.

There were about 20 costume changes, yet he didn’t spend that much time off stage. Between sets we were presented dozens of video clips of time Weird Al was mentioned in or cameoed a TV show or movie. In fact, there were several minutes of cameos and mentions just for The Simpsons. Being that our whole family loves The Simpsons, we especially enjoyed that clip.

Yankovic announced a 2016 continuation of the Mandatory Fun Tour, so if he didn’t make it to your hometown in 2015, check out the dates and see if you can make it this summer. Tickets are available now.

We didn’t have the closest seats, but they weren’t bad either. Here are my not-so-great photos showing off some of Weird Al’s costumes.