Weird Al @ the Orange County Fair 7/20/07

[ktwoa]

because he's dead, he's dead, shuh moan, he's really really dead! Hee-hee!

[ktwoa]

Genius! Couldn't have done it better! I just hope he does MJ's death as well!!!

[landraiderares]

Any band that cuts into "Radio Radio" for ANY reason at all gives them a big thumbs-up in my book

[BottomGrade]

look up radio, radio on wikipedia. This wasn't technical difficulties. On saturday night live elvis costello wanted to play this but was told not to. So he started another song, then midway through yelled stop stop. Then they started to play the politcally controversial radio, radio on a world wide broadcast. It got costello banned from snl for 12 years.

[gecafe]

Costello wasn't banned from SNL. Michaels didn't care what song he played, it was Costello's label that he was rebelling against. The reason he didn't appear for years is mainly because Lorne left the show in 1980 and didn't return until 1985.

[jacobthelioneater]

@gecafe False (partly). It is true that the station could care less which song he played. The problem, however, was that his stunt messed up a well-reheearsed show, threw all the cues off and made the whole LIVE show run behind. Because he messed up the schedule, he was banned. He was let back 12 years later however.

[thegetupkid69]

the lame crowd seems bummed he is playing an amazing costello classic, instead of "white and nerdy." hahaha. Well at least he did a good job of it!

[fiji4t20oo]

i love elvis, but this is reference back to the 25 anniversary of snl and he played "less than zero" than he turned back and said those same words and then started to play Radio Radio!

[jubbyistootubby]

It's actually not a reference to the 25 anniversary of SNL. It was back in '77 when Costello switched songs and got banned for 12 years. The 25 anniversary is when he and Beastie Boys played Radio, Radio.

[fiji4t20oo]

oops, must have gotten them confused

[Maestrojosh87]

...after he interrupted them playing "Sabotage".

[BottomGrade]

oops, srry, didn't see this comment before i posted

[bibulb]

GWAH. SO AWESOME.

As a collector of covers of that song, that rocks the house.

[VinBad007]

Am I wrong, or is someone signing the lyrics in the lower left corner of the screen? The person comes and goes throughout the video. Pretty cool.

[CheckeredZebra14]

Yes there is a signer.  I thought it was pretty cool too =)

[DanaCornZine]

I think it's someone doing sign language.

[brodel77]

how very cool of weird al to cover elvis costello.

[patriot461]

i was in the bback row

[PrincessofLuv]

i was in the third row at that concert!!!!

[FuckingxJerryxLewis]

Elvis is king!

[colinator6000]

LOL I was there too lets see you were maybe 5 rows behind me, but anyway I say yes I think the technology screwed up but he knew if anything went wrong he would prefome radio radio, killer encore huh? white and nerdy AND Albuquerque I was singing along to those songs utnil the confetti went flying nice vid too

[ravendon]

This is a tribute to Elvis Costello's performance on SNL. Elvis was a last minute replacement for the Sex Pistols who were dropped due to their criminal charges. Elvis was touring the US and Canada at the time. He starts into "Less Than Zero", then stops suddenly and says, "I'm sorry ladies and gentlemen, but there's no reason to do this song here. Radio, radio (to the band)". Elvis wanted to play Radio, Radio, but Columbia had other ideas.

[mrbob424]

you people arent old enough to know that elvis costello did the same thing on SNL IN NY CITY back in the 70s and he got banned as he went right into "radio radio" and weird al was just copying a parody of the famous elvis video also can be seen on you tube!

[PrincesssShali]

I've seen a few of these videos & I still think it was done on purpose, He did the same thing @ CalPoly for Ill sue ya. I dont understand how he can have SO MANY problems, or forget the words to songs that HE wrote & sung hundreds of times. This was the 5th concert I had been to, & never had that problem @ the other 4, tho he didnt do this @ every concert in this tour either. if you notice, he didnt have any problems singing Radio Radio. Makes you wonder. hmm...

[OldakQuill]

Maybe he and his band rehearsed Radio Radio to perform whenever something went wrong in their set program?

[michaeljordan99]

yea u could tell he did that on purpose

[ASHole71]

only when something goes wrong in the performance will they kick it over to Radio Radio

[gtrmu]

Do you have video of him reprising White and Nerdy during the encore?

[CheckeredZebra14]

I do, I've just been really slow about getting it posted. I just uploaded it, so it should be up soon.

[socby19]

It's because the projector had stopped, as well as the keyboard programming. (As pointed out by checkeredzebra)

[starbrightshadows]

Kettering Ohio, right? I was there. It didn't look like a technical error to me, it looked like what you said. Al lost his place. Or they did it on purpose, which is doubtful. Cool as hell, though. I wish someone had that on youtube. Until then, I'll have to content myself with this one, and the few Kettering videos I've been able to find.

[Nyara87]

Funny... I got the impression that he lost his place during Amish Paradise at the Perth, Aus show too, but here they just turned his mike down or something until the end of that chorus and he picked it up again from the verse... maybe they hadn't come up with that idea at the time. But it strikes me as odd that he had glitches with AP (and with the videos during W&N, come to think of it) at the show here too...

[starbrightshadows]

Radio Radio started at the Lubbock TX show on 6/09. Bermuda accidentally started the opening track for Fat and Amish Paradise at the same time when they were doing Fat. Radio Radio is one of the band's favorite songs to play at soundcheck, which is why they were rehearsed. Al yelled for Radio Radio and they immediately broke into it. I guess any time they have a tracking or tech error, they play this. (They also did it during Amish Paradise at the Kettering OH show on 6/29.)

[kerryike]

Yes, I can hear (and see) the technical probs also. Props to Weird Al for having a plan for such an incident. He is one entertainer who takes pride in his performances.

[the3penguins]

This is so cool.  I wish there had been technical problems at the show last night!

[jamesakin]

Not sure there really were technical problems. "Ladies and gentlemen, there's no need to play that song" is a direct quote of Elvis Costello's "intro" to Radio Radio on his infamous SNL debut. I can't link directly, but search YouTube for Elvis Costello SNL to see it.

[CheckeredZebra14]

Except for the fact that during his encore, he apologized for the technical problems during White & Nerdy earlier. You can clearly hear his synths cut out and his video freezes. And yes I know all about the SNL number...

[GodofReapers]

@CheckeredZebra14 Hm, yes, but is it not possible that the parody master might have been making a parody of that incident?

[jacobthelioneater]

@GodofReapers You're both right. According to wikipedia (And I'll find the specific citations if you wish) "In reference to this performance, "Weird Al" Yankovic and his band will launch into a cover of "Radio, Radio" when technical difficulties, such as a server crash, force him to stop a song midway during a live performance.[3][4]".

He was parodying the incident, but only BECAUSE of technical difficulties.

[smmfc]

@jamesakin vimeo has a great quality vid of the Costello SNL performance.

[csufl07206]

I was there but after the 3d song i left it was awesome though,the very same day.

[cb27ded]

I can hear the technical problem now, but at the show I didn't even hear one. I loved it that Al did Radio, Radio. That was so awesome.