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Comment by mcv | Hacker News Reader

A couple of years ago my wife treated my to a Weird Al concert in the Melkweg in Amsterdam. It started with Tacky, but Al wasn't on stage yet. Instead he appeared on screen, singing and walking through the streets of Amsterdam, pushing someone into a canal in front of the venue, and then he entered and moments later appeared on stage, where he seamlessly finished the song.

It was absolutely the most spectacular opening of a concert I'd ever seen. And after that, the concert just kept getting better and better. It was a unique experience. Particularly the encore with the Star Wars songs.

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That would have been the "Mandatory World Tour", I saw it in San Jose and it was absolutely awesome and one of the best live shows I've seen from any performer.

I saw him live on that tour as well. Like the NYT article's author, before the show I wondered if I would be leaving the venue regretting the decision. I did not.

He and his band absolutely killed it. They're incredibly talented, and have a crazy energy. It was one of the best concerts I had ever seen, in no small part due to the fact that it seemed like they wanted to perform, and were happy to be there.

The world needs more Weird Als.

I remember reading that when Steve Martin first did stand-up comedy he would frequently go out in the audience, and sometimes take the audience with him places. non-standard performances are fascinating.

Completely unrelated to that comment - I saw Steve Martin and Martin Short last year when they were on tour together.

Many laughs about The Three Amigos.

But my absolute favorite moment, and it will remain so for the rest of my life, of on-stage performance was when they were ramping the crowd up at the start of the show by mentioning and calling back to various things they've done. They listed all of their very popular movies, skits, songs, whatever, to raucous applause.

Until Martin Short talked about "Clifford". I lost my mind cheering, expecting everyone else to. I love that movie. It's so dumb and hilarious. Literally 0 other people even clapped. Just me, in a room of 2000 people, losing my mind.

And Martin Short looked up at me and said, "Of course that would come from the cheap seats."

Just amazing.

Thank you for sharing this story! I have regretted not going to that tour for years now. I just didn’t have the money but I wish i had found it because I would have been in those cheap seats screaming for Clifford too!

at least you didn't get "I remember my first beer!"

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