Concert Reviews

“Weird Al” Yankovic’s performance for a sold-out TD Garden crowd was weird, and it was great.

“Weird Al” Yankovic, with Puddles Pity Party, at TD Garden, July 18, 2026.

A “Weird Al” concert in 2026 is more than just a performance of accordion songs about food items. It’s where weirdness goes to rejoice. To find its kind. Or to find other kinds. To let its hair down (or up, into a tight sphere of voluminous curls). It’s where the weird elders now bring their kids to help explain, well … a lot. It’s where weird kids bring their parents to show them what makes them smile.

On Saturday night, The Bigger & Weirder Tour found its way to TD Garden to celebrate any and all things weird — and a celebration it was. 

Balladeering clown Puddles Pity Party kicked off the evening by giving new energy to rock classics, using his operatic baritone to add sparks to tunes like “Crazy Train” and drama and tenderness to slower numbers like Tom Waits’ “Come on Up to the House.” His energy set the table perfectly for the larger-than-life “Weird Al,” who began his set singing backstage, weaving through rooms and finding antics along the way before being revealed to the crowd.

Opening with “Tacky,” 2014’s answer to Pharrell Williams’ “Happy,” the now-66-year-old king of parody got the crowd on its feet right out of the gate, all while admonishing them over the faux-pas of wearing socks and sandals and Instagramming their meals. “Polkamania,” the 2024 edition of Al’s once-an-album medley of polka covers, was a caffeinated spin through selections of the Top 40 of recent years, from Billie Eilish’s “Bad Guy” to a cartoonishly censored version of Cardi B’s “WAP.” 

Al took a leap back to the ’80s and ’90s for a handful of originals. “Everything You Know Is Wrong,” a stylistic hat-tip to They Might Be Giants off of 1996’s “Bad Hair Day,” recalled short tales of the narrator trusting his intuition only to succumb to a morbid fate. “One More Minute” and the title track off of 1985’s “Dare to Be Stupid” were welcome classics from the “Weird Al” catalog: The former offered, as Al wandered the floor of the Garden serenading a few lucky (?) concertgoers, a doo-wop tale of all of the things he’d rather do than spend any more time with his former girlfriend; and the latter paid homage to Devo, with the jolty ditty advising the audience to do the opposite of what common idioms often say, from selling wine before its time to counting chickens before they hatch. Stuffed within that trio was Al’s take on grunge, the beloved “Smells Like Nirvana,” complete with Kurt Cobain costumes and a gargling solo. 

A “Weird Al” show has evolved over the years to make the moments between songs just as stimulating as the songs themselves. By mid-set, the frontman had already called for a “drum solo” (a ritual in which great anticipation leads to the drummer hitting his snare once, to uproarious applause), taken a straw poll of how many “dudes” were in the audience vs. how many ladies (I’ll let you take a guess as to what that ratio looked like), and woven in video montages of some of his greatest pop culture moments, from classic “Al TV” interviews to appearances on “The Simpsons” and clips from the 2022 faux biopic “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.” These not only allowed the band space to change into fat suits or Jedi costumes, depending on the upcoming song, but provided a retrospective for the audience to put Al’s weirdness into context. 

This paired nicely with a grand medley of some of Weird Al’s most memorable hits, journeying with little pause through verses of classics like “My Bologna” and “Like A Surgeon,” as well as newer fan favorites like “Party in the CIA” and “Canadian Idiot,” with the singer manning the squeezebox for some and shedding layers of costume to reveal new ones throughout.

This series was one of many instances throughout the night that showcased the technicality and versatility of Al’s backing band. In lieu of having a singular bandleader, Weird Al has kept many of his same bandmates that have traveled with him since the early ’80s and they collectively share arrangement responsibilities and creative direction. The original members, Steve Jay, Jim West, and Jon “Bermuda” Schwartz (keyboardist Rubén Valtierra is on leave), were given even more muscle on this tour by a supporting cast of multi-intrumentalists and backup singers who understood the assignment when a song needed a quick dose of tuba or the stage needed to be mopped mid-song. 

“Fat” was one of a couple tributes to the King of Pop over the course of the night, with Al recreating scenes from the famous music video off of 1988’s tongue-in-cheek “Bad” counterpart, “Even Worse.” The “Captain Underpants Theme Song” provided a welcome surprise for the post-Milennials in the crowd, of which there were many, and put a human face to the nasally-voiced cartoon that has become a staple in many households.

Opener Puddles Pity Party re-emerged for a duet on the Turtles’ “Happy Together,” illuminating the two comics’ mutual admiration, and the Backstreet Boys spoof “eBay” and the original “Stop Forwarding That Crap to Me” were testaments to the songwriter’s ability to find humor within the frustrations of the digital age.

The set closed with some of the funny man’s greatest hip-hop moments, riding a Segway scooter around the stage for the late-era hit “White & Nerdy” and embracing traditional values through rap in the set-closing “Amish Paradise,” telling the audience “if I finish all of my chores, and you finish thine/Then tonight, we’re gonna party like it’s 1699.” A “Star Wars”-themed encore was a hit with the many Jedis in the crowd, first treating showgoers to the “American Pie”-coded singalong “The Saga Begins” before wrapping the evening with the Kinks-fueled rocker “Yoda” accented by ear-laden green costumes and a full-band gibberish-laced vocal solo that punctuated the night. 

It was weird, and it was great. The audience wholeheartedly rose to the occasion, whether donned in tinfoil hats or pirate costumes of their own, or waving their cellphone lights akin to lighters during the power ballads (there’s always that one guy at the concert — at a Weird Al concert, we’re all that guy).

And Al once again proved that he’s able to meet the moment perfectly. He has continued to be steadfast in his PG-rated parodying style for more than 40 years, yet this format has always found a way to adapt, even when popular music and culture has woven in and out of different fads and discarded countless artists in the process. In many ways, it’s a reminder of the importance of being true to oneself and embracing your own brand of weird. We’re all a little bit weird, and that’s OK.

If nothing else, Saturday’s show reinforced that if we’re all able to lean into it once in a while, the world can be a pretty happy place. 

Setlist for ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic at TD Garden, July 18, 2026:

• Tacky
• Mission Statement
• Polkamania!
• Everything You Know Is Wrong
• One More Minute
• Smells Like Nirvana
• Dare to Be Stupid
• Party in the CIA / It’s All About the Pentiums / Bedrock Anthem / My Bologna / Ricky / Ode to a Superhero / I Love Rocky Road / Eat It / Like a Surgeon / Word Crimes / Canadian Idiot
• Fat
• It’s My World (and We’re All Living in It)
• Captain Underpants Theme Song
• Now You Know
• Happy Together (The Turtles cover, with Puddles Pity Party)
• Skipper Dan
• eBay
• Stop Forwarding That Crap to Me
• White & Nerdy
• Amish Paradise

Encore:

• We All Have Cell Phones
• The Saga Begins
• Yoda

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