The Last Bigger & Weirder Dance: Going Home and Reprise (Ep. 6)

I initially wanted to do the things happening after the last Bigger & Weirder Tour show in Milwaukee (see my fifth episode of this The Last Bigger & Weirder Dance trip report) right thereafter in the same post. However, I finally opted to put my way back to Germany into a seperate post, also reflecting that I felt that this tour deserves a more detailed reprise and reflection. Thus, here is my closing post of my tour through the United States in October 2026.

This posting comes with 1,026 major size (amateur quality) pictures as part of the concert gallery.

Sunday / Monday, 18th/19th October 2026

Slow Start of the Day

Due to the double booking, I had the option to have have (paid) breakfast at the Aloft Milwaukee Downtown or head back to the Holiday Inn Express Milwaukee Downtown, where I would have complimentary breakfast. I decided to play it slow, working on the pictures (still stuck with the ones for the third episode of this trip report) and preparing my stuff for the way back to Germany. And, of course, I wrote down the thoughts you just read above (if you did not only go for the pictures, at least…).

Cool Motorbikes

Milwaukee has a lot o interesting places in stock – I definitely have to come back one day. One place I just had to do, though (apart from that I would have been far too early at O’Hare if I skipped it…) is the Harley-Davidson Museum. A really nice place a nice presentation of the company’s history, good and bad. Of course, I just had to have a look into their souvenir store and outlet store. Their restaurant felt too tempting – and I was right to finish the American side of this trip with a proper feast. Their barbecue platter was an absolute feast and I was more than saturated before I went back to the car for the very last miles of these nine days in the United States.

Chicago, I don’t like your traffic

Milwaukee Sunday traffic was fine, but the closer I came to Chicago, the more I struggled with driving. Maybe one factor for that was also that I felt quite tired. Finally, everything went smoothly, there was solely a small refill at a gas station close to the rental ca facility before returning the car with Hertz. The much I am not a fan of Chicago traffic, the rental car process is really efficient and Terminal 5 for the majority of international flights just a short trip with the complimentary shuttle tram. Finally, I drove 1,802 on the United States part of this trip. I took the wrong end to exit the terminal’s station, so that I had to cross the entire building before I reached the SAS check-in. I was absolutely within weight limits, security was quite efficient as well. Thus, I had about three hours left until take-off to Copenhagen when I reached Chicago’s Air France Lounge.

Welcome Back to Europe

I was lucky to have a pair of Premium Economy seats in the older style SAS Scandinavian Airlines Airbus A330. This was especially helpful during the meals – in the old seats, I have absolutely no chance to fold down the table. The flight to me did not consist of more to me than the two bites, two pee breaks and a lot of sleep and was thus done relatively quickly and in a relaxing way. As we arrived in Copenhagen (CPH) way ahead of schedule, I had a bit of more time to stay in the lounge, work on postings like this one and then head to my final flight of the trip. Despite being flagged as business class, the sold out Cityjet Canadair CRJ-900, which flies for SAS is quite cramped and having the meal has been a challenge. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the flight. Arriving in Dusseldorf (DUS), I was a quite sad when I saw two Lufthansa A340-600 already at the tarmac. Two will follow the next days, before they head for scraping to Spain. Not the best way to finish a trip which had so many positive emotions and experiences.

The Bigger and Weirder Tour – My Reprise

Weird Al’s Masterpiece?

This has been the best concert of my entire life – when I checked out social media reactions after the shows, I read similar comments multiple times. Not only by people who have more Weird Al shows than years of age (I am not part of that obscure group as well…), but also among quite a lot of Weird Al first timers. Weird Al Yankovic created something special on this tour. At first sight, it is a straight, standard Weird Al tour, like the ones I used to visit so often before. A mixture of parodies and originals, typically interrupted by video screen intermissions allowing the band to change clothes. Even the audience does not feel to change that much. Predominantly male, more predominantly white people. White & Nerdy, this song feels to be there for a reason.

Al gave his fans special tour concepts like the two self-indulgent episodes, in which Al and his bandmates concentrated on the originals, had no significant costume changes, but therefor surprised the fans with alternating setlists and you never knew what will be in stock. I loved that tour, it even made it to Europe. There were also the Strings attached, in which Al and the band ran into a different (local) orchestra at each and every other place. Apart from those “Anomalies”, Bigger & Weirder was just in line and still so different, so much better than the tours before.

Four People Making the Difference?

One key reason, why the Bigger & Weirder Tour has been a huge boost in concert quality is based around four people: Probyn Gregory, Scheila Gonzalez, Monique Donnelly, and Payton Rose Velligan. Especially in the brass and vocal range, they significantly upgraded the potential of Weird Al Yankovic and his bandmates, who played in the same formation since 1991. The band has already been excellent, but gains excellence – and fascination by artists like Grammy winning Gonzales, vocal boost Donnelly, multi-instrumental Gregory or the new fan favorite, rock powerhouse Velligan. Neither of them revolutionized the sound of Weird Al Yankovic, but each of them added some very valuable talent and made it better.

On top of that, there are a lot of additions in the background. Three tour buses, four truck trailers – the Bigger & Weirder tour production has become massive. The much I liked it when being in North America, the much I knew that this effort simply cannot be brought to Europe or other parts of the world. People would not pay the ticket prices which are necessary to drive these kind of tours in a profitable way. So whenever a new tour is confirmed, I am sure, it will involve some travel planning to North America again. It’s a shame. The much I enjoyed each and every of the twelve shows I had with these people the last two years, the much I would love other people to enjoy it. It is Weird Al’s masterpiece, the best touring show he and his team ever put on stage.

About Communities

One thing, which I felt is almost magical about this story of the guy from Lynwood, California, is that there is still such a close link between his fans, the artist, his band and the team behind the tour. Weird Al gives you real value if you pay the upgrade to a VIP experience (which has been independent from the ticket category you decide you want to sit in), for example. You got a nice quality (but unfortunately really small) jacket and he does take some of his time to chat with you during the meet and greet. You do have the chance to have a backstage tour before the show. And you do have a chance to be rather closely connected to the band and team members.

Sometimes, it felt obscure to me that people were waiting at the barriers to the stage area at each and every show, waiting for a certain member of a band – and this person even reached out to them. It’s not a small club tour, these guys played in several venues hosting 10k or more people. Here and there, you might even have to limit these things, break with long-time traditions and options to catch up. There is even a strongly organized core group of fans and people who drive communities from the fan sites. Weird Al fans might be weird an nerdy, but also friendly and social (mostly 😉 ). There are downsides of that – maybe one day I put my thoughts about it into a blog post one day. But for now, I am thankful that my story with Weird Al Yankovic gave me some very valuable friends, on the community as well as on the band side.

Thankful

I am thankful for these experiences I had during 2025 and 2026. The 2025 tour schedule did not work out the way I would have loved it to work out, but 2026 was a lot of fun with three trips and ten shows of the Bigger & Weirder Tour. For the second time, I was able to feature a Weird Al show as a photographer. And despite my physical situation this year was rather terrible, pushing the last bit of energy off my body was worth every mile of flying and driving, every dollar spend for ticket and travel, and even the moments of exhaustion were well invested. I already miss these evenings and look forward to have them soon again – maybe in 2028?

The Bigger and Weirder Tour October 2026 – Gallery

I decided to put all my pictures into a designated gallery. Please note that all 1,026 major size pictures of the shows have been taken with my amateur equipment/point and shoot camera. They are located in the concert gallery:

2026-10 Weird Al Yankovic

The Last Bigger & Weirder Dance – The Episodes

I split my trip report in five sections (and an introduction post). The first section is about my experience in Rhinelander, Wisconsin. then, there is more or less one episode per concert I visited: