The second show for the 2016 Lowell Summer Music Series has been announced and it is ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic on Thursday, September 1st! I have never seen him and am already looking forward to it!

“Following his wildly successful 2015 tour, four-time Grammy-winning artist “Weird Al” Yankovic has announced the continuation of his Mandatory World Tour in 2016.

‘Weird Al’ Yankovic (Official Photo)

“The 2015 tour took Weird Al and his long-time band to over 100 cities in the US, Canada, Europe and Australia.  This year’s tour (beginning June 3) will see Yankovic bringing his high-energy comedy rock show to an additional 76 cities across North America.

“According to Al: “I’ve decided to do the Mandatory World Tour for one more year, after learning that some people didn’t make it out to the show this last time around.  Apparently, they don’t know the meaning of the word ‘mandatory’!!”

“The tour follows Yankovic’s Grammy-winning Mandatory Fun, which was the first comedy album in over fifty years to hit #1 on the Billboard charts and the first comedy album in history to debut at the top spot.

“Weird Al” Yankovic is the biggest-selling comedy recording artist in history, earning four Grammys and fifteen career nominations.  He is best known for his hilariously irreverent parodies of hit songs by the biggest stars in the musical universe over the past three decades, including “Eat It,” “Like A Surgeon,” “Smells Like Nirvana,” “Amish Paradise,”  “White & Nerdy,” and “Tacky.” In 2015, Yankovic released his 14th studio album, the Grammy Award-winning Best Comedy Album Mandatory Fun making history as the first comedy album to debut at #1 on the Billboard Top 200 album chart and the first time a comedy album has reached the top of the chart in over 50 years.  The single “Word Crimes” debuted in the Billboard Top 40, making Al one of only three people to have had Top 40 singles in each of the last four decades (the other two are Michael Jackson and Madonna).  Yankovic has found success in multiple entertainment formats including the film world with his cult classic UHF, his CBS TV series The Weird Al Show, online with The Nerdist Channel with his faux celebrity interview web series Face 2 Face with “Weird Al” Yankovic, and the publishing world with Weird Al: The Book (an illustrated hardcover on Al’s life and career) and his children’s books, including the New York Times bestseller When I Grow Up.  Weird Al has performed more than 1500 dates over the course of his career and continues to direct videos and be an innovator in the entertainment community.”

Tickets for the ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic show are priced at $58 in advance (fee-free!), $65 on the day of the show (if available) and children 12 and under are always free courtesy of Eastern Bank. There are also premium seats – beach chairs are provided by the Series – set in two rows directly in front of the stage for $158. Tickets go on sale Friday, February 26th at 9 a.m. through Lowell Summer Music Series.

For those of you who are unaware of the  Series, or if you are aware of it but have never attended a show there, it is an outdoor (weather permitting) concert series held on National Park Service grounds in Lowell, Massachusetts. The Series is not-for-profit, which helps keep the ticket prices reasonable.

Surrounding Boarding House Park are old mill buildings, part of the Lowell National Historical Park, which you can tour if you arrive early enough. They provide an unusual setting for an evening of great music and ambiance.

The Series generally runs from late June to early September.

This Series is dear to my heart. I have been a season pass holder since 2007 and it is one of the highlights of the year (and of summer in particular) for me. Many lasting friendships have been made there. I expect this will be another excellent year!

I will post additional announcements for the Series as they are made.

Shows announced to date are:

July 16 (Saturday) – Colin Hay

September 1 (Thursday) – ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic