Today is weird. It’s in that black hole gap between a nationally recognized holiday (er, Fourth of July) and the actual weekend, which begins for many traditional workers around 5pm on Fridays. So with this weirdness, we celebrate both X-Day, a parody of cult holidays, and the more literal, Weird Al — he shines down on the Alameda County Fair tonight with a beam of frizzy light.
Let’s get to Al, straightaway. While he used to be big-time MTV stock, parodying Michael Jackson and Madonna types, Weird Al has done something interesting in the past few years, and gone cult. It may have started with his cartoon-genius take on R. Kelly’s masterpiece, “Trapped in the Closet” (by the way, the Castro is having a “Trapped in the Closet” sing-along later this month). Weird Al made it better with strangely appealing “Trapped in the Drive-Thru.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHnTocdD7sk
But before that, there were bona fide hits, this strange musical landscape, including “I Lost on Jeopardy,” “Fat,” and Coolio’s worst nightmare, “Amish Paradise.” More recently, there was meh Gaga takedown “Perform This Way.”
And now he’s on the county fair circuit (full disclosure: I saw him on said same county fair circuit more than a decade ago, and loved every obnoxious moment, especially the costume changes).
Here’s the info on the fair and concerts. Show starts at 7pm tonight (July 5), and all concerts are free with paid admission to the fair.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOfZLb33uCg
And then there’s X-Day. It’s a faux-holiday celebrated every July 5 as part of the Church of the SubGenius — “a religion formed as a parody of cults and extreme religious groups.”
For X-Day, the church prophesized that an army of weirdo alien invaders would land their spaceship on earth and destroy all the normals, those without sin.
While celebrated worldwide, in Orange County, Calif. for many years and through the late ‘90s there was a nonprofit all-ages venue called Koo’s, which celebrated X-Day with a punky band called the Four Letter words — and a paper mache spaceship. The Four Letter words returned recently for a few reunion shows, and one can only hope that was in part in allegiance with X-Day, the Church of the Subgenius, and the Church’s leader, Bob Dobbs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vj127gtcqdk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APSP0fjHqGQ
Or you could keep the weirdness more local tonight, and see Bart Davenport live in Oakland at the Uptown. The now LA-based leader of the avant-electro group Honeycut did the most surprising thing when he went solo a decade or so back, and put out tender, soulful pop songs, all about gooey love.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7g-DOc9gVhM
He plays a free First Fridays show tonight with Extra Classic, Legs, and She Owl.
Fri/5, 6pm, free. Uptown, 1928 Telegraph, Oakl. www.uptownnightclub.com.