You gotta hand it to Alfred "Weird Al" Yankovic. He tapped into the zeitgeist of nerd culture before it became cool. Maybe that's why so many geeks and closet geek wannabes worship him with an OCD reverence.
It's a weirdly messianic role he fortified to the max during the encore of his concert at Ruth Eckerd Hall Thursday, Oct. 6 — especially when he brought the Force onstage, draped in an Obi-Wan Kenobi-style cloak and flanked by a chorus line of Stormtroopers (and Darth Vader himself!). He performed his tribute to the Star Wars series, "The Saga Begins" (to the tune of "American Pie") followed by "Yoda" in the style of the Kinks' classic "Lola."
This article appears in Oct 6-12, 2011.