The band and their very special guests closed out their recent Brooklyn show with “Killing In the Name”
At a recent concert, Portugal. The Man enlisted two maestros of musical comedy, “Weird Al” Yankovic and the Lonely Island’s Jorma Taccone, for a very sincere — though obviously still very fun — cover of Rage Against the Machine’s “Killing In the Name.”
The cover came at the end of Portugal. The Man’s show in Brooklyn on Tuesday (Dec. 2), with both Yankovic and Taccone assisting on lead vocals. The performance had everything you’d want from an impromptu Rage cover — heavy riffs, loud shouting, mosh pit going crazy, and Taccone dressed up as Pee Wee Herman for some reason.
As Portugal. The Man captioned a clip of the performance shared on TikTok: “Killing in the Name of but make it absolute chaos.” (You can check out a fan-shot video of the full performance here.)
The Rage cover was actually one of two songs Yankovic did that night, with the musician also joining Portugal. The Man for a rendition of their hit, “Live in the Moment.” Yankovic and the band first met in 2013 and have been close ever since. In 2018, Portugal. The Man commissioned some vintage “Weird Al” polka remixes for “Feel It Still” and “Live in the Moment.” And in 2020, to mark Indigenous Peoples Day, they partnered for a new single, “Who’s Gonna Stop Me.”
For Lonely Island fans and members of the Quaid Army (righteous kill), Taccone’s presence on stage is also particularly notable, if not flat-out remarkable. The comedian, actor, and filmmaker looked impressively mobile for someone who fell off a 20-foot ladder in September and completely destroyed his pelvis. That’s not to say Taccone was throwing himself around, but he looked comfortable bouncing around in his Pee Wee Herman fit.
