Flight of the Conchords

Live Concert
Nokia Theater
May 5, 2009

After a lot of consideration, we decided to bite the bullet and pay the 600% markup price for tickets to the Conchord's first Dallas area concert. The theater holds 6,300 or so, and it was packed.

(I took the photos with my phone, so you'll have to trust me: that's them.)

We weren't disappointed. Bret and Jemaine were brilliant. Witty, charming, goofy.

When we first saw all the instruments on the stage we wondered if they were performing with a band these days. But no, they played all of them themselves. (With one exception. They had an accompanying cello player, "the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra".)

They both played guitar and took turns on drums. Bret even played a melody on his toy piano with his left hand, and sat down at a keyboard with his guitar still strapped on, and alternated between the two instruments on several songs.

They performed quite a few old favorites (chosen mostly - completely? - by audience request), including Foux du Fa Fa, Bowie, Mutha'uckas, Jenny and Bus Driver.

They had a new one, too, a country song. Jemaine explained that back in New Zealand they had invented "country music". (A slight detour from their running joke about inventing hip hop.)

I'd read reviews about their concerts and expected more banter; at the concert last night the songs were coming pretty much non-stop. They explained at the beginning of the show that that was the way it usually went: a few songs and some talking. Song-talk.

Well, Jemaine explained, sometimes it was "talk-talk" but we probably wouldn't notice. In fact, he said, sometimes they didn't even notice.

Many of the songs on their prepared play list were from the 2nd season of their show. They did one of my personal favorites, Hurt Feelings. Bret's lyrics, "some people say we are not rappers" was followed by Jemaine's:

"We're rappers. What are we doing right now?"

And I loved the movie replacement in the song. Bret's friends were lined up to see, not Maid in Manhattan (or in New Zealand-speak, "Manhadden"), but He's Just Not That Into You.

At one point Bret commented about a woman in one of the front rows who was recording the concert (the venue has strict "no video" rules). He told her she should have at least put tape over the red button so they wouldn't know what she was doing. Not embarrassed or phased in the least, she never put the camera down.

Jemaine finally called for their stage hand Matt to come out and record her recording them. Bret said they'd have it (the video of the woman with the camera) uploaded to Youtube later that night. (Twist.)

When Matt momentarily turned the camera on Jemaine, Jemaine called for security to escort Matt out, for violating the rules by recording the show. (No, security didn't show up.)

Another audience member participated in the show when he returned to his seat at the front. (He was tall, with dark curly hair.) Jemaine caught sight of him and said, "Hey, Bret, there's you! You've come back from the future to warn yourself about something."

Toward the end of the concert, a woman walked up to the stage and handed Bret a Mexican sombrero (I'm assuming in celebration of Cinco de Mayo) right as they were beginning Sugar Lumps. Bret managed to tie the hat to his pants while singing and proceeded with his own hilarious version of the "Mexican hat dance", even at one point hopping up to stand on the arms of a female-occupied front row seat.

They both invited women to join them on stage, and then promptly called - again - for security.

Their second and final encore was Demon Woman. They both came out in costume (Bret in leopard-skin and Jemaine in gold pants). Jemaine played the drums and at one point began to twirl one of the drumsticks. Very slowly and clumsily, and finally gave up, tossing it into the audience.


They are masters of irony, and it was a great concert. If you get the chance, and can afford the tickets (Texas: Land of Legal Ticket Scalping), I highly recommend it.




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