April 26 - Madison, WI (Overture Center for the Arts)

kellysouthpaw wrote:

[size=100:3rict817] scd: If you ever see Flight of the Conchords live, make sure to yell "
Freebird"
at them. Not joking, seriously do it.

Source:



I wish I could hit this guy viry hard in his sugalumps.

onlyalways wrote:

kellysouthpaw wrote:
Source:



I wish I could hit this guy viry hard in his sugalumps.

Who is with me on thinking mean thoughts about this person? " title=">
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SUN., APR 26, 2009 - 11:40 PM
[size=133:qr3hen5a]Concert review: Flight of the Conchords
By ERIK ERNST
For the State Journal

[size=100:qr3hen5a]There was an important question to be answered at the Flight of the Conchords show Sunday night at Overture Hall: How would a comedic band fare at a sold-out concert, when their television shtick revolves around having only one fan?

Judging by the constant laughter and enthusiastic crowd response during their 100-minute set, the answer was quite well.

Like Spinal Tap, The Blues Brothers and Tenacious D, Flight of the Conchords combine music, humor and television or film. In their HBO series, New Zealand natives Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement pair their understated wit with creatively quirky songs as they try to make it big in New York City. On screen the duo struggles to find fame. Off screen their success has expanded to millions of YouTube views, a best-selling album and their current nationwide tour.

Taking the stage in foil and cardboard robot costumes familiar to their TV fans, McKenzie and Clement danced spastically as they performed a techno rave-up of a song whose unprintable title refers to an overabundance of men at a club. Retiring onto a couple stools they grabbed acoustic guitars that with few exceptions — a guest cellist, a couple keyboard tunes and some intense drumming — would provide the instrumentation for the rest of the evening’s genre-spanning tunes.

"
Hurt Feelings"
was a rap about the emotions of forgotten birthdays, mistaken genders and unrecognized casseroles. "
Jenny"
was a long, involved — and hilarious — tale of a yearlong love that ends up as a misunderstanding. "
Business Time,"
a funky comic ode to the monotony of marital relations, received the show’s loudest ovation.

But, the concert’s sharpest laughs came when the duo bantered between songs. They pondered the confusion that could occur if anyone in the crowd was named Madison. Clement responded positively to a decidedly un-rock ’n’ roll request to remove his cardigan. McKenzie dissuaded hecklers with an explanation that as performers they were professional talkers and any speaking from the audience would surely be amateur.

Comedian and recurring Conchords star Eugene Mirman opened the show with a 25-minute set that touched on the eccentricities of State Street, how more specificity might have prevented the demise of Linens ’N’ Things and his run-in with Delta Airlines.

christi wrote:

onlyalways wrote:

Who is with me on thinking mean thoughts about this person? " title=">
" border="0"/>

Because thinking mean thoughts is better than getting them sent to Alcatraz.

Amily wrote:The worst thing is that most of the Twitter updates I've read from tonight's show are people saying that the guys performing Freebird was the best part of the night.

I can see it being enjoyable but how could it be the best part ???

hellomyfriend wrote:

Amily wrote:The worst thing is that most of the Twitter updates I've read from tonight's show are people saying that the guys performing Freebird was the best part of the night.

I can see it being enjoyable but how could it be the best part ???

That's so absurd that it becomes hilarious. Definitely absurd enough to make it into the tv show.

Amily wrote:Before the show:

Amily wrote:Before the show:

Amily wrote:The worst thing is that most of the Twitter updates I've read from tonight's show are people saying that the guys performing Freebird was the best part of the night.

I can see it being enjoyable but how could it be the best part ???

lixxx wrote:

Amily wrote:Before the show:

[align=center:nbcyoakb] [/align:nbcyoakb]

swooning beyond belief.

p.s. i really like that girl's glasses.

[size=133:stlxjjmg]Recap: Flight Of The Conchords and Eugene Mirman at Overture Hall
by Scott Gordon April 27, 2009

[size=100:stlxjjmg]Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement of Flight Of The Conchords do themselves a favor by touring in a relatively stripped-down format. Nobody joined them on Overture Hall's stage during a sold-out show on Sunday night, except for the "
New Zealand Symphony Orchestra,"
who turned out to be a single cellist named Nigel. On the duo's HBO show, it's not always clear how much the Conchords can do with just their voices and a couple of acoustic guitars.

The set was similar to Weird Al, but without the cheesy aftertaste. Under Bret and Jemaine's dryly oblivious personas are a couple of hooky songwriters and flexible musicians. They affectionately aped haunting cowboy-campfire yarns on "
The Ballad Of Stana"
(the outlaw who'll molest you, molest your pets, then molest you with your pets) complete with deep, spooky harmonies. The duo channeled Joni Mitchell's high, breathy vocals with a side of soul on "
The Most Beautiful Girl (In The Room)."
And if Bret hadn't asked the ladies in the crowd to sing the part of Jemaine's "
choir of ex-girlfriends"
on "
Carol Brown,"
it would have been just a solid sad pop song with a short chorus that's good for hanging your head to.

Between songs, the duo's banter got people yelling at them from the balconies and boxes, easing any fears that Overture would be too big and stuffy a venue for this act. (Judging by this and the recent Bill Cosby show, perhaps this place can attract a rowdy crowd.) After taking the stage dressed as robots (like Daft Punk, but with robot heads made of cardboard boxes and plastic cups) to open with the giddy electro-groove "
Too Many Dicks On The Dancefloor,"
the two stripped off their silver bodysuits on a darkened stage. When the lights came back up, they were wearing their usual street clothes, and explained that it would be a night of singing and talking. "
Don't be concerned, it's just talking,"
Bret said. "
It's somewhat similar to the talking you do at home, just more professional,"
Jemaine added, telling someone who shouted from the crowd, "
I would suggest you don't even try it—not with that diction."
The two managed to crack themselves up while discussing the matter of backstage blowjobs, and they actually strutted across the front of the stage on "
Sugalumps,"
a song about ladies staring at their balls—"
the ladies hustle to ruffle my truffles,"
as Bret so elegantly puts it in a toasted verse. Some elements in the crowd brought a raunchy side to the show, like the person who called out, "
Take your cardigan off, Jemaine!"
Jemaine did after commenting, "
That's at once very rock 'n' roll and very nerdy."


Both guys worked other instruments into the set, keeping it simple but adding some nice twists, including a bit of toy piano on "
Hurt Feelings"
and Jemaine's Omnichord on "
Carol Brown,"
which he took into a guitar hero's knee slide at the end of the song. "
You should light that thing on fire one night—do a Hendrix,"
Bret suggested to him. Cellist Nigel showed off a little versatility too, plucking a respectably funky bass line under Jemaine's sultry come-ons for the awkward sex anthem "
Business Time."
Jemaine clumsily rocked out on a little drum kit during "
Demon Woman,"
then tossed three or four pairs of drumsticks over his shoulder. (Meanwhile, Bret riffed on an adorable mini flying-V guitar, the only electric axe to come out during the set.) That said, the best example of how informal and easygoing the show felt would have to be when someone called for "
FREE BIRD!"
and the two struck up an impromptu version of the world's most ironically requested song, rapping redundantly around the song's main idea ("
You can't change me, bitch!"
).

Opener Eugene Mirman's stand-up bits helped set that mood;
he always gives the impression that he could easily be talking to a handful of smirking twentysomethings in a bar instead of performing on an actual stage. Not only does Eugene have a small role on the Conchords' show, but they're on a similar comedic wavelength, finding surprisingly clever takes on lowbrow goofery. His thoughts on a Linens 'N Things closing down: "
Shoulda been more specific! You have a place that sells 'things,' you arrogant 'ucks."
He pulled out some stuff he's been doing for years, too: "
People say kids say the darnedest things… but so would you if you had no education! You'd just be like, 'I am bike cheese!' because you wouldn't know what words were."
(Also, it should be noted that both Mirman and the Conchords gave a shout out to the folks up in the balconies and boxes. When they cheered collectively, they sounded like a flock of scary birds about to descend on those of us seated below.)

It wouldn't be a Eugene Mirman set without some of his adventures in Internet and customer-service weirdness, so he shared printouts of a web ad that asks people what they think about gay marriage, but clicks through to "
Get two BlackBerry Storms!"
Ever willing to take a stupid conflict entirely too far for the sake of comedy, he detailed how Delta Airlines lost his luggage. The company sent him a check instead of finding his things, so he used the money to print out thousands of postcards pre-addressed to Delta (pictured above), which he handed out to the audience for free. On the back is a form letter filled with such invective as "
Your airline is worse than dressing up like Hitler as a joke and not understanding why that's offensive."
As far as pure stand-up goes, Mirman's best bit had to be one on why God is like a 12-year-old kid with Asperger syndrome: Given all the weird particularities ("
Jews have to wear hats, but only on the middle of their heads"
), it stands to reason that "
Religion is not a leap of faith. It's high-functioning autism."
Like the Conchords said: talking, but a bit more professional.

[size=133:3cpo9hc0]Flight of the Conchords translates well to live setting
Rob Thomas
April 27, 2009

[size=100:3cpo9hc0]"
Take your cardigan off, Jemaine!"
came a lusty call from somewhere in the upper decks of Overture Hall on Sunday night.

Flight of the Conchords' Jemaine Clement, being unfailingly polite (he and bandmate Bret McKenzie are from New Zealand, which is Australia's Canada) somewhat sheepishly obliged. The sold-out crowd hooted and hollered approvingly.

Such is life when you're part rock stars, part comedy-folk nerds, and Flight of the Conchords have excelled at both, with a hit HBO series, a popular album on indie cred-worthy Sub Pop Records, a potential movie deal, and legions of fans who can quote lines from the rap parody "
Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros"
at the drop of a hat. The duo's Overture show sold out almost instantly.

The bone-dry, absurdist humor of the series translated smoothly to a live concert setting, both in the witty songs and the wry, sometimes ad-libbed banter Clement and McKenzie exchanged between songs. But given the large venue and their huge popularity, it seemed like a bit of a missed opportunity that they didn't reach beyond the TV show, get a full band behind them and deliver a really memorable, high-energy, pull-out-all-the-stops sort of performance. As it was, it was a great comedy show but just a pretty good musical show.

The duo first lurched onstage in clunky robot costumes for "
Too Many D---- on the Dancefloor,"
a dizzy Daft Punk-style dance song about a gender unbalanced nightclub. It turned out to be the farthest they would ever stray from their essential on-stage DNA;
two scruffy dudes sitting on stools, banging out funny songs on acoustic guitars.

And the songs were, by and large, really funny. A new song, "
Ballad of Stana,"
is a hilarious cowboy ballad about an ultra-mean hombre that somehow devolves into a discussion of what it would be like to meet your exact twin. "
Jenny"
is a duet, with Bret playing the part of a woman who thinks she's met an old flame ("
Do you remember we went for a walk?"
) and Jemaine playing the guy who is trying to hide the fact he doesn't have any idea who she is ("
On our feet, as I recall."
)

The duo aren't just witty songwriters, they're good songwriters by any standards, facile with language and wordplay, with songs stuffed full of memorable hooks. They're also extremely specific about their song parodies;
the catchy "
Hurt Feelings"
isn't just a hip-hop parody, it's a parody of that one track on a rapper's album where he tries to show his "
sensitive"
side. "
Demon Woman"
isn't just a parody of rock, it's a parody of Iron Butterfly-esque late '60s psychedelic-rock. And "
Albi the Racist Dragon"
isn't just a folk parody, it's an exquisitely rendered send-up of hippie children's folk, as the racist dragon learns tolerance from a badly disfigured Albanian boy he partially incinerated.

Their in-between song patter was just as funny;
when someone howled, they launched into an extended riff on what it would be like to play in front of an audience of wolves. They asked if anyone in the audience was named Madison, and if so, if their last name was Wisconsin, and if so, had there been a scheduling mix-up, and the concert was supposed to take place at their house?

"
It's professional talking,"
Clement said in explaining their banter. "
It's similar to the talking that you do at home, just more professional. Please don't try this on your own."


Opening act Eugene Mirman has a small recurring role as Eugene the landlord on the HBO show, and as a stand-up comedian has an arch sensibility that fits in snugly with the Conchords style. During his warm-up set, Mirman complimented Madison on being a lovely city ("
Some places when I say that, I'm lying,"
) and said he's creating his own Internet "
poll"
banner ads, like "
Is it worse to be racist at night?"
and "
Should Scott Baio have his own mayo?"
Somewhat charmingly, Mirman held up 8 1/2-by-11-inch pieces of paper with printouts of the ads on them, which the folks in the upper deck probably loved.

Mirman may be best known for his bits where he reads the letters he's written to banks and other corporations that have wronged him, with Delta Air Lines being his favorite target for losing his luggage and then blowing him off about it. "
Dealing with Delta Air Lines is like hiring an insincere baby with amnesia to solve a crime that it committed,"
he said.

But Mirman got the last laugh. Delta cut him a check for part of the value of his stuff, which he used to fund the printing of thousands of anti-Delta postcards, which were distributed to the entire audience.

Amily wrote:I desperately need to see better pictures of both of their outfits.

gezyka wrote:

Amily wrote:I desperately need to see better pictures of both of their outfits.

Aww, is Jemaine wearing a cardigan?

gezyka wrote:

Amily wrote:I desperately need to see better pictures of both of their outfits.

Aww, is Jemaine wearing a cardigan?

hellomyfriend wrote:
Dear Jemaine,


Please wear more sweaters.


Warm regards,
Nik :-*

dangerous person wrote:Jemaine in sweaters