June 19, 2006 - Los Angeles, CA (Largo)

Clip taken from Largo (2008):

Fan review:

Flight of The Conchords, Largo, June 19 2006 by Allan Choi

I feel so lucky to have caught the Conchord's LA appearance at Largo. It was quite a blast. I've been a big Conchords fan since I first saw them on Conan O'Brien last year, and have been longing to see them live. This being my first Conchords show, I may be a little biased when I say this show was one of the most entertaining comedy shows I've seen. The only drawback was that the show wasn't as long as I'd hoped. They probably performed for about an hour, and they could have easily covered two hours with all the material they have.

Largo was a great venue to see the Conchords (or to catch any other acts). It is a small dinner theater that provides a really nice, relaxed, and intimate atmosphere.

Before I get into the Conchords' performance, let me share a quick story. There were three comedians who opened for the Conchords, and as the third one was nearing the end of his bit, I decided to take a quick restroom break (because surely, if I didn't go now, the Conchords were gonna make me piss my pants). So anyway, I rush to the restroom in hopes of taking care of business really fast and then quickly heading back to the table. I didn't wanna miss a single second of the Conchords' performance. So there I am, running up to the bathroom door, and what do I see? I see a guy waiting to use the restroom. Oh great! F O the C will be going on stage any minute, and there's a guy in line ahead of me! So I just stand next to the guy waiting, hoping whoever's in the restroom will hurry his ass up. I'm just standing there, looking around, and then what do I notice? The guy waiting to use the restroom is Bret! Upon realizing this, the first words out of my mouth are "You're Bret!" He acknowledges, we shake hands, and I eagerly thank him for putting on a show in LA. He just quietly says thank you, in a reserved way to indicate he was either really shy or his mind was focused on how badly he had to pee. I then ask him when he and Jemaine are going on stage. He says he's supposed to be on stage right then. That cracked me up, and at the same time I relieved I wasn't gonna miss any of the show.

So, the Conchords finally get on stage to roaring applause. They briefly talk about how they're from New Zealand, and start poking fun at all the silly things people have asked them (in a stoned American frat boy voice): "New Zealand. That's like in Australia, right?" or "Do they have cities in New Zealand?" After cracking us up with that bit, they start their first song, Jemaine on a guitar and Bret playing a ukelele. I don't know the name of the song, but I'm inclined to think it's called "Mutha *uckers, *ucking with Our Shiiiiiiiit." I had never heard it before, so I was thrilled to be hearing a brand new song. (Sherry let me know that that's actually one of their earlier songs which they'd played back in 2002. If anybody has that recorded, please post it online!)

Then, they went on to sing a shortened version of a song (supposedly four months in length when sung in its entirety) about a couple of mean cowboys who hook up at the end. The song was truly long, but hilarious all the way through (I wish I had a knack for reciting lyrics for your benefit). The song was so new, they both kept having to refer to their sheet to remember the lyrics. It was a bit disorganized, but that's part of their charm.

Then they started talking about Issues, to which the whole room erupted with applause. "I guess some of you have heard this one," says Jemaine, "but don't think about singing along, because you're not in the band. We're the band." That cracked me up especially, because that's definitely one of the songs my buddy Kevin and I sing along to all the time. Before they began their song, Bret started talking about his children, Brian and Mildren. Having seen their HBO One Night Stand appearance, I'm expecting them to reveal that his children are imaginary, but the don't retread that bit. Instead, Jemaine comments that he remembers Bret naming his daughter Mildren, because he was looking for a word that rhymed with "children."

Think about the children

Like Brian and Mildren

(or something like that)

So they go on to sing Think About It (Think Think About It). The highlight of that piece (and my favorite moment of the evening) was the finish of the song where they drop the beat, and where they bring it back uuuuuup. There was a viking helmet sitting on top of the piano next to them, and Jemaine put it on his head as the two of them just kept bringing the beat up higher and higher until their voices were barely audible, their faces scrunched and bodies writhing.

They also went on to sing What You're Into, except changing the part about being nude with two dudes (as opposed to two women in the BBC Radio 2 version). Jemaine then sang Bret, You've Got It Going On, in which he referred to Bret as looking like a hairy Winona Ryder. They also performed a song about a girl who is the hottest girl in the room, a song in which I didn't think I'd heard before, but Kevin tells me is in the BBC Radio 2 CD.

They closed the evening with Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros. Earlier in the evening, people shouted out requests for that song and Business Time, and Jemaine said they may close the evening with one of the two. They began playing the riffs, but kept stopping, because Bret said he couldn't remember how it began. Apparently, it'd been a long time since they last performed that song. They kept starting and stopping. I came close to just shouting out the first two lines, but I wasn't sure if they were just kidding around or not. So finally they get started, and it's funny because they're singing the verses out of sequence. When they finally get to the freestyling part, Bret is stuck unable to come up with anything, so he tries to pass the mike to the Hiphopopotamus, but Jemaine won't let him off the hook. Jemaine beatboxes and keeps pointing to Bret to freestyle. Bret finally concedes and starts rapping about the water bottle sitting before him, holding it up and asking if anybody wants it, and then tosses it to a group of people. A few minutes later, as they keep messing up (I mean, improvising) the song, the person in the audience throws the water bottle back at them. Bret throws it back at him, and I wasn't sure if the person in the audience was a friend of theirs or not. So with that, they went off stage. We applauded for a while, hoping for an encore, me personally hoping for Business Time, but that wasn't meant to be.  

I had an amazing time, and my only regret is that I didn't try to catch their show on the 13th. It was already fully booked by the time I had found out about it, but I realized when I was there that I probably would have gotten into the bar. Oh well, I suppose one minute in heaven is better than no minutes in heaven.

Another fan review:

Report from Shirley on Largo Show 6.19.06

After discovering Flight of the Conchords not more than one month ago, I was ecstatic to find out that they were going to be in Southern California for some shows. What luck! Of course, I told my friends about these hilarious New Zealanders, so I had no trouble finding some volunteers to go with me to the show.

So, the 19th rolled around and my three friends and I departed from Orange County to Los Angeles early in the day to get to the show. After getting lost in West Hollywood, we finally found the tiny venue: Largo. While walking up to the club, I realized how good it was that we had gotten reservations, because the line was very long. F O the C was apparently a lot more popular than I thought!

The club was very cozy and the tables were arranged in such a way that there wasn't a bad seat in the whole place. The openers were good, but Flight of the Conchords was (of course) the best act of the whole night. I was happy to find that they performed quite a few songs that I hadn't heard of before.

The first song they performed was something like "If That's What You're Into" about Bret getting nude for a girl and something with food. It was nice to listen to and very amusing. After that, there were some other songs I hadn't heard before, including "Bret, You've Got It Going On" in which Jemaine awkwardly told Bret that he's attractive. Bret then said to Jemaine that the song was weird. At that point, Jemaine crumpled up the song and threw it on the floor, cuing "aw's" from the audience, which made Jemaine laugh involuntarily during the bit.

Other songs included one about a hot girl who could be a part-time model and a song about a homosexual cowboy named Stana. After concluding the song, they told the audience how they left out the best joke from the song, where they reveal Stana's counterpart's name: Anats.

Towards the end, F O the C also played "Think About It, Think Think About It." This song probably was my favorite of the night because Jemaine shook a banana around and put on a Viking hat while singing the "fading out" bits. It was probably the funniest thing I've seen in a while.

Afterward, F O the C got some requests by the audience to play "Business Time" and "Hiphopopotamus VS Rhymenocerous." The only problem with this was that apparently, the two-man band hadn't performed the songs in quite a while and had forgotten a majority of the lyrics. After managing to perform most of "Hiphopopotamus VS Rhymenocerous," they claimed it was the remix, which pulled more laughter from the crowd.

At one point, someone threw a water bottle at poor Bret, but his reaction was to toss it right back. Other memorable moments included them advertising their $16000 shirt and a discussion over how they are not a duo, but a two-man band. All in all, the show was fantastic and exceeded my expectations. The highlight of my night was after the show, when my friends and I got to meet them, get their autographs and have some photos taken with them. They were extremely friendly and that made me like them even more than I already did, if that's even possible. Flight of the Conchords are great performers and great guys to meet. I can't wait for another show!

Source