Spring Break
Concert Review: Flight of the Conchords
Deena ElGenaidi
Issue date: 4/29/09 Section: Culture
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The band currently has one self-titled debut album, available on CD, in vinyl, and as a digital download, with a second album coming out sometime this summer, along with the second season of their television show, which hits shelves on August 4.
Stand-up comedian Kristen Schaal, who plays the band's stalker, Mel, on the HBO show, opened for the duo, dressed in gold-sequined pants, saying "I had to kill a genie to get these. But then I realized I could have just wished for them." While her act was lacking at parts, several sketches, such as her one-woman play on the dangers of marijuana, were fairly humorous. Following the stand-up, Flight of the Conchords swiftly took the stage.
Coming out in the style of rock stars, but instead dressed as robots, the band's two members, Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie, were followed by uproarious cheering from an overly enthusiastic crowd. The audience soon settled down as the two began their first song, which most no doubt expected to be "Robots," due to their attire, but was instead a newer, yet equally if not more popular song of theirs, entitled "Too Many Dicks on the Dance Floor." Cheering ensued.
Following the song, Clement and McKenzie yelled, "Dim the lights for costume change!" Subsequently, they began to strip out of their metallic shirts and cardboard robot heads to reveal their more conventional outfits underneath (although Clement did look like he bought his pants and jacket in the 70s, thereby adding to the whole comedic affect). Some witty banter arose between the two, in which they playfully called the Philadelphia audience "Phil" and ensured everyone that more songs would follow.
"So, if you're here for the songs," said Clement, "there'll be another one after the talking. And if you came for the talking, well, don't worry. The song will end, and there will be more talking."
While the band wooed the audience with their quirky, upbeat music and banter, there were several mistakes along the way, but due to the duo's lighthearted nature, these slip-ups only served to add to the hilarity. At one point, McKenzie, pretending to be a choir of ex-girlfriends for the song "Carol Brown," tried to get the audience involved in the song, after which he jokingly yelled to the crowd, "Don't fuck it up." Less than ten seconds later, in what band-mate Clement called "instant karma," McKenzie himself "fucked it up" as he started singing on the wrong note. Then, at the start of "Hurt Feelings," a comedic rap-song that deals with the fact that rappers do in fact have feelings, Clement began with the wrong line, at which point the audience broke out into laughter. In response, Clement jokingly said, "It hurts our feelings when you laugh at our mistakes."
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