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Stunned mullet. Jemaine laughed at the shirt.

The dogs dogs dogs... #fotctour2012

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I met Flight of the Conchords!
With my husband. 20 weeks pregnant

REVIEW: Flight of the Conchords, Sydney Entertainment Centre
Post by: Jane Doe 8 July, 2012 - 6:40 PM


(Jermaine Clement. Photo: Getty Images)

Bret McKenzie and Jermain Clement aka Flight of the Conchords played an hilarious, side-splitting show before a sold out audience at the Sydney Entertainment Centre on Friday night.

New Zealand's biggest comedy duo opened with the nightclub stomping "Too Many Dicks On The Dance Floor" before moving their way through a set of funny ditties while regaling us with in-between song banter that detailed their hilarious tales of life on the road (which included Bret's 'rock n' roll' story of the time he scored a complimentary muffin backstage) to being hit in the face while on stage by a pair of warm boxer shorts.

The laidback nature of the duo is what gets you at first but underpinning it all is them being awkward and edgy. All the more funnier when they interact with the crowd who were just as up for shouting things back. Really funny stuff. And everyone was cracking up.

Highlights included "Hurt Feelings", the miniature toy piano enough to make you crack up. And "Demon Woman" was a winner too, especially the costume change that saw them look like a support band from Bowie's glam era, especially the scarves that looked like they were blowing in the wind.

It was mostly just the two of them on stage but they were joined for a lot of the set by a cellist called Nigel. He was from the "NZ Sympathy Orchestra". Bret did admit to inviting the NZ Symphony Orchestra but they declined despite the muffins and going on the road.

Throwing in all of their hits like "Hurt Feelings" and "Business Time" alongside some spectacular costume changes to rival Lady Gaga in "Bowie" and "Demon Woman" their show had everything.

While the audience participation in "Song For Epileptic Dogs" and the closing "Sugalumps" where the pair invaded the stage, meant Brett and Jermaine definitely didn't disappoint. This was really funny stuff from a team at the top of their game.

Setlist

Too Many Dicks on the Dance Floor (with Arj Barker)
Robots
The Most Beautiful Girl (in the Room)
f*** on the Ceiling
Think About It
Jenny
Bus Driver's Song
Hurt Feelings
The Summer of 1353
Carol Brown
I'm Not Crying
Inner City Pressure
Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros
Song for Epileptic Dogs
Business Time
Bowie
Demon Woman

Encore:
Back On The Road
Albi the Racist Dragon
We're Both in Love With a Sexy Lady
Sugalumps

No genre left untapped as duo delights with ditties and quips
July 9, 2012
George Palathinga

FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS
Sydney Entertainment Centre,
July 6

In their eponymous cult-hit TV show, which ran for two seasons in the late 2000s, Kiwi duo Flight of the Conchords generally ended up playing the few gigs their hopeless manager got them to an audience of one.

There is thus something deliciously perverse, and warmingly triumphant, about seeing Jemaine Clement (the serious-looking one with the glasses and the sideburns) and Bret McKenzie (the wide-eyed naff/space cadet) do pretty much the same shtick to a packed arena - and do it with such nonchalant brilliance.

They lay out their act as a traditional gig, having plenty of tunes that brim with melody as well as wit, and prove to be proficient players of their various instruments (in particular their acoustic guitars) but this is still more comedy show than rock concert. Their hilariously dry inter-song banter even casually deconstructs rock-star cliches, as the pair acknowledges such cheats to get a crowd on side as mentioning specific local places (''Darling Harbour!'') or raving about the city they're temporarily in at the expense of others (before admitting they're going to be paying out on us in Brisbane the next night).

Even when their likeable rambling goes on too long and threatens to derail the gig at one point, they crack a sharp, seemingly spontaneous joke about ''doing a lull'' and make it look as though they had planned that all along.

Of course, alternating with the spoken gags are those couched in the duo's songs: a series of ingenious ditties that take on pretty much any genre (the pumping electro of opener Too Many Dicks (On the Dance Floor), the scuzzy garage-rock of Demon Woman or sometimes specific acts (from Pet Shop Boys pastiche Inner City Pressure to the faux-seductive Barry White-isms of Business Time)
and pack them with killer one-liners, to boot.

There's little in the way of traditional showmanship and even that adds to the effect, be it via the deliberately awkward audience participation during Song for Epileptic Dogs or the lone, sudden and thus startling costume change (from jeans and shirts to spangly glam-rock wear) in the middle of Bowie.

It's all clever without coming off as try-hard, disarmingly charming and side-splittingly funny - everything you hoped it would be, basically.