Samstag, 29. Aug 2009, 1:46

Artist: Flight Of The Conchords
Supporting: Arj Barker
Date: May 25th, 2009
Location: Berkeley
Venue: Berkeley Community Theatre

Remarks: Man, what an entertaining night with lots of laughs to go around. There were two shows and we ended up going to the 9:00 show. It was chaos with all the people leaving the earlier show at the same time everyone else was trying to get in to the second show. It was a giant legion of Conchord fans! The crowd was really into it, snapping pictures, screaming out to Jemaine and Bret, who in turn shot back with humorous off-the-cuff remarks. The opening act was Arj Barker who plays Dave on the TV series. Funny guy all around, and also enlightening too. He brings up the good point that we blame the toaster for burnt toast, not the piece of bread, so we should be blaming the sun for global warming. Man, all those brilliant scientists and all it really takes is a comedian to figure all this out.

I wasn't familiar with about half of the songs they performed, which I presume were part of the second season that I haven't watched yet. Doesn't make them any less funny though! It wasn't too long until the lights dimmed and two box-like figures appeared on the stage…

Flight Of The Conchords's Setlist:
●Too Many Dicks On The Dance Floor (When I saw their box-y figures, I thought we were hear Robots. I was totally wrong, but it was still hilarious. After the song, the duo took off their boxes and shiny jackets and did something most bands would never do. They started chatting with us and did an analysis of the song. Apparently this song is about how there are too many dicks on the dance floor. They introduce this concept in the verse, then emphasize it on the chorus. Then they reiterate it on the second verse. Actually, the whole song is about it really. Very enlightening, I never would've guessed. Then they proceeded to do some random movements on stage to make sure this set was different from the previous one; how considerate!)
●Stana (Another new one I wasn't familiar with. It had a very western feel to it and was pretty long. If I remember correctly, poor Jemaine choked here and had to call a redo right at the beginning of the song. I didn't catch some of the lyrics so I was a bit confused when it went from talking about anagrams for Stana to meeting a clone of yourself in the desert. Hm.)

At this point, the fellows tell us that they have a special treat for us: the New Zealand Symphonic Orchestra was going to accompany them! Sweet! It turns out that currently, the New Zealand Symphonic Orchestra is composed of a guy named Nigel who plays the cello. I reckon that he's one of the best single-person symphonic orchestra from New Zealand. Bret then asks Jemaine what song they should do next, which he cleverly replies, "Probably the song that we always do at this point of the show."

●Jenny (Nigel compliments the two guitarists very well. Loads of new awkward moments for 'Brian' to sidestep, it made it feel like a brand new song. The movie referenced this time around was Weekend At Bernie's 2. They also question how the two main characters were able to get away with their shenanigans for not just one movie, but two. Very good question.)
●Hurt Feelings (Dimmed lights and the cello made this one a riveting performance. I believe Bret hopped onto keyboards for this one.)
●Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros (Gangster rap battle time! The Hiphopopotamus must have been working out or something, because the potency of his rhymes now can impregnate females within the first six rows now. He followed up that lyric with a hilarious "Congratulations bitches!")
●Pencils In The Wind (Freaking awesome song, I was very glad that they played this one. You can't help but feel good when you hear the chorus to this song.)
●Mutha'uckers (Bret hopped onto the drums for this one. How he managed to play drums and sing his verse with all those self edits is beyond me. Do not 'uck with that man's shi-)
●We're Both In Love With A Sexy Lady (Another funny back-and-forth song with Bret and Jemaine.)
●Business Time (They invited out one of their stage crew to help them out with drums on this one. Very awesome version!)
●Epileptic Dogs (I'm ashamed to say I don't quite remember this song, especially- oh wait this is the REEEEEMIIIIIX!)
●I'm Not Crying (Kinda dampens the mood with this very emotional song. Oh well.)
●Carol Brown (A rather funny Jemaine song. My friend tells me it's a lot more funny on the show since all the women Jemain sings about show up and do some mega chorus together. I'll have to get around to that sometime.)
●Sugalumps (Once again, I wasn't familiar with this song, but it was insanely hilarious. Towards the end, the guys jumped up off their seats, ditched their guitars, and pranced around stage, shaking their sugalumps. Everyone was laughing and screaming. Naturally, everyone in the front whipped out their cameras and started snapping pics. Bret reaches out and snags the camera out of a gal's hand and takes a close up of his sugalumps; the crowd went crazy. He then passed the camera to Jemaine, who tries to stick the camera down his pants; I didn't think it was possible to laugh so hard.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4AHqSJsQUk

Encore

After the guys came back on stage, they started apologizing profusely for their behavior during the previous song to much amusement. Bret also decided to show off their nice tour t-shirts. Naturally, someone in the crowd decided to scream "Take it off!" So he did… which revealed another tour shirt underneath. And another one underneath that. They then started taking requests for their final song.

●Freebird (Seriously. They played Freebird for their encore. Who actually plays Freebird for their encore? I don't think Lynyrd Skynyrd even does it for their encore . Jemaine took lead vocals on this one. Naturally, they shook things up a bit and they soon were free styling about flying birds, escaping from cages, and the like. Unfortunately, there were no solos played.)
●Albi (They ended their show with the inspiring tale of the racist dragon. It was a nice calm (and funny) way to end the set. After Sugalumps and a faux impromptu Freebird, there's not much left you can do anyways. Until next time!)