Don't follow the shadows

I know I’m getting around to this kind of late, but this was my last week of classes and things were a bit hairy. I’ll try to keep this short, since it won’t make sense to the people who haven’t watched their television show. So, last Saturday was the Flight of the Conchords show at The Riverside. Both shows were sold out, which is a first for one I’ve gone to (although the Backstreet Boys concert I saw in fourth grade may have been). I had gone to the earlier show, thinking it would be best, since everyone should be feeling fresh and more motivated the first time around. But no, the later show got to hear “Business Time”…

Eugene Mirman opened for them, and not recognizing his name prior to the show, I was rather surprised that it was none other than the landlord/Saruman/guy from the Lake FM commercial. I loved how everyone cheered really loud for Bret who was simply introducing Eugene over the PA. Eugene was really funny and was able to poke fun at Jews, autism, and raping bears without offending the audience. There was a lot of interaction with them and joking about the bar fight the night before. The best part was his rant about Delta Airlines that made the fiasco my family had with Northwestworst seem like nothing. (Basically, they flew our luggage to Orlando after our flight had been canceled due to a storm and left a suitcase of my clothes behind in Detroit that was shipped to me a week after I got back.) Eugene made angry postcards for them and handed them out to the audience. I was sitting in the eighth row, so I got one before the stack ran out. On the front is a crayon drawing of him as a stick figure, crying, with an airplane in the sky, and reads, “I HATE YOU!” ( The back says… )

This was my first time seeing Flight of the Conchords, so I couldn’t help but thoroughly enjoy them. I’d heard at last year’s show there was a lot of heckling from the audience, but other than the “I love you, Jemaine!”s vs. the “I love you, Bret!”s that the guys quickly placated, it was fine. The only complaint I have is their set list. I liked the new songs from season two that I hadn’t heard yet (basic cable = no HBO), but most of the songs they played from the first season weren’t really the fan favorites. In fact, I love the guy who yelled a request of “She’s so Hot…Boom!” because they played mostly slower songs. It’s not that they weren’t funny, but I don’t think they have the same effect as the shorter, more ridiculous ones. They opened really strong with “Too Many Dicks on the Dance Floor” in cheap robot outfits (with shiny codpieces!) and then it kind of dwindled until they played “Mutha'uckas”, “Sugalumps” and finally the encore, which was complete with glam rock outfits and plenty of gold spandex from Jemaine.

( Set List )

( Highlights )

No lowlights, since I’m just being overly picky about song choices and need to get over it because honestly, everything was very well done from the amusing stage banter to the raw musical talent they displayed. Even though they claim this is their last season for the show, I hope they’ll still tour so I’ll hopefully be able to hear some of the songs they missed this time around.

Pictures are here!