Conchords Fly Differently Live Than On TV

Seeing Flight Of The Conchords live raises some interesting questions for a fan of the popular HBO series.

Will the songs be as funny outside the context of the show? Will Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement have a backing band or will they be the only ones on stage? Will their performance become the pathetic failure that it's portrayed as for laughs on television? Is it really just going to be two guys with acoustic guitars playing joke songs for an hour-and-a-half? Will it be funny if I shout out a request for "Doggy Bounce?"

The answers to those questions are yes, not really, almost, pretty much and probably not, respectively.

Flight Of The Conchords live can't really duplicate the hilarity of the TV series. There are no music videos, no narrative set-up for the songs, and Murray isn't there to take roll call. (But Eugene Mirman, who plays the landlord on the show, did a half-hour of very funny non-musical comedy to warm up the audience.) It would normally be absurd to even try to compare a concert to a TV program, but in this case the show is the reason people were lined up around the block to pick up their tickets from the Massey Hall box office.

On TV, McKenzie and Clement act like pathetic losers whose dreams of becoming a successful band are constantly thwarted by their own incompetence and naivete. On stage, they act more or less the same way — like they don't know what they're doing. Of course, they do know.

Their songs, which are mostly genre parodies, are well-crafted, well-written and really, really funny. But they're so good at acting like unprepared idiots that it's sometimes difficult to tell whether they're in character or really just can't think of anything to say.

Whether this is more charming than tedious is a matter of personal taste, but giving the impression that they're awkwardly making up the show as they go along is pretty much the Conchords' schtick. If they didn't at least look like they were honestly stumbling sometimes, their act would be too obvious. They keep things fresh by appearing to be on the verge of a genuine collapse.

The audience couldn't get enough. At least there were some very vocal fans. People shrieked when they heard the opening chords of their favourite song. A variety of hecklers attempted shouted banter with the band.

One girl — who got a stern talking to by a security guard — had a stash of items that she threw on stage when they were mentioned in a song. When Albi The Racist Dragon cried jellybean tears in "Albi," she threw some jellybeans at the band. McKenzie even wore the eyepatch she tossed at him during "Bowie."

People obviously got into it, but ultimately it was still two guys and occasionally a cellist playing joke songs for about an hour-and-a-half. Superfans — the screamers and the throwers — loved it. People who dig the show, but don't necessarily think the songs are the best part, can stick with their DVDs and not feel like they missed out.

The Flight Of The Conchords played these songs:

"Too Many Dicks"
"Hurt Feelings"
"Stana"
"Jenny"
"I Told You I Was Freaky"
"I'm Not Crying"
"The Most Beautiful Girl (In The Room)"
"Carol Brown"
"Business Time"
"Bus Driver's Song"
"Albi"
"Mutha'uckas"
"We're Both In Love With A Beautiful Lady"
"Sugalumps"

Encore
"Demon Woman"
"Foux Du Fafa"
"Bowie"
"Think About It"