[NOTE: The Week Ahead will run on Tuesday this week.]
This past weekend, The Flight of the Conchords flew into Mizner Park Amphitheater in Boca Raton for a hilarious night of witty chitchat and acoustic guitar theatrics. The band, consisting of Bret McKenzie (jokester/musician) and Jemaine Clement (musician/jokester), was equipped with the expected keytars but also—adding an element of surprise to the percussion section—a new chime bar.
FOTC has gained a cult following with its live performances over the last decade or so, sprouting from its initial popularity of its two-seasoned HBO series, which aired in the late 2000s. And New Zealand’s self-described “almost award-winning, fourth-most-popular folk duo” played to a considerably sized gaggle of fans on Saturday night.
Early songs like “Foux Du FaFa” were mingled among seemingly improvised Boca Raton-themed banter, encouraging raucous laughter and massive cheers from the crowd, which particularly seemed to enjoy the band’s brief rendition of Miami Sound Machine’s “Conga.” Just over a month into their North American tour, the funnymen were joined by New Zealand’s Philharmonic Orchestra, which appeared to be one man named Nigel carrying a cello.
Arj Barker (their friend Dave on the HBO series) opened the show with an entertaining 30-minute standup comedy set. Even prior to the show’s commencement, Clement could be heard over the loudspeakers, questioning the fans’ level of excitement, and in his usual sexually challenged awkwardness followed up by hoping that they weren’t inappropriately excited.
The unique duo’s dry sense of humor was apparent as they mentioned that it seemed like they were performing inside a large shopping mall. The slapstick comedy was met with constant laughter, spurring them to expand on this theory. They pointed to guests (like myself) on the balcony and thought we appeared to be taking breaks from buying chinos. They asked from time to time how the shoppers were doing, particularly the ones standing on the sides, and wondered if they might need a seat.
As for the music, the group strummed through popular songs from its two studio albums, including “Robots,” “Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros,” “Hurt Feelings,” “The Most Beautiful Girl (in the Room)” and “Business Time.” The whimsical “Bowie’s in Space” was aptly performed, bolstered by clever impersonations of the late rock legend, encouraging sublime feelings of his legacy.
Throughout the evening, the band introduced a handful of well-received newer songs. The hilarious “Shady Rachel” was quickly adapted into “Shady Kelly,” due to a birthday girl in the audience holding up a sign that Clement collected. On the video screen during the priceless ditty “Father and Son,” a smaller version of McKenzie sang to his patriarchal figure, Clement. Let’s hope we see a music video of this one soon!
During a quick encore, the final song of the evening was a medieval ballad about wooing a lady in the year 1353. The notoriously nerdy comedians completed their performance by leaping from the speakers and strutting around haphazardly whilst playing solos on (of course) alto and treble recorders.
With all the fresh material this funk-rap-digi-folk comedy duo has written in the last few years of, is a new series in the making? One certainly hopes so.
