Gig review: Flight Of The Conchords, Wembley Arena
THEY may have a BBC radio show and two series of their HBO comedy under their belts but “New Zealand’s fourth most popular folk-parody duo”, Flight Of The Conchords, wisely haven’t deviated from their original “geeks-with-guitars” schtick, despite now drawing audiences of 12,000 a night.
Brett McKenzie and Jermaine Clement completed their European tour at Wembley Arena on Tuesday interspersing comedy songs with anti-anecdotes about life on the road (the free muffins in their hotel room, the time they thought they were stuck in a lift but weren’t...).
There wasn’t a lot of new material but favourites such as Business Time, a Barry White-style croon charting anything-but-smooth seduction techniques, and Albi The Racist Dragon still hit the spot, while the pair’s constant ad-libbing of lyrics allowed Conchordettes to feel as if they were hearing something original.
My favourite was a new number, the madrigal To Woo A Lady, in which Jermaine sings about hiring a horse in Medieval times (“He said, “There are three things that I must I see/A florin and two forms of ID”/But who has ID in 1353?”), followed closely by the orchestrated failure of sing-a-long charity single Think About The Epileptic Dogs (“Come on and make a donation/Save a shaking dalmatian”).
The Conchords’ cheeky-chappy likeability allows them to pull off bad-taste songs and meandering between-track banter that should be dire but is pitch-perfect from start to finish.
VERDICT 4/5
Wembley Arena, London (Tuesday)