Live Review: Flight of the Conchords @ SSE Hydro, Glasgow (18/06/18)

I’ve always wanted to see Flight of the Conchords live and at the end of 2017 I was lucky enough to bag some tickets for their 2018 tour of the UK. Admittedly, due to a momentary lapse in concentration at 10am on the day the tickets were released, I had to get them second hand and probably paid way too much for them. However, I felt it was an opportunity to see them that I just couldn’t miss. I had fallen in love with Flight of the Conchords way back when it was originally aired on BBC Four and then again on DVD and then again when I fell down the rabbit hole of their performances on YouTube so I was very excited to finally get to see them.

After purchasing the tickets I started to worry about how their show might translate from the small intimate performances I’d seen on YouTube to the gigantic SSE Hydro. It can hold 13,000 people for goodness sake and my seats were WAAAAAAAAAAAY towards the back. On top of that, in the weeks leading up to the gig, Brett McKenzie broke his hand and the performance had to be cancelled. Apparently this injury occurred in the most rock and roll of ways…by falling down some stairs. Luckily the gig was quickly rescheduled for June and I could go back to worrying about the size of the venue and that my seats were positioned in a low earth orbit.

Finally the day of the gig arrived and I spent a relaxing afternoon in Glasgow with my significant other before meeting a couple of pals, grabbing a quick drink and heading over to the venue. We arrived pretty early and had time to sit in the bar where you get a good view of the stage and seating and could appreciate the true size of the space; it really is massive. This impression was magnified when we finally took our seats and realised just how far away from the stage we were.

Before the main event we were treated to a short stand up set from Eugene Merman who played Eugene in the TV show and who some may know as the voice of Gene Belcher from animated comedy Bob’s Burgers. Eugene’s routine, which was preceded by a memorable voice-over introduction from Jemaine Clement, was pretty good and there were a few times I genuinely laughed-out-loud so he proved to be a decent warm-up for the band. The size of the venue wasn’t too much of a barrier to enjoying his performance as there were two large screens either side of the stage. One section at the end where videos of spoof adverts were shown on the screens did suffer slightly due to how far away we were but ultimately it wasn’t all that big a deal.

After a short wait Jemaine and Brett finally hit the stage and launched into Father and Son, a song I’m not familiar with, followed by Deana and Ian, another song I’m not familiar with. Despite opening with songs I didn’t know, that familiar comedic charm and lyrical genius was ever present and my concerns over the size of the venue completely melted away. Between songs the pair had plenty of amusing banter and made a particular point of apologising for getting old, as well they should. From this point on the dynamic duo played a good mixture of songs I know and love and many that I was hearing for the first time. Particular highlights were Foux du Fafa - a song that I’m not normally bothered by but was actually genius live, 1353 (Woo a Lady) - a medieval tinged song about, you guessed it, wooing ladies (with a killer triple threat recorder solo at the end), a mash-up of Mutha’uckas and Hurt Feelings which was pretty incredible and The Ballad of Stana a western style epic that went on for ages but never got boring.

Fairly early on in the set it was announced that the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra were in the house and they were promptly joined on stage by one guy with a cello which is typical of the humour on offer throughout the evening. The band messed up some parts of some of the songs but it’s hard to believe that these weren’t deliberately included as a clever throwback to earlier comments on how long it had been since they last toured. If they were genuine cock-ups then no-one cared as Flight of the Conchords are so charming to watch they make you eager to forgive any mistakes.

I mentioned earlier that my worries regarding the venue simply disappeared when the duo hit the stage and this is due in no small part to their on stage chemistry. Their banter back and forth, whether improvised or rehearsed is so engaging that you are pulled right in to the performance despite the size of the venue (which the band made light of on a few occasion). It’s a real testament to their talent as performers and makes a mockery of any accusation that they are simply a novelty act.

After around a dozen songs we got the usual “this is our last song” routine but they quickly admitted they’d be back out shortly to play another three songs. As the gig was in Glasgow they decided to come back out wearing kilts, which was a little corny but generally went down a treat. Two out of three of the encore songs I had never heard before but they ended on the song everyone had been waiting for Robots. Whilst I love the song Robots, and this version was good, it didn’t quite live up to the lofty standards of one of the YouTube performances I’d seen all those years ago and I was ever so slightly disappointed.

Despite that minor disappointment I thoroughly enjoyed the evening and whilst the set list was missing a number of the more well known songs like Leggy Blonde, Business Time and Hiphopopotamus Vs. Rhymenoceros (there are plenty more) the songs they did play, regardless of whether I know them or not, were all pretty special.

The bottom line is, even a decade later, Flight of the Conchords have still got that little bit of magic which makes them one of the most interesting and essential musical acts around. If you ever get the opportunity to see them, grab it with both hands.