Flight of the Conchords @ The Olympia May 6

Opening act David O’Doherty has picked up his game since the last time I saw him play at the Comedy Festival in Iveagh Gardens last year. Thankfully. Comfortably lounging on the stage floor, reading little “facts”  from his latest book 100 Facts About Pandas, the DOD was back on form.

Flight of the Conchords opened the show in their upgraded robot helmets, complete with lights, playing their synth pop song “Too Many Dicks on The Dance Floor” followed immediately by “The Most beautiful Girl in the Room”. It was hard to wipe the smile off your face just from looking at them. Jemaine gave a crowd pleasing version of  one of their older songs “Albi The Racist Dragon” which is even more enjoyable when accompanied with his comedic, expressive nods. Bret played along on the mini red piano (Fan fact: The same piano they used to play “If You’re Into It” to Bret’s girlfriend Coco in their HBO series). About half an hour into the show the lights were dimmed, followed by a lot of commotion and messing on stage as the Conchords ripped off their velcro jeans and t-shirts to reveal sequined, spandex jump suits. They then told the time tripping story of how they ended up at David Bowie’s birthday party in the 1970s and then launched into a rockin performance of Bowie mixed in with some classic dance grooves.

(They also played The Bus Driver song, Jenny, Hurt Feelings, Too Many Motheruckers, Business Time, Think About It, I’m Not Crying, Hiphopapotamus v Rhymenocerous and a couple of newbies such as 1357 and Demon Woman.)

The banter with the crowd turned slightly awkward at the beginning but Jemaine ironed out an kinks by pointing out that it must be “C*nt Thursday”. Agreed. The banter was generally good craic when it wasn’t drowned out by people in the audience shouting the stupidest thing that popped into their thick heads like” Show us your (please insert any bold body part here)”. Theme of the night? Comedians checking their watches. Was opening night that bad? Apparently not, but the crowd should seriously consider their assholery. Drunken idiots shouting random song names at the two Kiwis may have been easier to handle on the opening night, but was clearly wearing a bit thin on the second night. This isn’t a pub session, who’s name is on the poster? Why, why would anybody shout “Waltzing Matilda” in the middle of a gig? Being the good sports that they are Bret and Jemaine had the banter with the crowd but the idiocracy didn’t go unnoticed, by me anyway.

On a scale of sympathy laugh to face cramps, Bret and Jemaine earn a much deserved face cramp funny status. In the words of DOD, Flight of the Conchords were “awesome man”.