Flight of the Conchords

I don't believe I have ever been in a more "bro" inhabited place as the Northrop Auditorium last night. Mind you these weren't the worst kind of "bros" you can find, but they were your typical college guys who love to drink their beer then mack on the ladies. Yet I cannot say I was necessarily surprised, Northrop is in the middle of the University of Minnesota campus, ground zero for party dudes. Of course we were all there to see the new "cool thing" in comedy music, Flight of the Conchords. Needless to say when we got there it was instantly eventful.

First off, the place was packed, and that was even outside the entry to the venue. the t-shirt stand was being heckled by everyone in sight, and was having troubles with cash registers, which did not help their situation one bit. In the middle of picking up my usual commemorative t-shirt (and this time totally awesome 7" vinyl single) an alarm starts to go off. Myself and my friends are really not sure what it is, and ignore it, thinking maybe it means to get to your seats. We head up to the balcony, and I choose to go to the basement, for a quick break in the bathroom. Turns out I am next to the nurse station, being yelled at to "GET OUT NOW!" Being the hypochondria and anxiety riddled guy that I am, I freaked the hell out, but only on the inside. Once outside everybody is asking themselves what the hell is going on? Now there is an alarm outside emitting an annoying buzzing sound, not pleasant. they turn the alarm off, we all think someone must have pulled it, then it goes off again! this continues to happen at least 15 times with the alarm outside. until we all say whatever, get back inside, and find out the whole alarm system was just freaking out. What does this have to do with the overall concert? Nothing, but it's the reaction later that helps make it so special.

So, I find my seat, after tripping on the oddly configured stairs in the balcony, while in pitch black, trying to find my friends. An announcer (Bret from FOTC) announces that this show is brought to you by the Minneapolis Fire Department (thank you fire alarms!) And before the comedy duo hits the stage, comedian Eugene Mirman comes on. I only knew him as a very small role on the Flight of the Conchords HBO show, but turns out this guy is a real deal comedian, very funny, and well worth checking out (especially when it involves Delta Airlines!)

After only around 20-25 minutes of standup, Eugene introduces Flight of the Conchords, the now giants of comedy folk rock from New Zealand. They open with a hit from their newest season on HBO, "Too Many Dicks on the Dancefloor". Needless to say it is 10 times funnier with the guys dancing in robot costumes. After that short techno diatribe, they sit down to their normal acoustic guitars, and begin the real intimate type show. It is here, that FOTC really know how to make a show special. They actually TALK to the audience. Interact, make fun of people, and just be all around funny guys. What I loved most, was that the fire alarm incident was brought up so often, that it was a real connecting point between the band and the audience. This is one of the things that most bands don't understand, you really need to connect with your audience for them to be comfortable around you. (Even during the encore break, instead of yelling CONCHORDS! everyone was simply mimicking the fire alarm, which was really unique and fun.)

Well, over the course of around and hour and a half the band pulled out some extremely funny music and standup, including "hits" such as Albi the Racist Dragon, I'm not Crying, Hurt Feelings, Demon Woman, Suga Lumps, and even in the middle of the show brought out the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra (a guy named Virgil with a cello.) After 90 minutes of that, and heckling various audience members (even telling everyone to cal some guy madame after the show, and for the rest of his life, also his children as well) they Conchords left the stage. It could have been a little bit longer, though that was the only complaint anyone could have come up with about this show. Overall it was an extremely unique and fun show, something that is hard to do with just guitars and pianos, you can find me at any more Conchords shows that come through Minneapolis/St. Paul in the future.

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Britney Spears

As many people know, I am a musician, I love all kinds of music, see all kinds of concerts, and try to not judge anyone due to the music they listen to (which is not always the easiest thing to do...) But there comes a time when a musician must bite the bullet, take one for the team, just do it. On Friday night, I did that. I attended a Britney Spears concert at the Target Center in Minneapolis. And as surprising as it is, it was probably the most well-produced concert I have ever witnessed.

First off, coming from some fresh $1 Million sound upgrades, the Target Center is actually starting to sound pretty good, the reverberation of the massive amounts of sound were fairly minimal, and everything was crystal clear. Yes, the entire show was most likely contained on some digital format, and some fat roadie just pushed play, yet they still made it sound great and packed a real punch with it.

Now, onto the center ring of the show. When I entered the arena The Pussycat Dolls were strutting their stuff all around the stage, in the typical pop fashion manner. though I cannot say that I am a huge fan of their style of music, the diversity of music put into their backing tracks is actually quite surprising. The songs contained hints of Middle Eastern and Indian tones, yet were still brought into the pop arena.

Well, thankfully that got done quickly, even though I spent most of their set waiting around 20-30 minutes to get a hot dog. Yes, a hot dog. Perhaps it was stress on the vendors, or the fact that they had one single credit card swiper in their whole stand, and a slow one at that. But once I regained my position amongst the around 90% female crowd, I realized that the Target Center was more crowded than I think I have ever seen it. It was nothing but screaming women, yelling at the top of their lungs for Britney, and it was women of all ages, young and old. When we first arrived at the venue, I though a riot was going to break out in the main entryway when it was nothing but women trying to make it through first.

Before Britney came on many circus acts performed around the two outermost "rings" of the circus, which can be seen in the posts below. It was probably one of the most original ideas for a tour I have seen yet, and was actually pulled off very successfully, and I was very surprised to see that actual circus caliber performers were hired to perform on the whole tour. Once the circus acts were over, and after saying hello to some friends in attendance, the lights went down. Pandemonium ensued. A strange intro video is displayed on a 360 degree screen, which is lifted over the stage, and Britney is seen descending onto the stage. Cue ear-drum shattering screams from thousands of women. But once the music started I got a very pleasant surprise. This was bar-none the most organized, well-planned, choreographed, and most fluid stage show I have ever seen. the stage, 3 "rings" all had multiple trap doors or elevators, which could be lowered or raised, and were used for exchanging dancers and props. The amazing thing is that the workers below the stage never seemed to miss a beat. Everything went according to plan, and Britney didn't have to worry about her kitty cat hanging out.

All in all I was surprised at how energetic lip-syncing along to a track could be, and the lights, stage, and backup performers all made the show a cohesive spectacle, or circus, if you will. It's amazing how almost no musician of my sorts would ever seem to end up at a concert like this one, but it also amazes me how some people don't even bother to give it a chance. I can honestly say it was one of the better concerts I have attended, and has helped me give a little more credit to the all-deserving road crew that puts something like this logistical nightmare together every night.

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