FOTC at the SBBowl

A number of months ago when I had the chance to buy some tickets for Flight of the Conchords Derek and I decided to go for the show at the Santa Barbara Bowl where we would combine it into a trip encompassing the last of the King of the Mountain Centuries we had to complete. Anyhow after getting stuck in lots of horrible traffic trying to get out to Santa Barbara on the Friday afternoon we eventually got there feeling a little frustrated. We had a couple of hours to burn and spent most of the time in the downtown area. It’s a lovely spot with some great shopping to be had. Santa Barbara itself is a wicked area. Lovely houses, hills, beaches and the place just has a good vibe about it.

Anyway after a good feed we headed up to the bowl which is tucked under a steep cliffside. It’s a lovely location and is one of the best venues, actually probably the best venue I have ever been too for a show. It holds 3000 people. We were sitting in our seats at 7pm when we expected the proceedings to begin. We were kinda worried cause it was meant to be a sellout show and half the seats were still free. Anyhow by 7.30 it was chock-a-block full and Arj Barker (Dave from the show) did 30 mins of standup. He was a bloody fine comedian. I had some great laughs and will definitely watch him again given the chance.

He introduced FOTC and they appeared in their robot helmet suit things singing "Too many d*cks on the dance floor". It was quite the intro and we had a great show. They did a bunch of their classic stuff and some less known stuff. I could not believe how well it went in an open air bowl in front of 3000 people. I always thought it was best suited to smaller venues. Little club type places but it went off. They were much better than their studio versions and they added extra words and phrases into many songs, often being more naughty than TV and album producers would normally let them be. They played a solid 1.5hr set non-stop and Derek, I and the whole audience had a great time.      

     

They of course heckled NZ, playing on the sheep jokes and our lack of population (tiny size) when they invited the NZ Symphony Orchestra which turned out to be one guy onstage to help with some instrumentals.

If you ever get the chance to see them live go for it. Especially in a big venue. They rocked.

FOTC Snippits from Kurt Janssen on Vimeo.

After this show we had to drive 100 miles to Lebec where we were staying as the Heartbreak 100 both finished and started here the next morning.