Wow. Just wow. Those guys are SO good, and SO much fun!

When I found out that FoTC were touring the US this spring, and that they were doing a show in DC the day after Easter, when we were going to be there visiting anyway, I was pretty excited! We don't get HBO, but Nikki had told us about the show last winter, and we watched the 1st season DVD with her when she was home, and pretty much were hooked. Then when we went to New Zealand in November, it somehow helped me "get" them even more… The whole country seems to me gentle and understated, and slightly offbeat (and I mean that in a very good way).

Unfortunately, the tickets I got were way the heck up in the back corner of the venue (DAR / Constitution Hall), but we were still able to see well, and the sound was fine. There were a few times when a light was shining right in our faces, but there were video monitors mounted high beside the stage, so that was good for seeing facial expressions and so on. And I think my camera zoomed fairly well, considering the darkness and distance.

 

 

I bought a Band Meeting t-shirt before the show…

 

 

To the left is the graphic that was displayed on the video monitor before the concert began.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kristen Schaal (aka Mel) opened for the guys, and she was hilarious! Here, she was performing a one-act play, a sort of love triangle among the pot, spoon, and lid. She "practiced" a number of different styles of jokes on us, from self-deprecating, to political.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are my best photos, not all that great, but you get the idea…

I neglected to take a photo of Nigel (the NZ Symphony Orchestra), but he was also very good, and even got to speak once or twice.

They really did a lot of songs; they explained that if they stop singing and talked for a while, not to worry, they would sing another song soon. Or, if you came for the talking, you'd have to wait till the song was over. I would have actually liked a little more talking (in those adorable kiwi accents), like about the "Issues", saving the whales, etc, but it may partly have been because of the time they had to take to shush stupid people in the audience who were calling out song names.

They came out in robot suits, and started with "Too Many Dicks on the Dance Floor", very disco-y with lights and smoke and dancing, lots of fun. They admonished DC to do a better job of keeping in touch, just so they wouldn't worry about how everyone is doing… Then (not in order), they also did "Hurt Feelings" (video below – not mine, but from this show), "The Most Beautiful Girl in the Room", "Business Time", "If You're Into It", "Motha 'Uckas" (that was the one with Bret on drums), "Hiphopapotamus vs Rhymnocerus", "Bowie" (nipple antennae and all), "Busdriver song", "Ex-Girlfriends" (with the women in the audience doing the oooo's as directed by Bret), "Humans are Dead" (WITH the binary solo!), "I'm not Crying", "Sugalumps" (involving an a capella final refrain with dancing – see mstresbabette's video from the show), "You Don't Have to be a Prostitute", "Jenny" (old video below – I couldn't take any video, being so far away, but this is one of my favorites…), and a new ballad about Stana, very funny!  So that's a lot of singing!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Excellent, excellent show! We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves!

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