Bret McKenzie: A Solo Flight Through Chicago

Q&AMusic

Oct 29

☆ By JONAH NINK ☆

“A CUTE LITTLE PLACE CALLED APPLEBEES’S” - is where Bret McKenzie, half of musical comedy duo Flight of the Conchord, took his fellow New Zealand-born backing band to get the full American experience. It’s one of many stories McKenzie told throughout his Chicago show at Vic Theater.

McKenzie and co are touring in support of the veteran songwriter’s first solo record, Songs Without Jokes, which was released earlier this year. Blending Elton-esque singer-songwriter trappings with the occasional sultry Reagan-era synth and anthemic ballad, Songs Without Jokes was a welcome addition to McKenzie’s impressive backlog.

The songs on the album remain the focus of the set, and all of them make an excellent transition live. “Up In Smoke,” a ballad that McKenzie wrote on a foreboding New Years’ Eve in 2019, is an easy highlight thanks to a decided moodiness that sets it apart from a lot of his other work. Opener “A Little Tune” melds the best parts of McKenzie’s career, and “Tomorrow Today” would fit in perfectly at the back of an arcade. McKenize also treats the audience to a trio of new songs, including one from an upcoming Broadway adaptation of George Saunders’s “The Brief and Frightening reign of Phil.”

The songs were normally followed by a story from McKenzie, who talks about everything from how a song was written, the early struggles of Flight of the Conchords, to sharing his bewilderment at the size of pretzels in Milwaukee. At one point he covers “Tomorrow Night” by New Zealand duo The Front Lawn, which he explains was a huge influence on Flight of The Conchords.

A little after the halfway mark, McKenzie performed a glorious rendition of the duo’s “The Most Beautiful Girl (In The Room)”, the only Conchords song in the set. Another surprise highlight of the entire set was “Man Or Muppet,” which McKenzie wrote for 2011’s The Muppets.

But McKenzie stressed that his solo show isn’t all about him, which is why he invited an audience member to share a story that he could write an impromptu song about. The end result was a song about the audience member’s first date that the audience lovingly dubbed the “salad ballad.”

Intentional or not, McKenzie’s tour feels like a retrospective of his dynamic career. Not in the farewell tour way, but in more of a “Here’s what I’ve done, here’s where I’m going” sense. Whatever shape McKenzie’s projects takes (and whether or not it contains jokes) there’s little doubt that we should be present for it.

CONNECT WITH Bret McKenzie

INSTAGRAM

SPOTIFY

Listen

INSTAGRAM

We couldn’t be more stoked to have Suriel Hess as our new headliner for our upcoming LA show 🤩 🫶 Not gonna lie, us & Notorious Noise kinda went OFF with this line up & you’re not gonna wanna miss it - ticket link in bio 🎫