Bret McKenzie

Who he? Once a member of Flight Of The Conchords, and former band member of The Black Seeds, Bret has been a New Zealand icon since, like, ages ago. He’s won an Oscar for Best Original Song, and is generally a good bloke. He’s playing some solo shows in support of his new album, Freak Out City, with two shows in Wellington, his home town, in a converted Salvation Army Citadel turned gig venue, Meow Nui. What’s not to like? 

We were originally planning to go for dinner at Charley Noble, a venue I regularly slag off to visitors and locals alike. I used to go there for lunch when I worked at ANZ and have always been unimpressed by the place. And yet…it keeps being mentioned as a Top 10 place to go in Wellington, and Second Cousin Lauren has recently started working there, so I thought we’d give it another try.  But a quick look at the map said otherwise – I’d thought the concert venue was much closer. Another time, perhaps. We ended up in what is becoming a regular haunt, Cuba Street Tavern. They were quite busy, and they’ve changed up the format a little since we were last there – fewer sharing plates, and more main courses. Nevertheless, we made our selection (despite the absence of oysters – they’d run out), and waited. And waited. Eventually, after prompting the waiter, they brought all the food out at once. Previously they’d been of the type to bring things out as they were prepared. The problem this time round was that the chicken skewers were cold. I told the waiter, who told the chef, who (a) served us some hot ones and (b) removed them from the bill. So a slight blot on their copybook there.

We walked around the corner to Meow Nui, where there was a queue. I thought doors opened at 7:00pm, but was clearly misled in this regard. We found some good seats, and then visited the bar for a beer whilst waiting. Around 8:00pm, Bret wanders onto the stage, says “hi”, and starts playing his guitar. A minute later a couple of backing singers wandered on and started giving backing vocals. Then a drummer and a bass player, followed by keyboardist, brass section (sax and trombone), and an electric guitarist, as the song reached its crescendo and everyone was playing. So in the end there were nine of them in the band including Bret. Quite an ensemble!

He played a number of songs old and new, but it was the banter in between that really marked out the gig. He was a member of a comedy ensemble, and this shows. He told us about how they’d (by which he means, he’d) forgotten to bring any merch to one of their shows in the US, so instead started handing out Whittaker’s chocolate bars for the audience to break a piece off and pass around. This then became a thing, and they had to ask everyone coming from New Zealand to bring some Whittaker’s chocolate for them at each gig. They did the same in Australia, but, as he explained, the Aussies weren’t as stoked by this because you can actually get Whittaker’s in Australia, apparently. Nevertheless they continued to do it in New Zealand, and, after hearing about this from the previous night, were stunned when Tiffany from Whittaker’s showed up with a whole bagful of chocolate for the second Wellington show (i.e. the one we were at). So we enjoyed our Whittaker’s chocolate during the show.

If you’re one of my international readers and have never tried Whittaker’s chocolate, try to get hold of some…it’s bloody good!

He also got a volunteer from the audience to help him out with one of his songs. Turned out he’d recruited a Wellington actor (who may have positioned himself deliberately), Tiaki Sharp, so he was able to give a lot of acting ability to his part.

A little later, Bret invited another member of the audience to share a story so he could make up a song on the spot. Owen (I think) provided a tale of heartbreak from his first weeks at university, when he broke up with his girlfriend Sharone, and to ease the pain bought her some mint slice biscuits and a bunch of flowers. Bret wove this into a song: “Sharone, we should’ve broke up by phone” and “mint slices, to ease your emotional crisis” featured in it.

He also played his Oscar-winning song, complete with voices: Man Or Muppet?, and another song in which he parodied Morrissey, Everyone Is Horrid Except Me (and Possibly You), which has, apparently, earned him the lasting enmity of Steven Patrick. He didn’t give the impression that he was bothered by this.

And then – surprise! – Jemaine Clement appeared on stage, and they reprised one of the Flight Of The Conchords songs together: The Most Beautiful Girl (in the Room).

They left the stage but were back in what seemed microseconds to perform a two-song encore, before the lights came up. That set list in full can be found here.

Right, I’ve ordered the new album, should be here in a couple of days.