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When I first saw Flight of the Conchords in a documentary film on TV a few years ago, I was an instant fan. Their screwball irreverent humor, clever writing and admirable musical dexterity make what they’re doing look incredibly easy and, without fail, hysterically funny. When EventChaser gave me Flight of the Conchords tickets and made it possible for me to see them live in Chicago, I jumped at the chance!

Aire Crown Theater Details & History
The Arie Crown Theater has been in existence in Chicago for as long as I can remember. Located deep within the massive McCormick Place convention and expo complex, the Arie Crown can seem like a puzzle to find. The aforementioned mass transit methods bring you to the south building of the McCormick Place complex, mass transit will be detailed later. Simply head east through the south building, and keep climbing the escalators in your path. You’ll soon find yourself approaching a pedestrian walkway that crosses over Lake Shore Drive.

Be sure to pause on your way across to take in and/or photograph the breathtaking view of Chicago’s stunning skyline, with Soldier Field glistening in the foreground. When you reach the other end of the walkway, turn right and walk to the escalator, taking it down past the signs welcoming you to Lakeside Center. At the bottom you’ll come out right beside the marquee over the entrance to the Arie Crown Theater.

Arie Crown Theater Parking & Directions
Arie Crown Theater
2301 S. Lake Shore Drive
(McCormick Place)
Chicago, Illinois 60616

Chicago offers probably more convenient ways to get around than most large cities. Your best bet getting to the Arie Crown Theater at McCormick Place is by public transit. Chicago’s mass transit system is safe, clean, safe, fast, comprehensive and safe, with bus and train service throughout the city that overlaps and synergizes with regional services that serve the suburbs.

The Chicago Transit Authority’s (CTA) rail system serves both of the city’s airports and points north, south and west in the city, with all lines converging in the downtown area known as “The Loop.” The fare for any ride on CTA trains is $2.25, with the first transfer to another CTA vehicle at a mere 25 cents. The next two transfers within two hours of your first boarding are free!

From Midway Airport on the city’s south side, the Orange Line train will bring you downtown in approximately 30 minutes; if you’re heading straight for the Arie Crown Theater from Midway, you’ll take the Orange Line to the Roosevelt station where you’ll then transfer (for free) to the Red Line south (look for the signs on the boarding platform that read “To 95th St.”). On the Red Line you’ll get off at the very next stop, the Cermak station. Take the #21 bus heading east, and it will take you to Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive and stop practically at the doors of the south building at McCormick Place, attached to the Hyatt Regency Hotel.

From O’Hare International Airport on the northwestern edge of the city, The Blue Line takes you downtown in just about 45 minutes. Get off at the Jackson Street subway station and follow the signs for the Red Line trains. Despite the 3-5 minute walk through a pedestrian tunnel, it’s also a free transfer unless you exit the CTA complex.

Take the Red Line south (again, look for platform signs reading “To 95th St.”) and disembark at Cermak. The #21 bus stops on King drive at McCormick Place, right where you want to be. At any CTA train or bus stop you will wait only 10 to 15 minutes or less for the next ride.

Coming by rail from the suburbs requires only a little more effort, as the Metra trains all pull into Union Station, several blocks from the Red Line. The exception is the Metra electric service trains, which operate between the city and the south suburbs. If you’re coming from that direction, there’s a Metra station right at McCormick Place; climb the stairs or take the elevator, and you’ll find yourself in the middle of the south building.

From downtown you can take the Metra electric lines from Randolph Street and Michigan Avenue, or from Van Buren Street and Michigan Avenue, to McCormick Place for a few pennies cheaper than the CTA, without having to catch a bus for the final leg of your trip. Metra trains, however, run on a fixed schedule, and do not run as frequently as the CTA trains do.

Of course, driving is always an option, but if you’re not a city driver, the experience can be nerve-wracking. From the north or the south, Interstates 90 and 94 run together through the city. Take them from either direction and follow the exits to Interstate 55 North (Chicago) and then I-55 to the exit for Lake Shore Drive/US Route 41 south. Take the very next exit, 31st Street, head west to Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, and then take King Drive north to McCormick Place.

From the west, Interstate 290 brings you into the city; take the exit to I-90/94 East (Indiana) (at which point you’re actually headed south!). Follow the same directions listed above to I-55 and the rest of the way in. Follow the signs for parking.

Parking is plentiful around McCormick Place, but plenty expensive; it’s about $20 in the McCormick and Hyatt covered garages, and less the farther away you choose to park. Call McCormick Place at 312.791.7000 for event information and parking facility hours and prices.

Chicago Restaurants
McCormick Place is a monstrously large convention and exposition center approximately 15 minutes south of downtown. While there are often thousands of people milling about the place and the food concessions are thriving, it is just as often that the only thing happening in the entire place is a show at the Arie Crown Theater and the restaurants and concessions are closed; all the signs advertising them can be misleading and may leave you hungry.

You might be better off grabbing a bite to eat before you get there. As to the immediate surroundings outside of McCormick Place, there is little to nothing on offer that doesn’t require a significant walk. If you have the time beforehand, spend a few hours downtown on Michigan Avenue where, at any point on that Magnificent Mile, you’re surrounded by restaurants and bars and museums and shops for blocks in three directions.

If you don’t have that much time, there are two restaurants on the ground floor of the Hyatt Regency Hotel, which is attached to the McCormick south building. Mix is a more traditional table service restaurant, and Fomo is more of a café style place literally right next to Mix. Their prices are typical of mid- to upscale hotels and may seem a little inflated.

Taking Flight
Inside, the Arie Crown Theater appears to have been remodeled within the past 5-10 years or so. It’s very modern looking with attention paid to acoustics. The seating plan is a moderately steep rise — steeper in the balconies — leaving everyone with a view unobstructed by any but freakishly tall people in front of them.

For Flight of the Conchords on Tuesday April 28th, the stage was bracketed with two very large video projection screens, which gave everyone a crisp, up-close view of the people on stage.

The opening act was a brief, funny routine by comedian Eugene Mirman, currently a regular cast member of Flight of the Conchords’ HBO series, but certainly first and foremost a stand-up comic in his own right. In his funny, quirky 30-minute routine, Mirman zinged people who make up pointless analogies, and silly stories that pass for network news, and he engaged in an extended, elaborate tirade against a particular domestic airline that had lost his luggage, which has inspired a song and a post-card mailing campaign to discredit the airline.

When Flight of the Conchords took the stage it became readily evident that most of the twenty- to thirty-somethings in the audience were devotees of the duo’s HBO television series, often shouting out catchphrases from the show. Also evident was that a lot of their songs are very contextual to the TV show, and some of the humor misses the mark for those who have not seen it. That fact does not take away to any degree that these guys are hilarious!

The New Zealand duo of baritone Jemaine Clement and tenor Bret McKenzie have an incredible knack for writing songs with improbable lyrics about the most mundane of topics, creating a sort of conversational music, yet inserting bizarre twists and imagery at the just the right moments for maximum laughs. Just as incredible is their knack for taking all these lyrics and fitting them to very catchy melodies.

Above all, as the duo perform their songs, the listener is filled with the delightful sense that they’re making it all up as they go along, such as in favorites like “Jenny,” “I’m Not Crying” and “We’re both in Love with a Sexy Lady.”

They worked their way through quite a bit of their expansive repertoire, including other fan favorites such as “Hip-Hop-opotamus,” the nonsensical, faux-French “Foux De Fa Fa,” the almost-ballad “Most Beautiful Girl In the Room” and “Bowie,” featuring Clement’s comical, spot-on vocal impersonation of the song’s namesake.

Clement and McKenzie are, without a doubt, clever lyricists and adept musicians, but what shines through most delightfully during their stage performance that isn’t necessarily evident in their songs or their television show is that their absurd dry wit, collectively as well as individually, is also very quick and sharply honed as an improvisational tool.

They quite obviously love interacting with their audience, indicated by their addressing occasional shouts and hoots from audience members with snarky, funny retorts, refusing to play a song the audience enthusiastically requested because we “just wouldn’t like it,” and by taking a good-natured verbal jab at one gift-bearing audience member by publicly — and humorously — setting straight that her gift was indeed not papier-mâché as she described it, but actually a collage. They nevertheless graciously accepted the gift and proudly displayed it by draping it over the bass drum in their onstage kit.

After a three-song encore the boys called it a night, and I filed out of the theater with the rest of the crowd unable to remember the last time I had laughed so much and so hard in a live performance.

If you’re considering catching a show at the Arie Crown Theater in Chicago, the venue is certainly worth the journey. And if you’re thinking of taking in Flight of the Conchords wherever in the world they’re performing, it’s a no-brainer. See them. You won’t regret it.