I hate reviewing comedy shows. How can you tell other people how funny a show was without spoiling it? But what I can say is, I thought Tripod were funny on Skithouse and Triple J, and I can say they’re absolutely fabulously hilarious live.

Beginning with the theme song from Highlander, Princes of the Universe, sung by Queen, the boys started with a full on rock show, with flashing T R I P O D sign rocking out while they posed on stage. They then picked up their acoustic guitars and began to do their own tune. Their song was decidedly less rocky, but quite funny nonetheless. After their first song they started their banter, wondering why we didn’t cheer for the sign, claiming it cost them a lot of money. The sign was the focus of many puns, my favourite being when they were talking about merchandising and selling out to corporations; the ipod part of the tripod sign started flashing.

Another funny but unintentional prop gag came from Gatesy’s guitar string breaking. Whenever a guitar string breaks I always have Jello Biafra saying “Ray’s guitar broke” speech from ‘Night of the Living Rednecks’. Now I’ll have the image of Yon (the little one) picking a fight with Scod (the tall bespectacled one) because they were pretending not to know each other and Scod kept looking at Yon. Ok, so it doesn’t work on paper, you just had to be there…

They did a collection of old and new material, including Lingering Dad, Frustration, Gonna Make You Happy Tonight (my favourite because it’s all about playing video games) and Oil in the Congo. Their “Show Us the Fucking Monkey” was a hilarious stab at Peter Jackson for taking so long to show us the monkey in King Kong, and “the Prison Song,” about a man who is arrested for suicide bombing a bus (think about it) was both political and incredibly funny simultaneously.

Tripod are accomplished musos, playing together really well and using their voices wonderfully. Their in-between song banter was genuinely funny and never seemed forced or rehearsed. Whilst once they may have been a DAAS knock off, they’ve definitely come into their own and now outshine the former comedy trio in both originality and musical style. They could get better haircuts though.