Fred Armisen Ends Comedy Tour At Boston Calling

BOSTON — If there's ever a place to end a comedy tour poking fun at and giving tribute to music, Boston Calling, the area's largest music festival is probably the right place. He first clicked on some mood music. Then he stood in one corner of the stage and posed. He walked over to another corner and leaned against a speaker, posing, to laughter and cheers, he hovered at his drum kit - lifting the sticks, but not playing, and then finally, Actor, Comedian Fred Armisen walked back in front of the mic center stage.

"Oh, Hello," he said.

The indoor arena at the Harvard Athletic complex, which had been filling up during and after Comedian Sam Jay's set erupted in cheers. Fred Armisen of Portlandia, Forever, Saturday Night Live, Documentary Now! was in Boston, the last stop on his comedy tour.

Armisen played to his audience. Literally. He brought out his satirical band characters from his Saturday Night Live skits, including his fictional Blue Jean Committee. He asked the audience to sing along so that anyone walking in would think they really missed out, the way your friend in college commanded the room to pretend to be asleep when a new person walked in.

He calls his tour, appropriately, "comedy for musicians but everyone is welcome" and showed off deadpan impressions of drummers learning how songs worked and concert goers getting a little off beat.

His act is part parody, part tribute. He especially had the audience during a Punk Rock Drumming history in which he explained drumming styles from the 1970s up to present day Tame Impala (which, of course is headlining for Boston Calling).

"The 90s have a lot of build up to nothing," he said, demonstrating to cheers and laughter.

As for his impression of Tame Impala? It involved hands and a tissue on the drums and got cheers.

His deft take on accents across the country had people watching him with their mouth open as he transitioned from Floridian accents to Texas over to San Francisco and up to Portland (cheers) to discuss the New York neighborhoods before hitting Massachusetts and Boston on the head.

In the end he thanked Boston for being so welcoming, but really, Boston was pretty excited to have him, as was evidenced by the crowd that stayed behind to shake his hand and take selfies with him. One young man, following a short conversation with Armisen and a hand shake, bounded away with his friends jumping up and down.

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Patch reporter Jenna Fisher can be reached at Jenna.Fisher@patch.com or by calling 617-942-0474. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram (@ReporterJenna).