TENACIOUS D + DAVE HILL – BRIGHTON CENTRE 13.5.24
Where do you start with Tenacious D. Are they a rock band? Are they a comedy act? Are they a bit of both? The latter is clearly the winner. We only need to look at the acting, comedy and musical pedigree’s of the two members of Tenacious D to see this. With Grammy award winners Kyle Gass and Jack Black on stage (Yes, that Jack Black) then it is very clear to see how this evening is going to develop. An evening of very good musicianship, and free flowing, well choreographed comedic entertainment awaited, although possibly not for the kids.
As the ‘Spicy Meatball’ show rolled into a sold out Brighton Centre for the last night of a short six date UK tour, the atmosphere was clearly electric and expectant before the band even hit the stage. With no London date on this tour many travelled down from the metropolis to catch a sight of their heroes. If you’ve missed this tour, bad luck as their next live dates are down under.
Tenacious D have been a musical comedy institution since the release of the first album in 2001. Mixing their undoubted comedy credentials with a severe dose of quality musicianship, and numerous references to their love of rock music, with Led Zeppelin being prominent in their adoration of the genre. They have found a niche in the rock genre to not so quietly sit. Though less flamboyant than Steel Panther these fathers of comedy rock know exactly how to balance a set between the musical and the humorous, and there were great doses of each.
Entering the stage from either side, with the Tenacious D logo on the screen behind them, picked out in a death metal format, it was clear that the homage to rock would be all encompassing. The D opened with ‘Kickapoo’, an absolute crowd pleaser and perhaps because of the nature of the show the band did not save the ‘bigger’ numbers to the end but interspersed them throughout the set. If you had to leave before the end then you didn’t miss ‘Wonderboy’ or ‘Tribute’, as they were both played early on.
Musically there was a mixture of their own material and a smattering of covers. First up Thin Lizzy’s ‘Jailbreak’ received the D treatment with an exhausted Jack Black falling to the floor before leaping up to sing out the chorus before collapsing again.
‘Rise Of The Fenix’ followed with more madcap antics and the berating at the close of their pyro tech, Biff. Did you like the pyro? they asked. There was no pyro, hence the calling out of Biff who admitted he had forgotten to press the Big Red Button. Unsurprisingly once said button was pushed the stage was awash with flame.
The set itself was perfectly choreographed from the arrival of an armoured metal monster for ‘The Metal’, complete with dancing between the band and said ‘monster’ through to a fake band argument, Kyle quitting and mooning at the audience on his departure before closing with a boys love in and hugs on his return following ‘Dude (I Totally Miss You)’.
The tomfoolery did not end there with Jack playing a small plastic saxophone for Sax-a-Boom before Kyle produced a much larger one and proceeded to play(?) the opening to Gerry Rafferty’s ‘Baker Street’.
With a cover of Chris Isaak’s ‘Wicked Game’ thrown in for good measure the band closed the main set out with ‘Double Team’ which included Jack throwing in a rendition of Oasis ‘Champagne Supernova’ for good measure. The song in itself was drawn out to enable the band to show their individual musical abilities although in True Tenacious D style the solo’s also had to include the lighting engineer putting the lighting rig into overload and the sound engineer getting his own spot, a perfectly deadpan one two, one two, check one two etc – you get the drift.
Returning for the encore with a tongue firmly in cheek rendition of Britney Spears ‘Baby One More Time’, the first time played live on this tour in its entirety as opposed to being incorporated into ‘Double Team’ as on other nights, the D followed up with a shredded version of ‘Master Exploder’, complete with more pyro failings before an all band member inclusive acapella version of the ‘Spicy Meatball’ song.
Keeping to their incongruity they closed the set with their ‘big ballad’ ‘F*ck Her Gently’ along with full audience vocal participation. And then that was it Tenacious D, signed off. Mad, bad (in a good way) and totally bonkers, but absolutely enthralling and an awesome evening’s entertainment. Oh and lets not forget Biff who as the lights went up finally produced the full pyro effect as the band left the stage.
Tenacious D setlist:
‘Intro’ (from Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny’s opening credits)
‘Kickapoo’
‘Low Hangin’ Fruit’
‘Jailbreak’ (Thin Lizzy cover)
‘Rize Of The Fenix’
‘Wonderboy’
‘Tribute’
‘Video Games’
‘The Metal’
‘Sax-a-Boom’
‘Baker Street’ (Gerry Rafferty song) (Kyle’s ‘Max-a-Boom’ solo)
‘Roadie’
‘Dude (I Totally Miss You)’
‘Wicked Game’ (Chris Isaak cover)
‘Beelzeboss (The Final Showdown)’
‘Double Team’ (with ‘Champagne Supernova’ by Oasis snippet (featuring full band) for Jack’s solo)
(encore)
‘…Baby One More Time’ (Britney Spears cover)
‘Master Exploder’
‘The Spicy Meatball Song’
‘F*ck Her Gently’
Support came from Dave Hill, an American Comedian, who in a similar vein to the headline act, mixed music and comedy together. Comedy can be subjective and in a half hour set he managed to mix both elements together in a crowd pleasing way. He entered by cycling on a BMX bike, before crashing across the stage and manically running around.
There were elements of this routine that reminded me heavily of Steve Martin, back in the early days of his career, when as a stand-up comedian, before Hollywood called, he was a ‘Wild and Crazy Guy’ and there were elements of similarity about the madcap capers on show. Leaping around in a purple jumpsuit, with a flying V guitar strapped on he was in his element. Whether responding to a heckle from the audience of “Where did you get the jumpsuit?”, response “your mother’s” through to the delivery of the comedy song ‘Caveman In A Spaceship’ he provided a fast paced alternative view of his world.
Playing occasional snippets of songs to show his rock ‘n’ roll pedigree, ‘Iron Man’, ‘Freebird’ and Van Halen’s ‘Eruption’ to prove he actually was a very good guitarist in his own right, he then intermingled his guitar work with ad lib lines and off the cuff material. Announcing after the tour he would be working at Poundland, though they didn’t know that yet he ran through a series of slogans that he had written for them…. “Poundland, We sell everything but dignity etc”, followed by a series of chat up lines, based on local Brighton orientated transport references, to show he had researched his audience, although most of which were unprintable.
With Kyle Gass from Tenacious D joining him on stage towards the end of the set to play some impromptu recorder, and numerous ‘thank you’s’ to the appreciative audience he departed in a similar manner to his arrival. A quick scoot around the stage, a bad BMX trick and a crash as he disappeared behind the stage curtains.
