A wise man once said “Soo-guh-goo-gee-goo-gee, Goo-guh fli-goo gee-goo, Guh fli-goo, ga-goo-buh-dee, Ooh, guh-goo-bee”.
If I’d said that sentence in any other context, I’d hope you call an ambulance as I’d clearly be working my way through a stroke. But today I’m talking about Sonic Death Monkey frontman Jack Black and his other band, Tenacious D. The Grammy Award winning duo who have consistently proven they’re more than just a comedy act have brought the metal to The Hydro tonight and we’re throwing up our devil horns.
The opener is Dave Hill. He brings clever comedy in the form of quips flanked by face melting guitar work. The Twitter exile (banned for attacking Trump supporters) has appeared in shows such as ‘The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’ and ‘The Tick’ but it’s his stand-up that he’s best known for. Clever one-liners get delivered in a cynical and deadpan tone which is the antithesis of the impressive and exciting guitar work. The jokes are good enough to make a decent stand-up routine, but the music justifies being on this stage and that’s a good thing tonight. There’s a lot of Rich Fulcher and a dash of Doug Stanhope if you’re looking for a comparison. Dave was even seen strutting through the lobby in his purple jumpsuit which is pretty cool.
Tenacious D triumphantly take to the stage to the overture from their ‘Pick of Destiny’ movie before kicking off into ‘Kickapoo’ from the same. Unfortunately no surprise cameo from either Dio or Meatloaf from the other side of the grave (I maintain such a thing is something that “The D” would be more than capable of summoning) but KG and Jaybles do a more than capable job.
The crowd chat “D…D…D…” and the usual “Here we… here we…” Glasgow welcome much to the amusement of Jack Black. There’s a few lines about how everyone has seen ‘The Pick Of Destiny’ but it can’t have been in the cinema since it famously bombed. Tenacious D have since bounced back better than any other band could have from that, though. A testimony to the loyalty of their fans.
‘Wonderboy’ was a song that I’d forgotten was a complete banger and was glad to see. ‘Tribute’ saw a giant inflatable Satan rise at the back of the stage, and ‘The Metal’ brought a giant robot striding across the set. The backbone of Tenacious D is two guys playing acoustic guitars with potty mouthed, tongue in cheek lyrics about satanic worship and sexual prowess. But the production and dramatics elevate it to stadium rock status.
The banter between Jack Black and the crowd is nothing less than you’d expect from an A-list comedian and you’d honestly think you were just in a room with your wacky friend. The rapport made even warmer when JB gives us a sample of Travis’ ‘Turn’ during ‘Double Team’ which was a hit with the home crowd. We get the tour debut of ‘Throw Down’ and the impressive cover of ‘Wicked Game’ was a definite highlight. The biggest singalongs belong to finale ‘Fuck Her Gently’ and ‘Tribute’. Expanding on chat show moment ‘Saxiboom’ where JB plays a toy saxophone, Kyle pulls out a massive replica known as the ‘Maxiboom’ and gives us a blast of ‘Baker Street’ to much hilarity.
As I said, the production lifts these two guys with guitars up to the heights of stadium rock, and I can’t see a stadium that they wouldn’t fill comfortably with fans that would sing every word… even the spoken ones. That’s the atmosphere that makes these gigs more than just a concert. It’s like a religious experience shared with thousands of like-minded people. I didn’t say cult, but it wouldn’t be a bad thing if I did.
Photos by Catching Light Photography
Photos by Catching Light Photography
Catching Light Photography
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