Tenacious D @ the PNE Amphitheatre in Vancouver May 27th 2012
Tenacious D on an outdoor stage is hardly underground, but how could I miss this? Seeing Jack Black serenade us under a blue sky and enough cloud cover to put a cool breeze through the place was a beautiful scene. The D had not played Vancouver in many moons, and it was nice to see the fans turned out in droves. The stands were packed and the spot in front of the stage was getting squishy and sweaty I'm sure.
They opened up with six consecutive songs from the new album. I would have been yawning by the sixth, but the crowd was hella into it. Pumping fists and singing along with every word, makes me think I better go back to that album for a third listen. Rize of the Fenix! Not that it was the worst, but upon my first two listens I was leaning towards it not quite being up to par with their first two albums, but live it played out nicely.
After two songs the band stopped playing and Jack Black addressed the crowd. "I don't really follow this stuff, but I've been told we are number 1 on the hard rock charts in Canada." The crowd cheers loudly. "Not to toot my own horn, but numero uno bitch!" The crowd cheers again. "This week we've sold more albums than the Beatles, Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones combined mutha fucka!" At this point the crowd is going ape shit. "Should we even do more rock? I feel like we should just leave...cause we're the best." Most of the crowd stopped cheering at that point and the D decided to press on.
At one point during the Death Star song a mean looking alien came out, but Jack didn't bat an eye lash, he just took it out with his dart gun and the thing took off. After the battle Jack Black asked for some room temperature water, it seemed a funny demand while outside, but he got it. Then he had a roadie wipe the sweat from his brow with a towel. Then he had another roadie come out and pour some of his drink into his mouth. Life was good.
Finally it was time to dig a little deeper into the bag of tricks and rock a few loud metal songs, 'Kickapoo' and 'The Final Showdown' were amongst them, and they dug even deeper to pull out a 'Kielbasa', 'Wonderboy' and The Greatest Song in the World otherwise known as 'Tribute'. Kyle quit the band at one point, but it wasn't uncalled for, Jables was being pretty mean and giving him shit for supposedly butchering a song. Kyle took off, flipped him the bird and mooned him before leaving the stage. Yeah that happened. Rage Kage's butt was seen by thousands, but meant mainly for Jack. Luckily he came back, they played the Kyle quit the band song and then they hugged for an awkwardly long time.
A sasquatch sighting was made at one point during the show and the hairy creature and KG started ripping it up duet style on their guitars. Yes, believe it or not, but sasquatch can shred a mean guitar solo. Jack wasn't having it though. He brought out a roadie to take the beast down with a dart gun, and rightfully so, it was trying to steal the show and you know that wasn't happening on JB's watch.
Rage Kage had a serious gut, more of him to love I suppose and Vancouver seemed to really love KG. Jack Black had to call off a Kyle chant and get a Jables chant going from the other side of the crowd. Then he told the two sides to fight! "No wait, don't do that," he quickly called out. That man has to truly be one of the funniest people on the planet.
However the funniest part of the show didn't even come via Jack Black but from the band's guitarist. Towards the end of the show they did introductions and solos for each member of the band, and when they called out the guitarist he came forward to shred a giant solo. Just as he finished, while looking real proud of himself, he walked backwards and toppled over a monitor taking out his mic and mic stand in the process. From my angle it looked like a pretty hard fall and was definitely not part of the show, just an added bonus for us all. He couldn't keep it together and the song had to go on without him, everyone was having a chuckle and eventually he had to retune his guitar, yeah it was that big of a fall. Jables assured everyone that this was an even rarer sight than the Sasquatch from earlier. And then Rage Kage went over and laughed at him for the entire drum solo. He probably said things like, "Dude you're totally gonna be on youtube." I hope he's right. "How was the view from down there?" and, "have a nice trip? See you next fall." Christ he should have just pants'd him and got it over with. Anyway it was classic, classico if you will.
After the obligatory leaving of the stage they popped up at the back of the stage and got set up with their guitars once more and played a two song encore starting with 'Dio' and ending with 'Fuck Her Gently', and that was that. Darkness had fallen and the crowd scattered off onto the grounds of the PNE and went home to watch The Pick of Destiny.
They opened up with six consecutive songs from the new album. I would have been yawning by the sixth, but the crowd was hella into it. Pumping fists and singing along with every word, makes me think I better go back to that album for a third listen. Rize of the Fenix! Not that it was the worst, but upon my first two listens I was leaning towards it not quite being up to par with their first two albums, but live it played out nicely.
After two songs the band stopped playing and Jack Black addressed the crowd. "I don't really follow this stuff, but I've been told we are number 1 on the hard rock charts in Canada." The crowd cheers loudly. "Not to toot my own horn, but numero uno bitch!" The crowd cheers again. "This week we've sold more albums than the Beatles, Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones combined mutha fucka!" At this point the crowd is going ape shit. "Should we even do more rock? I feel like we should just leave...cause we're the best." Most of the crowd stopped cheering at that point and the D decided to press on.
Finally it was time to dig a little deeper into the bag of tricks and rock a few loud metal songs, 'Kickapoo' and 'The Final Showdown' were amongst them, and they dug even deeper to pull out a 'Kielbasa', 'Wonderboy' and The Greatest Song in the World otherwise known as 'Tribute'. Kyle quit the band at one point, but it wasn't uncalled for, Jables was being pretty mean and giving him shit for supposedly butchering a song. Kyle took off, flipped him the bird and mooned him before leaving the stage. Yeah that happened. Rage Kage's butt was seen by thousands, but meant mainly for Jack. Luckily he came back, they played the Kyle quit the band song and then they hugged for an awkwardly long time.
A sasquatch sighting was made at one point during the show and the hairy creature and KG started ripping it up duet style on their guitars. Yes, believe it or not, but sasquatch can shred a mean guitar solo. Jack wasn't having it though. He brought out a roadie to take the beast down with a dart gun, and rightfully so, it was trying to steal the show and you know that wasn't happening on JB's watch.
Rage Kage had a serious gut, more of him to love I suppose and Vancouver seemed to really love KG. Jack Black had to call off a Kyle chant and get a Jables chant going from the other side of the crowd. Then he told the two sides to fight! "No wait, don't do that," he quickly called out. That man has to truly be one of the funniest people on the planet.
However the funniest part of the show didn't even come via Jack Black but from the band's guitarist. Towards the end of the show they did introductions and solos for each member of the band, and when they called out the guitarist he came forward to shred a giant solo. Just as he finished, while looking real proud of himself, he walked backwards and toppled over a monitor taking out his mic and mic stand in the process. From my angle it looked like a pretty hard fall and was definitely not part of the show, just an added bonus for us all. He couldn't keep it together and the song had to go on without him, everyone was having a chuckle and eventually he had to retune his guitar, yeah it was that big of a fall. Jables assured everyone that this was an even rarer sight than the Sasquatch from earlier. And then Rage Kage went over and laughed at him for the entire drum solo. He probably said things like, "Dude you're totally gonna be on youtube." I hope he's right. "How was the view from down there?" and, "have a nice trip? See you next fall." Christ he should have just pants'd him and got it over with. Anyway it was classic, classico if you will.
After the obligatory leaving of the stage they popped up at the back of the stage and got set up with their guitars once more and played a two song encore starting with 'Dio' and ending with 'Fuck Her Gently', and that was that. Darkness had fallen and the crowd scattered off onto the grounds of the PNE and went home to watch The Pick of Destiny.
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