Tenacious D on the Hove – Review

Updated 10.20 | Published 00.26

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fullscreen The actor and music lover Jack Black is one half of the comedy rock duo Tenacious D, who visited Hovet in Stockholm yesterday. Photo: Andreas Bardell

CONCERT Tenacious D is a phenomenon as strange as it is entertaining.

With disarming humor and attitude, the American duo get away with quite a lot.

Tenacious D
Place: Court, Stockholm. Public: Sold out, around 8,000 people. Length: 85 minutes. Best: The audience, whose enthusiasm sometimes carries the show. Worst: The honkytonk smoker “Video games” becomes a chafing wound in the context. The Led Zeppelin cover “Good times bad times” doesn’t sound very convincing either.

It is easy to dismiss Tenacious D as a plow band without substance and relevance.
But then one overlooks the monumental impact of the American comedy rock duo around the turn of the millennium.

For many, Tenacious D’s self-titled debut album from 2001 was a revolutionary meeting between humor and hard rock. With the musical film “Tenacious D in the pick of destiny”, the band’s fictional creation story, cemented Jack Black and Kyle Gass its cult status. The film, which certainly flopped at the cinemas, also included a series of immortal song numbers Meatloaf, Ronnie James Dio and Dave Grohl which I return to periodically.

Despite few record releases and long periods of radio silence – Jack Black is, after all, a very busy man in Hollywood – the duo’s star status has clearly not waned.

The fact that the tickets for tonight’s concert at Hovet sold out quickly is a receipt as good as anything.

Like the loud enthusiasm that immediately meets the duo and the backing band during the opening “Kickapoo” and stays intact until the final number “Fuck her gently” rings out.

During songs like “Beelzeboss (the final showdown)” and “Wonderboy” thousands of fans drown out the song. And when an inflatable Satan looks out from behind the drum kit during “Tribute”, the audience explodes in euphoric roars of joy that would put Bajen’s cheerleaders to shame.

Jack Black, dressed in a t-shirt and shorts engulfed in flames, also elicits one collective laugh after another.

Many times it feels like being thrown into a parallel universe where “Allsång på Skansen” has been integrated with “Wayne’s world”.

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full screenTenacious D has a musical film, a TV series and four albums behind him. On stage, the worlds meet – with varying results. Photo: Andreas Bardell

Audience appreciation is needed when the show is as divisive as the band’s material.

The mixed bag of influences and themes doesn’t really make for seamless transitions. The honkytonk smoker “Video games” is an itchy chafing between “Tribute” and the hard rock tribute “The metal”. Furthermore, it should be illegal to place one Led Zeppelin-cover in the same setlist as a song with the title “The spicy meatball song”.

Krystad Komik is also waiting around some corners.

Like when the duo pretends to be fuming after “Roadie” and Gass announces that he’s quitting the band and storms off the stage, after which Black bursts into a wailing “Dude (I totally miss you)”.

But with a disarming attitude and heavy doses of ’00s nostalgia, Tenacious D ultimately gets away with most things.

Even a duel with toy saxophones.

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FACT

All the songs

1. Kickapoo 2. Low hangin’ fruit 3. Rize of the Fenix 4. Wonderboy 5. Tribute 6. Video games 7. The metal 8. Sax-a-boom 9. Roadie 10. Dude (I totally miss you) 11. Wicked Game (Chris Isaak-cover) 12. Beelzeboss (the final showdown) 13. Double team Extranummer: 14. Good times bad times (Led Zeppelin-cover) 15. Master exploder 16. The spicy meatball song 17. Fuck her gently

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