Tenacious D & Phantom Planet

"Kyle's fingers be silver
Jack's voice, then, be gold.
But lest you think we're vain…
We know it's Halloween night, we don't care
Tenacious D - we reign!" - The History of Tenacious D

I know what you're thinking. "Holy shit! Tenacious D at The Warfield on Halloween? That's a cream dream!" And man, you'd be fucking right. Not only that, but it was the last show of their first-ever U.S. tour so it was almost inevitable they'd pull out all the stops and make this show rock. And that's just what Jack Black (J.B.) and Kyle Gass (K.G.) known together humbly as "The D," did. They rocked as few have ever rocked before.
But before The D could take the stage to soak everyone in their rocket sauce, a punkish-rock outfit called Phantom Planet took the historic Warfield stage to play a few songs that sounded a little like Weezer with more emo and less pop. Though the audience was clearly in the mood for the acoustic stylings of Jables and Kage, they gave the young rockers in Phantom Planet their due, clapping graciously after they finished their quick set.
In the interlude between acts we mingled through the crowd to take in the sights of a Halloween show in The City, the highlights of which were: a guy dressed up as The Dude from The Big Lebowski, complete with the ubiquitous White Russian in hand; a dead-on Matt Foley / Chris Farley look alike who kept yelling "Holy Schnikies!" every time a doobie got passed around to him; a bunch of characters from the Tenacious D HBO shorts - Sasquatch, Captain Ed, Flarna (the chick from The Angel episode); and of course, a bunch of shiny demons and Satan. The place was ripe with Tenacious D love.
The lights finally dimmed and out trotted The D in their Wonder Boy and Nasty Man suits, armed only with very large acoustic guitars slung over their round torsos. They rolled right into about seven or eight songs in a row starting, of course, with "Wonder Boy." With no back-up band, no looped samples, no taped beats, nothing but their guitars and their demonic voices, K.G. and J.B. simply blew doors down. They put the audience over their knees and spanked their asses. People yelled out the names of their favorite songs; "Sasquatch," "Lee" and "Rocket Sauce" among others, and The D obliged. They even re-enacted some of the classic scenes from their show, like the one where Kyle takes a bullet for Jack and the "Inward Singing" piece from the album where K.G. quits and then rejoins a few minutes later. During the encore Sasquatch came and lent a hand on electric guitar and I feel a little fruity saying this, but The D were Rock Gods on this night. At no time did the confidence or conviction of their rocking falter. Think about it…I mean c'mon, how can someone possibly pull off rock of this caliber with acoustic guitars? And look at them, they're no pleasant experience on the eyes either, but women were literally throwing themselves at them. It all just goes to prove the power of rock 'n' roll. Take some tasty grooves, kick them with a little inspirado mingled with raw talent, and there you have Tenacious D. A fucking cream dream.
- words & photos by M. Cameron Newell

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