Jerry Soong
An odd Tuesday evening found a line of rock pilgrims snaking around the glass balustrades outside the Hard Rock Café at Resorts World Sentosa. The tattling among the folks clad in band tees gave it away that the ‘Greatest Band in the World’ would be performing soon.
Tenacious D descended upon the Lion City as part of their 2014 tour’s Asia leg, which covered Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo and Seoul in addition to Singapore. The tour promoted their most recent record from 2012, cheekily named “Rize of the Fenix”. Self-proclaimed as “the greatest album recorded by anyone, ever”, it chronicled their return to rock royalty.
The crowd assembled in front of a modest stage in The Coliseum, stolidly anticipating the rock gods. 2 pot-bellied figures finally emerged from the billowing mist clad in loose-fitting tees and jeans. The poker-faced Tenacious D – Jack Black and Kyle Gass – then relished in their audience’s thunderous outpouring. With their legs apart in a self-deprecating guard stance, the duo delved straight into the gig with signature monomyth “Tribute”.
While one can normally expect Tenacious D’s theatrical performances to be accompanied with fancy costumes and questionable stage props, it was ostensibly a shame that their gig in Singapore had no other stage décor besides the total-solution mist machine.
However, it wouldn’t be a Tenacious D show without their wacky stage shenanigans. Jack paired his scatting and fervent hand gestures perfectly with Kyle’s ridiculous guitar chops. At one point, the audience’s tireless singing-along got so loud that even Jack’s tremendous voice drowned within it.
3 songs into the set, Tenacious D “broke up”, where the duo engaged in some laughably mediocre acting of a fight that led to Kyle angrily stomping off the stage. The concert took a somber turn as Jables self-loathed with “Dude (I Totally Miss You)” but it wasn’t long before Kyle reunited with him to perform “Kyle Quit the Band”. This writer swears tears were welling up in his eyes at that point.
After rocking hard through definite fan favorites “Kickapoo” and “Wonderboy”, Jack grabbed a tacky toy saxophone from his roadie and unleashed “Saxaboom” with it, making strange electronic sounds that gradually became a tune. Kyle put his guitar down and breakdanced, to hearty chuckling from the crowd of tickled, burly rock fans.
Even stranger, the rocking made a sharp turnaround with “Simply Jazz”, a jazz segment in which Kyle played, rather skillfully, a recorder, while Jables went on a roll with his off-key scatting. “There are no wrong notes in jazz,” he astutely observed, tongue firmly in-cheek. The D stopped to declare that “[they] have the best roadie in the world”, pointing at a dashing young lad standing backstage who’s been occasionally feeding Jack water, adjusting his guitars and even wiping his perspiration. Jack proudly affirmed, “This is not him. This is his nephew.”
Having left the stage after closing with “Double Team”, the restless crowd continued to chant, at their loudest, the letter “D”, in hopes that the comedy tag team will respond. They did, and they kicked their encore off with a medley of The Who songs, much to the surprise of classic rock fans in the audience.
The crowd was positively ecstatic to have been treated to the duo’s interpretation of “Pinball Wizard”, mashed with other songs mostly off the “Tommy” record.Tenacious D brought their big night in Singapore to a soft cheeky landing with an acoustic hit, “F*** Her Gently”. Jable’s perverse gesticulating during the naughty song ended the evening of mock rock mojo with mirthful smiles plastered all over the fans’ faces.
The duo’s brand of humor certainly got them out of jail for that distasteful act. After all, they are the ‘greatest band in the world’. So perhaps, just perhaps, they can get away with almost anything – including their big bellies.
Backing Band
Electric guitar: John Konesky
Bass guitar: John Spiker
Drums: Brooks Wackerman
Set List
Tribute
POD
Rize of the Fenix
Dude (I Totally Miss You)
Kyle Quit the Band
Friendship
Low Hangin’ Fruit
Kielbasa
Kickapoo
Wonderboy
Simply Jazz
The Metal
Dio
Roadie
Saxaboom
Beelzeboss (The Final Showdown)
We Beat the Devil
Double Team
Encore
The Who Medley
F*** Her Gently
Photo credit: Dominic Phua of The Gathering