HARD ROCKING AMIGOS ‘TENACIOUS D’ ROCK THE SOCKS OFF MANCHESTER CROWD

LIVE REVIEW | MANCHESTER AO ARENA 08/05/24 | By Craig Harston

It’s been a long time since comedy rock duo Tenacious D made their first impression on the music scene, but over 20 years later and the pair are still as strong as ever. Going on to be become household names for their acting efforts more so than their musical, the famous duo had no issue securing the UK leg of their ‘Spicy Meatball Tour‘ an instant sell-out. We catch them on night 2 of said tour at Manchester’s AO Arena.

It was American comic and musician Dave Hill who opened the show and while his antics felt in keeping with the headliners, he wasn’t great. He felt more like someone who had randomly walked onto the stage and started messing about (and that security were too afraid to tackle). He wasn’t particularly funny, though did get a fairly warm reception from the crowd with his biggest response coming from when Kyle Gass appeared to play a solo on the recorder. Dave did absolutely shred on the guitar, though!

When the lights went down to signal the arrival of Tenacious D, they received an extremely enthusiastic welcome from the crowd. Jack Black and Kyle Gass, with help from their back-up band, played an epic set from across their entire career, opening with ‘Kickapoo‘ which was followed in quick succession by ‘Low Hanging Fruit‘ and ‘Rize Of The Fenix‘. Taking a moment to rile up pyro technician Biff about his timings (or ‘Biffy Pyro’, who did eventually hit the mark with the special effects) they proceeded to play ‘Wonderboy‘ and ‘Tribute‘ surprisingly early, the latter of course including an inflatable ‘shiny demon‘.

The rest of the set included bangers such as ‘The Metal’ (which saw Jack and Kyle dancing with a giant robot), new song ‘Video Games‘, their cover of Chris Isaak’s ‘Wicked Game‘, ‘Roadie‘ (with the roadie team taking their bows at the end), ‘Dude (I Totally Miss You)‘ and the band defeating Satan with the power of rock during ‘Beelzeboss (The Final Showdown)‘. Taking extremely polite bows after each track Jack and Kyle finished up with ‘Double Team‘ right before the encore which featured solos from all the band members, the sound technician and even the lights (though some of the bands solos did go on a little too long).

The D returned to the stage once again to rock our socks off with a few more songs, including their passing-the-torch ode to Ronnie James Dio, ‘Dio‘, ‘Master Exploder‘ and finishing incredibly strong with the classic ‘Fuck Her Gently‘ before exiting the stage after one final group bow to an extremely happy crowd.

The night overall was equal parts comedy and rocking out, with the chemistry between Jack and Kyle as present as ever with both getting the crowd going with singalongs and chants of “D! D! D! D!”. Jack Black in particular has always displayed an impish energy and moved around the stage with the enthusiasm we expect from such a born entertainer.

The Spicy Meatball Tour continues to rock across the UK and Europe. Tenacious D’s third and fourth albums, Rize Of The Fenix and Post-Apocalypto have been pressed on vinyl for the first time and are available from 10th May.

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Craig Harston

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