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09/24/2005 Archived Entry: "tenacious d"

Thursday night we went to a Katrina benefit concert courtesy of my bil. It was at the Wiltern and was organized by Tenacious D with the proceeds going to the Red Cross. Fiona Apple started off the show and I must say she really blew me away. I've always kind of enjoyed her music, but I've never been a huge fan and don't own any by her. But she really does have an amazing voice and it was an acoustic set with only a guitar and a stand up bass and her voice was quite powerful. She did two new songs and then one of her first hits. I think an i-tunes search might be in order, though maybe I only likely her acoustic.
Jack Black and Kyle Glass came out in between each artist to keep the show going while the stage hands did their thing. Sort of amusing, but I'm not a Jack Black fan so I sat there thinking how I'm not a Jack Black fan. The next performance was a comic, Sarah Silverman. I've never seen her stand-up and she is just offensive and fairly raunchy. But funny as hell and I laughed more knowing how very wrong it was. "Edgy" is the word the media likes to use to describe her, but I think gutsy is a better description.
After Sarah was done we were treated to Josh Homme from Queens of the Stoneage, whom I really enjoy, joined by Jesse Hughes who is the lead singer of Josh's side project "Eagles of Death Metal." Bizarre name, great music. They opened with a Johnny Cash ballad, but then went into pure rock and it was just high energy and fabulous. The went the White Stripes route and were just drums and lead guitar and it totally worked. During their last song they had Jack Black come out and dance and I must say I was quite impressed. He sure is limber.
Next we had David Cross whom I know from Arrested Development. Apparently he's also a stand-up. Not the most entertaining stand up though. I didn't particularly enjoy his act and could have done without it.
The next person, however, was faboo. Mr. David Grohl of Nirvana and Foo Fighters' fame. It was just him and his guitar and that's all that was necessary. He started with a new song entitled "Skin and Bones" which was great, then he did the hardest acoustic version of "Best of You" to bring down the house. Truly incredible. He ended with a song that he wrote back in his Nirvana days so it was a little bittersweet to listen as it was clearly about Kurt Cobain. I've now seen him play with Nirvana back in '93, solo on Thursday and I'll see him with the Foo Fighters next month.
Once Dave Grohl was done it was time for Tenacious D. I've heard them several times, seen them on TV and avoided Jack Black's movies. I was definitely not prepared to enjoy them as much as I did. I do believe I have finally been won over. The songs are humourous, well done and the two of them are just flat out entertaining. I guess I just had to experience them live to appreciate them.
They did songs from their upcoming movie and then did some obvious crowd favorites. Dave Grohl came out and played drums on thier last song. Actually, he attempted to play drums on Josh Hommes kit, but there weren't any drumsticks so he used his hands. Eventually someone found him a pair and he played proper before they all left the stage. Tenacious D came back out after a bit claiming no encore. They had everyone who performed, minus Fiona who must have left already, come out so some pictures could be taken and then Jack proclaimed it a jam session. He even got the comics involved with some percussion. So it was quite the grand finale with everyone and I remembered my camera does movies with sound so I whipped it out to record a minute or two. It won't be the best quality, but I figured it would be neat to have.
So it was quite the fabulous evening :)