D brought musical comedy to St. Andrew's

"Some came for the music. Some came to get rocked. Others came because they new some serious shit was going down."

So spoke J.B., lead singer and rhythm guitar player of the infamous pseudo-rock duo Tenacious D. To a crowded St. Andrew's Hall, J.B. and K.G., "The D," as their fans call them, took the stage to riotous applause, chanting and a general ruckus.

The nearly sold out crowd had assembled not for a traditional rock show, but to hear two overweight men from Hollywood serenade them with acoustic guitar driven tunes covering a wide range of topics. The band's harmonies touched on a mystical substance known only as "Rocket Sauce," and more elementary subjects like back stage orgies and "The assholes in city hall."

From the moment the band was introduced, it was obvious to the uninitiated that this was going to be a night of comedy as much as it was going to be about music. And the crowd lay in the palm of The D's hand from the get-go.

Read by an unsuspecting stagehand, the band's introduction went something like this: "The band you are about to see is on the last leg of its world tour. They've seen a lot of faces on that tour. And they've kicked all those faces asses. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Tenacious D!"

Comic genius in the guise of honest to goodness rock 'n' roll followed. Until recently, the band has never toured, aside from one "road gig" they worked on an episode of "Tenacious D," its self-titled HBO series starring none other than J.B. and K.G.

Based on the popularity of a miniscule number of these late-night hour-long programs on the recently Emmy-endowed Home Box Office network, The D had no trouble bringing a nearly sold out crowd in Detroit last Thursday to its knees with laughter and balls-out musicianship.

Their set, which lasted well over an hour, included audience participation in the form of a "psycho fan," K.G. quitting the band and joining up again nearly a minute after his departure, and countless gratuitous sexual gestures.

The mostly male audience seemed thrilled when The D cranked out "hits" recognizable from its television forays. "Rocket Sauce," a re-working of the Beatles "Blackbird," drew especially loud cheers, as did The D's cover of Gene Roodenberry's "Star Trek Theme," complete with not often heard lyrics. The latter song opened The D's encore.

More thrilling to the assembled herd were J.B.'s countless references to the "hotties" in the front row and the comments he made about "all the backstage betty's in the crowd." The more perverse and debauched the remark, the louder the crowd screamed.

Tenacious D, in effect, is not 100 percent musical, nor is it 100 percent comedy. The combined comedic talents of J.B. and K.G. are formidable. But add to the mix a monstrous helping of musicianship and all around talent, not only on guitar, but vocally as well, and you've got the recipe for something fresh, unique and engaging, if not raunchy. Thursday night, The D proved itself to be that perfect "different" dish in a rock 'n' roll world full of bland and boring characters. In Detroit, they came, they saw and they kicked the asses of many, many faces.

09-20-99