Live Review: Tenacious D, Sasquatch, Damien Power

The cult of personality is a strange and vaguely frightening phenomenon that is perfectly idealised in Tenacious D and their rabid, largely male fanbase. Despite rehashing old gags from previous tours and running through more or less the same setlist, the crowd rewarded their consistency, whipping themselves into a frothing horde, screaming the words of every song (not singing: screaming) back at their round, sweating deities.

Supporting them were Damien Power, a Brisbane comedian that straddled sexual politics, capitalism, environmentalism and drug abuse with hilarious precision. Sasquatch then presented a brief one-man rock show, although after the initial gag of seeing a guy dressed as bigfoot play scorching solos while stomping a kick drum, it ran a little thin.

Tenacious D is essentially a shrieking satire on ego, success and rock music played by guys that secretly believe in their heart of hearts that what they do is legitimate and earnest. The delicious irony in seeing such successful satire not only sail over the audience but also its creators is worth the ticket price alone, but add to it a show that is saturated in real rock'n'roll gravy and you have a sure fire hit.

Tenacious D's Kyle Gass is a really talented musician and it's fun seeing such a huge disconnect between the dude himself (a very large, very beige looking guy with a horseshoe hairline) and the incredible metal chops he boasts. He looks like he should be running a semi-successful used car dealership, not shredding his fingers on explosive blues riffs. Vocalist Jack Black performed as expected and his wild micro-bursts of energy and spasmodic dancing is still as hilarious as it is hypnotic. The quality of his voice is never in doubt and neither is his songwriting ability.

Tribute sounded great; an almost perfect (acoustic) facsimile of the recorded version. Rize Of The Fenix was a little subdued (relatively speaking), but encore closer Fuck Her Gently was a triumphant coda, a perfectly casual gutbuster that reminded you just how good their comedy can be.