Gig review: Tenacious D, Glasgow SECC

Jack Black must be one of the most indulged men on the planet. Not only is he given latitude to chew the scenery in almost every film in which he appears, but he can also live out his frustrated rock star fantasies, writing, performing and touring lame comedy songs with his buddy Kyle Gass in their spoof band Tenacious D.

Tenacious D

Glasgow SECC

**

He is actually a serviceable rock singer, capable of sustaining the power notes and breaking out the falsetto, but rather than perform straight and let the lyrics do the talking, he preferred to over-egg the vocals with his deliberately overstated, overwrought delivery.

Gass commanded much of the love in the room but, as an inveterate scene-hogger, it was Black who was always “on” throughout proceedings, even when making a barely audible aside. Yet this rather plain show – with only a phallic phoenix backdrop, pertaining to new album Rize Of The Fenix, for stagecraft – was underpowered, and undersold, for an arena spectacular.

Things cheered up immensely on Death Star with the appearance of a giant dancing squid. But the general lack of theatricality could have been excused if the songs were actually funny rather than lazy nods to fraternity humour.

In the end, the biggest laugh of the night was following a three-minute medley of songs from the original rock opera Tommy with the claim that Tenacious D are the greatest band in the world. That was meant to be a joke, right?