Jonny York 

Leeds 2008 review: Tenacious D

The act lives or dies on whether you think Jack Black is a daring comedy maverick or a fat jock. We're with the second camp, but the festival crowd are with the entire east-coast rock fraternity
  
  

Tenacious D
Jack Black ... Comedy genius or fat jock? Photograph: Sarah Lee Photograph: Guardian

Name: Tenacious D.

Where and when: Main stage, 7.30pm, Leeds

Dress code: For the band, a giant green dragon suit and a wizard's cape. For everyone else, Metallica T-shirts that handily echo the way that the Tenacious D logo is modelled on the classic Metallica one the headliners have revived. They're friends, you know.

Who's watching: All of Metallica, apart from Lars, from the side of the stage. Plus, the worrying number of people in the world who think Jack Black films are funny. And some jocks.

In a nutshell: They were never supposed to be the second headline act, but Joey from Sllipknot broke his ankle so what can you do? You can watch a great band play the same songs over and over for years and never lose the thrill, but when you see the same stand-up act more than once you'll want a refund. And Tenacious D live or die on whether you think Jack Black is a daring comedy maverick or a fat jock. We're with the second camp, but the festival crowd are with the entire east coast rock fraternity.

High point: We won't deny that Tribute is quite a good song.

Low point: Guardian people sometimes get upset about Judd Apatow movies, but at least they're funny. Fuck Her Gently gave puerile a bad name then, and that was 2001. Now it sounds dated as well as nasty.

On a scale of 1-11, how hard do they rock?: Not very hard. 4

 

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