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Published: January 23rd 2007
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Well, it's not every day you get to be in a far off distant land and have the chance to attend probably the greatest gig in the world but we did! As a little Christmas present to ourselves, we bought a couple of standing tickets to the Tenacious D gig in Christchurch Town Hall and today was the big day.
We didn't want to wear ourselves out before the evening came so we spent the morning in an internet cafe taking advantage of a 3 hours for NZ$5 morning special offer they had going. We stopped by the Escape Rentals Office on the way back to the hostel to check out which campervan we'll be getting and what time we need to pick it up etc. There was a cool lady in the office called Michelle who seemed just like our kind of person. We chatted for ages about music and life in Christchurch and she even rearranged a couple of the campervan schedules so that we could have our pick of 4 different vans. Two were in the office already, one we saw on their website (www.escaperentals.co.nz) and one we just had her description to go by. We had
been told at the Auckland Office that it was unlikely we would have any say at all about which artwork we would get (all the Escape vans have a different theme you see) so to be given a choice of 4 was just plain cool. I think if we hadn't clicked so well with Michelle, we probably would have just been saddled with whatever would have been available when we turned up. Glynn had his heart set on a Batman or Superhero camper that we had seen on the website but unfortunately, neither were available. One of the four we had to choose from though was covered in frogs and as I absolutely love frogs (almost as much as I love lizards), then that had to be the one. Glynn was a bit gutted but I was chuffed to bits! We spent the rest of the afternoon doing a spot of laundry and packing as we'll be picking up the van first thing in the morning :-)
And now for the moment you've all been waiting for.....the Tenacious D gig review!
Let me kick this off by telling those of you who don't know that Tencious D is
the rock act fronted by Jack Black of Hollywood movie fame. Before we got to the headliners though, we got to watch a talented yet not very exciting Kiwi singer/songwriter/one-man-band resplendant with guitar, harmonica, kazoo and drum. We couldn't help wonder if he was in town for the forthcoming World Busking Tournament (I kid you not) and a warm-up act was needed at short notice. Anyhow, he wasn't really our thing but the next act was really cool. Jack Black came on stage to introduce this band called Black T that he had seen performing in Christchurch the night before and had asked to join them at the gig. Then on stage walked a couple of 10 year old kids! One sang and played guitar and the other did drums and although they were murdering the tracks a little bit, we thought they were dead brave for coming on stage and playing in front of over 2,000 people at their age!
And so it was time for the main attraction (cue drumroll)......Tenacious D. They played a brilliant opening set in front of a backdrop of Kyle's house where their friend Lee (of the song) came over, spilled beer on
the wiring and proceded to electrocute the band. Jack and Kyle ended up in hell after it transpired that Kyle had signed a Faustian pact with the devil. There they formed an extended band featuring the Anti-Christ on guitar (the devil is his dad of course), Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame on drums and Charlie Chaplin was on bass. You can't get more random than that now can you?! Essentially the entire gig played around this loose storyline with rocking tracks and Jack Black's unique narration to guide us on the journey to Tenacious D's salvation. It was a very entertaining show.
One of the most memorable parts about seeing Tenacious D though was that it was undoubtedly the most civilised rock gig either of us has ever attended. While we were waiting in line outside the Town Hall, people were chatting happily, no-one was downing copious amounts of alcohol or chucking litter a bout and generally everyone seemed to be pretty chilled out. This theme continued inside the concert hall where no-one pushed us around, people said 'excuse me' when they wanted to get past us and no-one threw anything down from the balcony above us.
It felt rather odd in all honesty but I'm certainly not complaining. Seeing as we're no longer wanting to throw ourselves around in the moshpit, it was actually very nice just to see everyone enjoying themselves without being inconsiderate to everyone else. Is it me, or is this too good to be true? In some ways I didn't feel dirty or harrassed enough by the time the gig was over to feel like I'd been to a music rock event but I think I could get used to it!
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