The Palais Theatre in St Kilda was a packed house, buzzing with anticipation and excitement for the Tenacious D “Old School Acoustic Style” show. I’ve been to a few performances at the Palais Theatre and have never witnessed a crowd so eager and excited as this one. Even before the show started, the crowd was cheering, slow clapping and getting the entire theatre involved in Mexican waves. The theatre had a truly electric atmosphere, which was festival like, and was not like people going out on a devastatingly freezing Melbourne Friday night to catch a sit-down show. We were seated about 10 rows back from the balcony on the far left, which meant I had a “sofa arm” to rest on. It was fantastic, like watching a world-class show from the comfort of my own lounge room!Tenacious D took the stage to huge applause and when the opening notes of “Rize of the Phoenix” were played the crowd erupted into an even larger cheer. The show was well oiled from start to finish and the theatre was filled with dedicated fans, with even the newest releases resonating with most of the crowd. Jack and KG both took glorious bows on the completion of each song, as if to be looked upon like gods – and on this night, they were.I paused for a very short amount of time to ponder as to whether I was enjoying the show, and it was only then I realised a massive grin plastered all over my face which had assumedly been there for quite sometime. This was indeed fantastic. The sound was full and generally well mixed, and the songs were true to the recordings. Their live performances proved that they were indeed capable of laying down solid rock without any studio trickery for assistance.For me, the greatest moments of the show were when Jack Black put down his guitar and took it upon himself to free-form work the stage, as only he can. The signature Jack Black twists, turns and unequalled showmanship spun the crowd into a frenzy (likewise for Jack’s saxaboom solo and KG’s recorder solo!)

The set also included some nods to the original rock and roll gods, Led Zepplin. Jack effortlessly covered “Rock and Roll” exploring the full spectrum of what was vocally available to him (which was, as far as I can tell, everything) and re-imagined it in a true and glorious slower form. I saw Robert Plant himself play some re-imagined versions of his OWN songs at Bluesfest, and my thoughts were “..this re-imagining is better than anything Plant did!”. Jack even sneaked in a verse from “Ramble On” during the interlude of (I think) “To Be The Best”. Sweet gem for true rockers.

Though the songs were highly entertaining in a musical sense, the segments in between each song were equally as entertaining: band fighting, a subsequent breakup and reunion, sharing of water and sweaty towels, continuous comments on just how legendary “The D” were and commanding two “completely unprompted” standing O’s.

Two insanely talented scruffy men and their acoustic guitars did bring the house down that fateful night at The Palais. Tenacious D exited the stage, leaving behind a truly unprompted standing O and a crowd that would have stayed all night if they were to play until sunrise.