Tenacious D: Too Good for Their Act

It’s easy to guess what the record-store geek played by Jack Black in “High Fidelity” would say about Los Angeles duo Tenacious D’s signing a major record deal.

Sell out!

But Black, in character as half of the D at the Roxy on Thursday, had an answer as he and partner Kyle Gass played their first gig since signing with Epic Records this week. Noting that he didn’t want to sign at first, he said Gass convinced him that the contract meant “they’re paying you to [mess with] them”--only he said it, typically, much more crudely.

In any case, the deal and the rabid following they’ve built through their HBO series and local club shows didn’t seem to have made their heads swell Thursday. It couldn’t have. These pudgy, shabby, reality-challenged losers’ heads are already as big as they can get.

They started the show with “Heaven on Their Minds” from “Jesus Christ Superstar,” Judas’ warning about the myth growing bigger than the man. It seemed a perfect cautionary tale for the D, but the D didn’t get it because, well, it’s the D--the self-proclaimed “greatest band on Earth.” Many of their songs are absurd fantasies about saving the world (one suggests that fantasy-metal singer Ronnie James Dio should “pass the torch” to them) and much of the patter was about how much they rawk.

The ultimate punch line, though, is that they actually are good--not just funny, but good. In fact, both their witty satire and musical chops are too good and far too clever for the clueless characters they’re portraying. But they rawk. Hard.