The Ticket Stub Project: Tenacious D
Tenacious D - Town Hall - 9/8/2001
I’d been on the Tenacious D email list for a little awhile after becoming a huge fan of their tiny stint on HBO and MP3s that floated around the Internet…
One day I got the notice that they were pre-selling tix to their opening show for a US tour in NYC…Jack Black had already made a name for himself in “High Fidelity” and the moderately entertaining and soon to be released “Shallow Hal” so there was a lot of “buzz” about him.
As soon as tix went on pre-sale I scooped up a pair — then another pair because these things HAD to be in demand… and they most definitely were. I ended up selling a pair I bought for $60 for about $280… “ticket brokering” is what it’s called. Nice work, if you can get it.
I went to the show with new NYC resident Mike A…earlier that day I had seen an awesome view of the downtown NYC skyline from his rooftop with the World Trade Center right there on the horizon.
We had gotten to the show a little early and were hanging out in front of the venue.. some bald guy asked me if “this was the guest services line” — I was like “umm.. it is, but I’m not in it.. go ahead”… it took us a moment to realize the bald guy was Moby… as I had just shaved my head a month earlier, I felt (and STILL feel) a very close brotherly connection to Moby.
At some point I had to pee and Moby was coming out of the bathroom just as I was going on… not to sound gay or anything, but that would’ve been cool if I could’ve pee’d next to Moby.
Our seats were RIGHT up front.. stage right and a couple rows back. About 10 rows behind us sat SNL cast members Will Ferrell and Molly Shannon, behind them Pat O’Brien from Access Hollywood, backstage was Jack Black’s Shallow Hal co-star Gwenyth Paltrow, and a few rows back, my buddy Moby — a star-studded occasion — no doubt. I thought my head was going to explode.
The lights dimmed and there was a surprise guest bout to do a little comedy before the show… SNL cast member Jimmy Fallon… after he loosened the place up with some funny bits and tunes…JB and KG came out and rocked the mothereffin’ place — they flubbed a little here and there and were apologetic about it being their “first show and all..workin’ out the kinks, etc.”
They played all of their hits, showed hilarious clips and by the end of the night my face and stomach hurt from laughing…. I walked out of there on a cloud …
The next day I took the train home, still grinning… ” I saw Tenacious D in New York…” What a show.
Two days after that, New York changed forever …
