Gen X Tsunami Benefit Concert (1/18/05)

Tonight was one of those reminders of why I live in California. I've seen tons of great hippie benefit shows by all of my classic rock heroes, but this was the first time I saw this kind of a show where MY generation did it all. It felt good. Jack Black decided to pull together a bunch of people and throw a tsunami benefit concert at the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles. I think the place holds 2,000-3,000 people. I was lucky enough to get one of the $100 tickets. The night begins with the house lights going down and Will Ferrell takes the stage. The crowd, mostly 25-40 year-olds, is freaking out, shouting out lines from Will Ferrell movies. It was hilarious. He didn't even know what to make of it. He's funny just standing there doing nothing. He then said we were in for a real treat. "Dexy's Midnight Runners are here!" He joked for a bit and then said he had rehearsed a song for all of us. He sat down at the keyboard and said he will now sing "Propeller" by Coldplay. He puts 2 fingers on the keyboard and the Coldplay CD begins to play. He lip synchs the entire song along with the CD. Half way through the song, while pretending to sing, he takes a call on his cell phone, eats a hamburger and reads the paper...every once in a while returning his head to the mike to fake sing a line or 2. It was classic. The crowd loved it.

After Will came Tenacious D, Jack Black's spoof of a rock band with his friend Kyle. They were hilarious, just serving as MCs and telling jokes to the crowd while the stage was getting re-set. Stoner rock music humor pretty much comprises the banter between these 2 goofs. It was perfect. They introduced the next act, Josh Homme from Queens of the Stone Age. Josh played a 3 or 4 song acoustic set that included Dave Grohl as a guest on acoustic guitar and a performance of the Queens hit "No One Knows". Tenacious D returned for another set of hilarious banter.

Then Eddie Vedder took the stage. The crowd freaked - this was definitely a Pearl Jam audience. Eddie played a solid acoustic set. He did "I Me Mine", the Cat Stevens song "Trouble", The Who's "The Seeker", I think I'm forgetting 1 random PJ song, then "Last Kiss" and then, with Kyle from Tenacious D on acoustic guitar, The Beatles' "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away". Excellent set.

Then out came CHRIS ROCK! I've always wanted to see Chris Rock and like the rest of the crowd, was freaking out. He was hilarious. He talked about the Pistons-Pacers fight in Detroit. "I couldn't believe it. I was sittin there thinking - the revolution HAS COME! Giant black guys are punching little white guys in the face! This is exactly what Martin Luther King envisioned! It's here! I had a dream! Giant black guys will kick the shit out of little white guys! Yes, everyone.....it's Martin Luther King day today. I'm going to do what I always do on Martin Luther King day...I'm going to fuck a white girl in the ass." 5 minutes of Chris Rock was worth the $100 admission. He introduced the next act, Dave Grohl.

Dave Grohl was great. He joked about how it sucks to have to follow an Eddie Vedder set. He opened with a new song, "The Best", then played a great version of "Everlong". One guy shouted out "YEAH!" so loud during the song that Dave started cracking up while singing. It was a great moment. He did an excellent version of "Times Like These" and then played a Chris Rock request, "Tired Of You". Dave was great. He was followed by more Tenacious D MC schtick.

Beck took the stage next. He played an incredible, acoustic "I Guess I'm Doing Fine", followed by an equally good "Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometimes". I was hoping for a Jon Brion appearance, but no. Then Beck did "Lost Cause". During this song, Will Ferrell came out in the equivalent of an all red Spiderman suit, basically head to toe red spandex with only his face exposed. He began doing performance art dancing to Beck's song. It was one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Beck stopped in the middle of the song and they began a fake argument. "Will, this is a really serious, heartfelt song. It's part of me. What are you doing?" "Oh, sorry, I didn't realize." "Will, can you please stand all the way back in the corner?" Beck then returned to singing and Will slid across the floor, writhing around like a fish out of water. The whole moment was incredible. Beck then played a song I didn't know on a weird accordion-like instrument. Great set.

Tenacious D then performed for close to an hour. This was the low point of the night b/c the joke gets old after a couple songs and after seeing such incredible talent do only 4 songs each, it was tough to see a fake act do 10. They opened with a cover of Queen's "Flash Gordon" theme. A lot of what they did was funny, but their between act banter was much better. They talked about the movie they have in the works - sounds like the next Blues Brothers. Jack wants Meatloaf to play his father. If Meatloaf isn't available, he'll ask Frank Black of the Pixies or Ozzy. Jack is definitely hilarious, but an hour of The D is a bit much.

Encore time was amazing. The show went electric for the first time. The All Star jam session! Dave Grohl on drums, Eddie Vedder on lead vocal, Beck and Josh on electric guitars and The D doing their thing. Basically Eddie and Jack took turns with lead vocals within each song. Seeing Nirvana's drummer with Pearl Jam's leader was really cool. They did the Chambers Brothers' classic, "Time Has Come Today". Then came Eddie leading in the Byrds' "So You Wanna Be A Rock n Roll Star" and Led Zep's "Good Times Bad Times". Amazing stuff. The crowd was freaking by this point. They then went BACK into "Time Has Come Today" and Will Ferrell came out to his own mike, wearing his shirt twisted around to look like a bra with his pot belly hanging over his tight pants as he played the cowbell. Again, a piss-in-your-pants hilarious moment. As the song faded to a close, the band left the stage and Will was still there playing the cowbell. A GREAT night. We went to the after show party but I had to leave to get up early for work. Only celeb I saw was Nicholas Cage with a young date (new wife?) and my musical hero, Jon Brion. I knew he'd be there somewhere. I stood around for a couple minutes to talk to him but someone had his ear forever and I had to crash. Cheers to my generation of rock stars!

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