Tenacious D goes on to become Tedious D

The trouble with reviewing a concert by Tenacious D, the mock-metal band starring manic vulgarian Jack Black and his partner, Kyle Gass - who sing mostly self-referential songs about Tenacious D and their efforts to make rock so awesome that not even Beelzebub himself can compete (except, say, when they're singing about coming to the conclusion, in the midst of a bowel movement, that Sasquatch's "love is real") - is that it might sound like it was really funny.

Because really, the duo's show at the Tweeter Center in Camden on Wednesday wasn't. Sure, the idea of Tenacious D is amusing. Or at least the idea of a guy who looks like Gass, pot-bellied and bald, in shorts, socks and sandals, wailing on his acoustic like Eddie Van Halen and being called "Rage Cage" by his almost-as-lumpy, wild-eyed partner, is. And Black's less dangerous John Belushi persona can work wonders when he has an endearing role to play, as he did with the accidental teacher who finally puts his glorious bad taste to good use in School of Rock.

And one strives not to be too hard on the D, because like Sasquatch, their love is real. That is, the duo gets one essential element of satire right: They obviously adore the music that they send up. They don't want to mock Ronnie James Dio, who's featured in the brilliant opening sequence of the charming but tedious movie Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny. They want to be him.

The key to their appeal, as far as it goes, is that though they so obviously aren't Dio, they keep striving to be. They're Everyschlub times two, rocking out between bong hits.

At the two-thirds-full indoor Tweeter (which Gass referred to as "the Woofer") the D started out acoustic, in a faux living room complete with TV set, fridge and Lee (Jason Reed), the pizza guy from the movie, who also played a dancing mushroom, a policeman and Satan.

Later, the dudes created their version of hell in Camden, plugging in along with the help of a band consisting of the anti-Christ, Colonel Sanders and Charlie Chaplin (don't ask) on a skull-laden, blood-red stage set.

There were heartfelt moments, like "Dude (I Totally Miss You)," the super-earnest Black vocal that shares the male bonding love at the core of the D's being. And some near-hilarious ones, like the erotic love song encore whose title can not be written in this paper, and Pick of Destiny's grandiose "Master Exploder," which was unapologetically lip-synced in "Satanic Milli Vanilli" style.

But mostly, over two hours, Tenacious D is like a not-bad joke that goes on way too long, because their unmemorable songs indulge in heavy rock cliches without being able to wholly harness their power. That's why the closing Tommy medley came as a relief (Black hit more high notes than Roger Daltrey did in the real Who show at the Borgata in Atlantic City last weekend), and "Rocket Sauce," which attached bathroom scribble lyrics to the Beatles "Blackbird," was a clear highlight.

And that's why Weird Al Yankovic is funnier than Tenacious D: Because he reworks other people's good songs, rather than sing his own mediocre ones.