Tenacious D to Headline Outside Lands Festival

Posted on Aug 6th 2009 5:15PM by Cristina Black
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A characteristically chatty and overconfident Jack Black and his reticent sidekick Kyle Gass announced at a press conference Thursday that their band, Tenacious D, will replace the Beastie Boys as closing headliner at San Francisco's Outside Lands festival. The Beasties pulled out of the event, scheduled to take place August 28 through 30 in Golden Gate Park, following last month's announcement that member Adam Yauch would undergo treatment for cancer.

Black paid proper respect to the Beastie Boys, noting that the two bands supported the Obama campaign together and joking that Tenacious D's follow-up to 2006's 'The Pick of Destiny' will focus on a hip-hop sound, despite the band's identity as a hard-rock parody. Black described an upcoming song, 'Deth Starr,' as "the bomb track," adding, "It's a very powerful recording, kind of a sci-fi, doomsday rocker."

As for Outside Lands, Black expects the 60,000-capacity venue to be packed with at least 100,000 bodies for the D's performance, and he has a warning for all the festival-goers. "If there's any dogs barking on August 30 before we go on, don't be alarmed," he said. "That's just them sensing the earthquake of rock that's coming." Black went on to explain that, since the band hasn't performed live since last year and hasn't played in San Francisco in three years, they'll likely have a lot of built-up pressure to release. "When we let loose, it may shake the foundations of the San Andreas fault," he warned. "The question is, when that crack in the earth comes between your legs, are you going with America or are you going with California Island?" Asked about his own preference, Black replied, "Oh, I'm going with Cali. Born and raised, man."