Nerdy rock music doesn't often fill a 2500 seat auditorium, but it did last night. Nercore rapper MC Frontalot, songwriting duo Paul and Storm and gorgeous wonderful amazing hero of the world Jonathan Coulton (with whom I am TOTALLY NOT obsessed) packed out PAX's biggest auditorium for five hours of songs about pirates, mustaches, and blogs.
- ANGELA WEBBER
- Nerd Rock
The highlight of the show was a performance of the viral "Double Rainbow" YouTube video. Only at PAX, as they say (start at 3:28).
Jonathan Coulton (still not TOTALLY OBSESSED with him) started recording his own nerdy sad songs a few years ago, and now has ballooned in popularity. He will host a Caribbean cruise with friends like John Hodgman and Wil Wheaton next January, and is recording a new studio album with They Might Be Giants' John Flansburgh. His sound is now huge and electric—the nerds have earned a new, unabashedly geeky rock group.
Nerd rock music isn't just normal songs about nerdy things. PAX concerts have demonstrated more levels of nerdy music than might seem possible: a band who rights songs in a dystopia based on the Megaman videogames (The Protomen), a group that uses videogame hardware to create electronica backgrounds for their songs (Anamanaguchi)—there were even a few performances, to that packed 2500-seat house, of people playing songs in Rock Band.
- ANGELA WEBBER
- Rock Band
Today on the expo floor we picked up some more tips: Duke Nukem Forever is a (not yet released) game about macho stuff and you can pee in it; Torchlight 2 is like Torchlight but with co-op multiplayer; and Dead Space 2 is scary as heck, like the first one.