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Nerdapalooza Wrap-Up
(July 15, 2009)
This is the short version. The full version will be a feature in the first issue of the newsletter for my new Fan Club which will be launching soon.
To say that Nerdapalooza was "freakin' awesome" would be an understatement. To say that it was "like OMG totally R0XX0RZ!!!11!" would be more accurate, but less intelligent, so I'm going to go with "simply amazing."
 Friday night my flight was delayed causing me to miss the entire Nerdapalooza pre-party at A Comic Shop. I finally arrived around midnight and Luke took me back to the hotel where we went to one of the post-pre-party-after-parties. This one took place in Schaffer's room, so I got to meet up with him, along with MC Lars, MC Frontalot, YTCracker, MC Gigahertz, Chozo Ninpo who tackle-hugged me, and a few other people.
 Saturday the show started about an hour late. Odd Austin went on first. I don't know how many shows this guy has done in the past but I was shocked to find out he's only 17 years old. He did a good, solid set, opening with the official Nerdapalooza theme song. I joined him on stage for Vampires Suck so I could do my verse which I had meticulously memorizing about 20 minutes before the show started.
 My set went great. I think I took the stage around 2:30 or so. I opened with Cellular Degeneration and then called Insane Ian up on stage to fill in for Shoebox on Pac-Man. He is substantially shorter, thinner, and has far less hair than Shoebox, but he did a good job regardless. Then I did Why Are You Friending Me On Facebook. After that I called The Great Luke Ski up on stage to do a song that was so new it not only hadn't been recorded yet, but we hadn't even rehearsed it yet. The song is called Platform Wars and is a battle rap between the guys in Apple's "I'm A Mac/I'm A PC" commercials. The song went over great despite a few minor flubs here and there. I finished with Reign Of Error and then Inner Voice.
My set was very well received. I got lots of compliments from lots of different people steadily for the rest of the weekend. Many of them commented on Platform Wars which made me more excited about finishing that song.
 I spent the rest of the weekend switching off watching the merch table with Luke and watching the acts such as Captain Dan And The Scurvy Crew. They did a great show as expected, however, I was surprised to find out that pirates apparently are fans of the Wii. Captain Dan's DJ controlled their set using a Wii remote. He would hold it up, then shake it like he was hitting a drum with it and the backing track would start. During the songs he would shake it and as he shook it a sample would play in time with the shaking. It was very cool to watch.
 Tom Reed took Luke and I out to dinner Saturday night (thanks, Tom!) during a rain storm of biblical proportions and got back in time to catch the headliners. YTCracker was the first of the headliners, followed by MC Lars, and finally MC Frontalot. These guys perform with a live band behind them which adds another level of energy to the performance. They were awesome.
 Luke went on Sunday afternoon. He was nervous about this set because it was the first time he was using a projector during his set, and also he didn't know how well a pure dementia act would go over at a nerdcore show. He wisely did many of his rap numbers, starting the show with Stealing Like A Hobbit, which the audience absolutely loved. I joined him on stage for Peter Parker. Then I did some beatboxing while Luke impersonated MC Frontalot and did a rap version of George Carlin's routine about hair. (Irony note: Frontalot is bald for those who have never seen him.) He ended with Dementia Revolution. MC Lars joined Luke on stage and Ian, Austin, and I went up for background vocals. The entire FuMP contingency was there in full effect, although with a slight fashion faux pas as Lars and I were both wearing Worm Quartet t-shirts.
I have a habit of missing their set whenever Dual Core performs so I made a point to watch this one. They were awesome. Later Uncle Monsterface took the stage. They describe themselves as "sock puppet rock" and I spent their entire set in the crowd with a huge grin on my face. It's hard not to smile when you're bouncing large, inflatable dinosaurs around the crowd and watching a vampire do battle with a pile of mashed potatoes all while being serenaded by a sock puppet.
 But I think the greatest performance of the weekend goes to Schaffer The Darklord. Schaffer has a presense and energy on stage that is just incredible. He is articulate and easy to understand, and he is funny. His lyrics are sometimes funny, and his between song banter is funny. And the songs themselves are just fantastic.
 At some point I introduced myself to MC Chris. He was the only other performer there who I hadn't yet met and since he's arguably the most popular one there I figured it was a good idea. We spoke for a few minutes, discussed music and his role on Adult Swim, and I explained to him what I do. At the end of the conversation he said "Hey, can I sign your badge?" I was like, "um, OK," and he grabbed my Artists badge and signed the back of it. I gave him my card and headed back to my merch table. Later he offered Luke some of his pizza.
MC Chris took the stage around midnight and put on a good show. It's obvious there is still somewhat of a divide between him and the rest of nerdcore, though, as the regular nerdcore fans gradually trickled out to go to the after party. Chris ended around 1:30 and by the time we got back to our hotel room it was after 3:00. Luke originally said he wanted to go to the after party and I was tempted to join him and Kiki but I had an 8:00 AM flight. I figured I would be better off sleeping for three hours because if I stayed up all night I would probably be useless to my family when I got back home.
I found out later that at the after party MC Lars and MC Frontalot filmed a music video for one of their songs. Now, of course, I wish I had gone. Oh well. Maybe I can email them some footage of me playing Wii Cheer or something to splice into it.
All my photos from the event can be found here.
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