Musical weekend, part 1
I went to a fantastic Jonathan Coulton show Friday night at Johnny D's in Davis Square. I got my co-worker Neil to come out for this, despite the late starting time and the fact that he lives just south of the North Pole or thereabouts. While waiting for Neil outside the venue (venue? I'm so pretentious...), I ran into a guy by the name of Dave that I met at a filk circle a few months ago. So the three of us went in and tried to find somewhere to stand, as all the tables were full.
The show was supposed to start at 9:45, but didn't really get going until around 10 or so (practically on schedule by musician-time). Paul and Storm, professional singing persons (aka a comedy music duo), opened for Coulton, and they won the crowd from the very first song ("We are the opening band," which covered such topics as how the audience was probably not here to see them, and they would play 8 songs for 25 minutes or half an hour, &c.). They helped set the tone for the audience: we were rowdy, raucous, funny, and really really geeky. We were awesome, if I do say so myself. They encouraged audience participation within the songs and between then, as they would set up a song with banter, and then would reward us with snack cakes for whoever could come up with the cleverest riposte-banter.
I wasn't familiar with Paul and Storm before the show, but I came out of there a fan. They're obviously good friends with Coulton, as he came up to do backup vocals on one of their songs (they returned the favor, with interest, during his set). By the time they finished their set, with a lewd number involving pirates (for which we, as an audience, were required to do different kinds of pirate exclamations — i.e. ARRRR!!! — with different emotional contexts — "hopeful arr? ARRRR!!! dejected arr? Arrr... (we all tilt heads in the same direction, to much hilarity)" — while Paul and Storm sang about all the seamen underfoot... yeah. You heard), we were buzzing, and I turned to Neil and Dave and said something like "Jesus, I'd hate to have to follow that!"
I wore my Astro*Base GO t-shirt to the show, an obscure choice, but perfect for this kind of crowd, which was wearing all kinds of geeky shirts. In fact, in between one of Paul and Storm's songs, I was approached by a girl and her boyfriend, asking me where I got the shirt (from the Astro*Base sale Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer held a couple years ago). I asked if they were into Venture Brothers, and then we chatted (shouted actually, as it was quite loud) about our mutual love for things Venture, on which more later. Anyway, during the break between Paul and Storm, and Coulton, she and her boyfriend, as well as a few friends, managed to score a table (I guess some people there were genuinely there for the food, rather than the performers). Because they had a couple of extra seats, she graciously invited me to join them. 
I turned to Neil and Dave and told them to figure out which of them was getting the second seat, because I was going with her. Neil was the lucky winner of the extra seat sweepstakes. Sorry, Dave.
After the break, Coulton came on with, I was happy to see, Paul and Storm. He played Soft Rocked by Me with them doing backing vocals, something which they did on and off throughout the set. They jumped off for the next song (Ikea), but some girls sitting behind me did a tuneful rendering of the backing vocals (I-kea-yeah-yeah-yeah). Coulton looked pleased by this. More people helped out for Shop Vac, and we had a full-fledged audience sing-a-long for the last chorus of Skullcrusher Mountain.
My fellow Venture fan, by the way, pointed out to me, druing Skullcrusher Mountain, how perfect it would be to do a video for this song featuring Baron Unterbheit. The mindworm got me, because I spent the rest of the song seeing Venture Brothers imagery running through my mind. Wish I'd gotten their names; they seemed like cool folks. I offered to buy them a round, but they politely declined, although I did manage to chip in when the check came.
Coulton was fantastic, playing my favorites, introducing me to songs of his I don't know well at all, and generally enjoying us, the crowd. Paul and Storm were frequently on stage, and they even brought in a ukelele player for a song. Oh, and jealous! Coulton, Paul, and Storm got to go to the Harmonix Studios to play Rock Band; some of the Harmonix guys were at the show.
The Red Sox were playing during the set, and after Manny's three-run shot, the bar patrons interrupted Mandelbrot Set with their cheers. Coulton riposted with Kenesaw Mountain Landis. Heh. After that came Re Your Brains, with plenty of zombie-riffic audience participation (I got to be a pirate and a zombie!); this was the last song of the set. After raucous applause, and banging on tables, shouting "Jon-a-than" "Coul-ton", he came back out with Paul and Storm, and encored with First of May, followed by the crowd-pleaser, and especially apt, what with the Sox game: Sweet Caroline. The whole bar participated in that one.
All through the night, these guys were relaxed, as if having a good time with some friends. I love that they don't take themselves seriously. I love that they're geeks and we're geeks. It was like being serenaded by your geekiest lunatic friends. We could say almost anything, and it would not be taken amiss, or interpreted as heckling. They would riff on things, we would riff on them back, and they would pick up on those riffs. And that was just when they weren't playing music!
What a night!
Quick highlights: Paul's kick-ass tambourine solo. The nun fight. Paul and Storm generally hamming it up while backing Coulton. Storm's dead-eye accuracy with the snack cakes. Coulton telling us how much he enjoys coming up to Somerville, because audiences in New York, where he lives, are not anywhere near as good as we are ("Move back!" someone shouted). And yes, the audience.
