• The Protomen: Sweet zombie Jesus, how I love The Protomen. There is no reason a 10-person Nashville band who do rock opera about Megaman should be good, but it so is. I have Tycho to thank for this one, actually. You may recall that I was still wicked sick during PAX, and consequently I thought pretty hard about disco-napping through the start of the Friday night shows and getting up just in time to see Front. I was assured, however, that even as a Protonoob I was in for quite a treat, and that turned out to be an understatement. Go get both albums right now, but also see if you can make it to a live show. I was blown away by their PAX set, and was similarly delighted at another show a couple weeks ago here in NYC. Totally worth seeing if you possibly can.
• Makeup and Vanity Set: I know about MAVS because of this awesome album of 8-bit Protomen remixes, which you should also acquire, but don’t stop there. The new self-titled album that came out in March is sheer pleasure. I feel like the same folks who dig Download and cEvin Key’s other solo stuff would dig this. Excellent background music for working.

• Anamanaguchi: Another PAX revelation! They’re also Brooklyn locals, which is handy. I recommend giving them a try even if you normally aren’t really into chiptune. I was skeptical, but both albums have made it into heavy rotation on my iPhone.
• Skeletonbreath: I love it when I’m surprised by an opening band. I feel like openers are often not paired very well with their headliners, which leads to everyone having kind of a shitty time. I can’t imagine it’s fun playing to a crowd that’s just waiting for you to get off the fucking stage, and while I appreciate the chance to pee and get another beer, I’d usually rather get an extra hour of sleep than see another band I’m not really into. But I’m really glad I got to see Skeletonbreath, because I can’t imagine I would have found out about them otherwise, and they’re rad. Go check them out.

Months ago, a friend and I were discussing the then-upcoming Act I vinyl release show. “Oh no,” I said. “I can’t make it to Nashville for that, unfortunately. I’m going to Nerdapalooza the following weekend, that would just be too crazy.”

So of course I just got back from visiting Nashville for the Act I vinyl release show. It was an extremely brief trip, but completely and totally worth it. My flight out of LGA was at 8am NYC time, and arrived at 10:15am TN time. I was collected at the airport by a very fancy man with a mustache and a mohawk, who, sensing the urgency of my need for caffeine, took me to visit a famous paleontologist who makes a killer cup of coffee. He also has a lovely wife and maybe the friendliest dogs in the world. Here is a related photo which has not been digitally altered in any way.

By this time it was about noon and tummies were rumbling, so after collecting a couple more friends, we formed a hot chicken expedition. The orignal plan was to visit Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack, but this turned out to be closed until later in the afternoon, so instead we hit up Pepperfire. It was mouth-searingly delicious, though I have sworn an oath to visit Prince’s on my inevitable next visit to Tennessee.

After chicken had been consumed and mouth-fires mostly extinguished, we found ourselves in a large, dark building in which many robots were busily unloading and setting up what seemed to be musical equipment of some sort. This was fascinating, so we decided to hang around and observe the proceedings and maybe also drink some beers and trade some war stories and admire some helmets we found lying around.

Then, suddenly, as we stood at the bar consuming beers and soaking up the air conditioning, the doors opened and a zombie horde poured in. Some of us fled to the balcony, some to the green room, and two of us tried to hide behind the merch booth. This did not seem to work, but then we discovered that it was really vinyl that the ravenous creatures were craving and not brains at all. So that was all right.

Not long afterward, The Non-Commissioned Officers appeared and played songs for us, which was quite a delight. Perhaps you’re familiar with the soundtrack they created for Make-Out With Violence, and if you are not then perhaps you should be. This was my first time seeing them live, as when they were here for CMJ last fall I was suffering from one of my many and frequent plagues and wasn’t able to catch the show. I thoroughly enjoyed their set on Saturday, however.

And then it was time for The Protomen. I can’t even adequately describe how completely fucking into it the crowd was. Every person in that room knew every word of every song and I don’t think it would have been physically possible for anyone to be more excited than they were. And the show more than lived up to our expectations - the set was two hours long and featured a strings section, a human chorus, Master Blaster on trumpet, a mid-show costume change, an encore cameo by Demon Barber, the work of a fantastic lighting designer whose name I have shamefully forgotten, and so many wonderful moments that it’s just not possible for me to list them all.

Because this show was being filmed for a live DVD, I didn’t bother shooting much of my own video. I do have the encore cover, though, and I have a bunch of photos over on Flickr. I’ve included some of my favorites below, but you can see the whole set here.

After the show was the traditional montage of sweaty hugs, urgently consumed beverages, signing things, and admiring how fucking disgusting the floor was. I met a lot of lovely Internet people who I previously knew only by username, and drank whiskey with them. This continued for quite some time, as you can imagine. Then there was also some untraditional parking lot brawling which I really wish I had caught on camera, as proof that you don’t fuck with a man in facepaint, because you never know when his eight facepainted friends will show up.

Though I probably could have partied until dawn and well after, eventually it became time for my mohawked guardian to return me to the airport from whence I came. My sixteen hours in Nashville were all too brief, but I can say without hesitation that it was absolutely worth the trip and I look forward to doing it again soon.

I went to Orlando over the weekend for Nerdapalooza 2010, and despite the fact that I had to go to Florida to get there, I had a total blast. The event was too content-rich for me to even attempt to describe it adequately, so I’ll just mention a couple of highlights here and also direct you to my photos and videos.

The pre-party at A Comic Shop
My hotel roomie and new favorite Texan Kira and I hit up the pre-party on Friday night, and had a blast. We had a crazy cabbie, piles of free beer and pizza, reunions with real life and Internet pals, and got to soak up sets from some excellent acts, including The Megas.

The on-stage guest appearances
This is the kind of thing that could only happen at a festival like this. We got to see STD perform with Mega Ran, Mega Ran perform with The Megas, both STD and Mega Ran with MC Frontalot, and Kabuto the Python with STD. And that’s what I managed to catch on camera; there were plenty more collaborations in the same vein.

The Protomen
They elevated the weekend from awesome to fucking incredible. Saturday was plagued by technical problems and other bullshit, so that by the time we reached the headliner slot, the show was four hours late. Then we found out Panther had been struck down with food poisoning and wouldn’t be going on at all. I was pretty sure there was going to be a nerd riot at that point, but the Protomen told us that not only would they take the stage anyway for a Panther-less half set, they were still going to do an entire show after MC Frontalot on Sunday night. The Saturday night mini-set ended up being completely epic — they used audience members and the sheer power of rock to make up for the lack of lead vocals and keyboard. The Sunday show, with the band at full strength, completely blew me away. I cannot wait to see them again.

Random hotel encounters
The whole event took place at one hotel, where nearly everyone was staying. This meant that the entire building was just one big nerd party. I ran into people I knew in the hallway, in the elevator, at the bar, all over the damn place. It had the effect of making what was a fairly large crowd feel intimate and connected, and also led to things like catching Turbo Lover playing the hotel piano one afternoon.

The room parties
Every night I was in Orlando, there was an afterparty in someone’s room that went on well into the wee hours. Sometimes it was our room, actually, because we had the foresight to pick up a ton of beer on Friday night after the pre-party. It turns out that drinking and hanging out with friends all night is more fun than sleeping.

The airport
A bunch of flights to NYC on Monday got cancelled or delayed, which meant that I ended up spending the day with folks at the airport in Orlando. What made this awesome instead of terrible was playing Mario Kart for a chunk of the afternoon with STD and two small trash-talking Welsh children. Oh, and the fact that they upgraded me to first class for my flight home.

So, yeah. Despite the fact that I hate heat and sun and flying and humidity and crowds, I went to a fucking nerd festival in Orlando in July and loved it. Who knew?

It’s been a great week for me in many regards, but especially for food and music. It started on Monday when the lovely lethal Linda and I hit up The Meatball Shop for delicious sliders and ice cream sandwiches (heavenly) before heading over to Pianos to see our friends Mancie (delightful). A pleasant way to kick off the week.

Then on Wednesday I got to try out ABC Kitchen, which I had never been to despite its proximity to my place of employment. It’s a bit out of my normal lunch price range, but a birthday is the perfect excuse to spend a little more, and it was completely worth it. I tried the apple pear salad and ricotta ravioli. Both were great, but I think I’ll be dreaming of that salad for weeks to come. Mmm.

On Friday, my partner in crime and I headed to the east village to get delicious Ukranian foods at Veselka and see two of our friends perform in Accidental #5 at Danspace, which we thoroughly enjoyed. It was a nice change of pace for us, since our outings usually revolve around concerts or gaming, and it was the perfect way to end the work week.

I’d been planning to head out to Jersey on Saturday evening to catch my favorite Protomen in Somerset, but the beginnings of a sore throat that appeared on Friday night and Saturday morning convinced me that perhaps it would be wiser to take a break and catch up on my sleep. I was sick for PAX last year, and while it didn’t keep me from having fun, I’d really prefer to be more or less healthy this time around. So I indulged in multiple multi-hour naps, and caught up on my Netflix instant queue, and prepared my apartment to receive its current houseguests instead.

The main event of Sunday, without question, was of course the Protomen show in Brooklyn at Glasslands Gallery, home of strange faux-taxidermy and perfect little balcony. We ordered up some dinner from Pies n Thighs and settled in for an evening of robot rock. I’m really not sure how else to convey my fondness for the Protomen live show at this point - last night was my eleventh show in twelve months, so I figure that by this time I’ve either convinced you that this is a thing you need to experience, or that I may be a little crazy. I’m OK with either result.

This morning I’m running on three hours of sleep and plenty of coffee. I leave for Massachusetts the day after tomorrow, so there’s quite a bit of scurrying around to be done between now and then, but I’m looking forward to it for sure.