• 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.