A Night of Vindaloo, Robots, and Monkeys
Posted on | January 17, 2009 at 5:04 pm | 3 Comments
Last night, Reign of Frogs bandmate Greg and I attended the first ever (and hopefully not the last) Denver concert appearance of Internet sensation Jonathan Coulton. (I first stared talking about this performer here.) It was at the Soiled Dove Underground, a venue that used to be downtown but moved to the Lowry area awhile ago. Great venue, with ample parking, good acoustics, and no bad seats, really. Although the tables/seats were pushed pretty close together. And since this was a sold-out show (some 300 people, I’m guessing), it got a little tight.
As for all of JoCo’s concerts, the opening act was musical-comedy (emphasis on the comedy) duo Paul & Storm, who easily won the Coulton crowd over with their antics. I can’t help thinking these guys would do good on the Renaissance Festival circuit, although it would have to be a festival that didn’t allow kids. They open with a song that must be called “Opening Act”, which accurately details the frustrations of being in that position. They do a lot of talking between songs, and even more in the middle of songs. So if you don’t like hearing songs broken up, they aren’t for you. But I enjoyed them a lot, as did Greg, and thought they were very funny. A good warm-up for the crowd. Unlike other opening acts, they played for well over an hour. JoCo joined them from one song.
And then, after a brief video advertising what appears to be a new sitcom starring Coulton and Paul & Storm, the man himself took the stage with acoustic guitar for a set that was both funny and touching, and always tuneful. As Greg commented, the man knows how to use the dynamics in his voice, which is a very big part of singing. He has a great command of the audience, and it felt like an intimate night with 300 strangers. Before the show, he took requests via Twitter, and so ended up playing some songs he wouldn’t normally play (and sometimes had trouble remembering). One such song was “Drinking With You”, which he introduced as “a song about an office crush”. When everyone cheered loudly, he remarked, “Sorry, you’re going to be disappointed. It’s not that office crush song.” And then later before he performed “Code Monkey”, he said again, “Here’s another song about an office crush”. He managed to hit most of the high points of his oeurve. The only big favorites of mine he didn’t play were “Chiron Beta Prime” (well, it is a Christmas song), “The Mandlebrot Set”, and “I Crush Everything”. Paul and Storm joined him on stage for much of the set, doing background vocals, percussion, bantering, and other things.
There was much talk of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (the Soiled Dove reminded them of the Satellite of Love) and other geek topics. However, I was disappointed that JoCo didn’t mention how each and every one of us sacrificed to be there last night during the final season premiere of Battlestar Galactica. Thank God for DVRs.
There was even some Rickrolling going on, which is so 2008, but was cute anyway. Coulton also talked about how stupid of a tradition encores are, and how transparent they are, which I thought was refreshing. But he did one anyway.
Surprisingly, Coulton was interviewed on one of our local news programs yesterday, but I unfortunately missed it (proof here). JoCo and his entourage are in San Francisco tonight and tomorrow night. I hope my Bay Area buddies can go see him. Although maybe I should’ve mentioned it sooner. And they’ll be in Seattle and Portland next week. Go see him! The audience was very balanced gender-wise, even though I expected lots more geek guys than girls. My girlfriend likes Coulton and would’ve attended the show if she didn’t have to work this morning. I think she would’ve enjoyed herself a lot. Even people who were not overly familiar with his music (like Greg) seemed to be having a good time.
Latre.
Pet Peeve of the Day: Acid Reflux. Before the show, I had dinner at an Indian restaurant with Greg and DJ Smallberries, for something of an RoF band reunion, but one that involved curry instead of music. Anyway, I had Chicken Vindaloo and a couple of tall bottles of Taj. Oh boy, I’m just not used to that these days. The Vindaloo was very spicy, as it should be, although not blistering hot. I ate the whole thing and spent the rest of the night in gastric distress. Because of that, I wasn’t able to fully enjoy myself at the show, and I hope I wasn’t making too much of a spectacle of myself. Note to self: You’re not as young as you used to be. You can’t eat and drink with abandon anymore.
Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “hooked up one armed girl”.
Videogame(s) Played Since Last Blog Update: None!
Comments
3 Responses to “A Night of Vindaloo, Robots, and Monkeys”
January 17th, 2009 @ 5:39 pm
Ah! Here’s an amateur music video I had bookmarked that is set to Code Monkey: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5W_wd9Qf0IE
I couldn’t remember where I heard of the artist until reading this blog entry.
January 17th, 2009 @ 11:30 pm
Cool! I love that shit.
January 19th, 2009 @ 5:35 pm
“JoCo and his entourage are in San Francisco tonight and tomorrow night. I hope my Bay Area buddies can go see him.”
Maybe if both shows hadn’t sold out in thirteen seconds? When did Jonathan Coulton get so popular?