The Triple Door is my favorite venue for live music. It's just so... well, cool. And classy, it's definitely classy. It's best if you sip martinis or order from the overwhelmingly large wine list while you watch the show. So when I saw that a show titled "Nerds & Music" would be playing there, well, I couldn't help but be amused. And of course, I had to buy tickets. I am big fan of what I am going to call nerd rock. I don't mean to imply that I coined this term as I'm pretty sure that I got it from a blog or an article or a video somewhere, but I'm going to go with it. Nerd rock, for my purposes, is music that covers any kind of nerdy or pop culture topic. Like Star Trek, Pirates, Harry Potter, or Robots. My love of this genre (yeah, I'm calling it a genre and I suggest you all check it out) combined with my love of the Triple Door meant this show was for me. Also, it started at 7:30, which meant I could get my roommate to come with me, and we could make it through the entire show.
Other than the removal of the salt and pepper calamari from the happy hour menu (which is a tragedy!) before the show, the evening did not disappoint. The lineup included Mike Phirman, Hank Green, & Paul and Storm. I had heard a little of Mike Phirman from his performance on the Nerdist podcast. In addition to performing solo, he is part of the musical comedy duo, Hard N Phirm with Nerdist podcast host Chris Hardwick - these days a nerd extraordinaire even though people my age more likely remember him as the host of Mtv's Singled Out, back when the non-music video time on Mtv stood out. On his own Mike Phirman does a little stand-up and plays some hilarious songs. His use of the looping machine as well as his eloquent song titled Chicken, Monkey Duck were inspired.
After Mike came Hank Green. And a lot of cheers. The audience was full of nerdfighters. What's a nerdfighter you say? Well, technically a nerdfighter is someone who, instead of being made of bones and guts and blood and such is actually made of awesome, and they seek to decrease world suck. Also, they watch videos made by Hank & his brother John, aka the vlogbrothers, on YouTube. Anyhow, as I was saying there were a plethora of nerdfighters, all of whom were quite excited to see Hank play. Hank was... nervous. He even took off his shoe to shake out a fear bubble. But he powered through admirably (and quickly) and played a number of my favorite of his songs including Book Eight (about Harry Potter), What Would Captain Picard Do? (Star Trek), This isn't Hogwarts (Harry Potter), and various other songs, a number of which were also about Harry Potter.
Finally, it was time for Paul & Storm. I have seen Paul & Storm only one other time, which was at Wootstock last May. Wootstock is a sort of nerd festival put together by Paul & Storm, Wil Wheaton, & Adam Savage, with music & stories and mythbusting. For my overall review, I will say that these guys are not only musically talented, but also very, very funny. I know that musical comedy is not for everyone, but I firmly believe that they could make anyone laugh at some point in their show. There are two things, however, that I want to highlight, so you are prepared in the event that you have the opportunity to see them. First, the cover band jokes. Throughout their set you will hear the following joke. One of them will say something (doesn't matter what), and the other will follow with, "that" (thing they just said) is the name of the ________ cover band. Example, S: "blah, blah, blah savoring the awkward", P: "Savoring the awkward is the name of my Hank Green cover band." It's a bit of an inside joke, but the kind of inside joke that you get by the first of second time they do it, and by the 10th time that night, you will be coming up with them on your own. The other thing to know about a Paul & Storm performance is that when they get to their last song, which is about pirates, you should probably order another drink. This will last at least 20 minutes. On a good night it can go on for 40+. The song itself is maybe two and half minutes, but with commentary and the audience participation and additional cover band jokes, well... you should just sit back and enjoy the show. All of their songs are entertaining, but the Captain's Wife's Lament is definitely the highlight.
So that was my evening of nerds and music, which, for lack of a better term was nerdtastic.
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