Nerdapalooza 2012 Concert Report Saturday (Part Two)

Captain Dan and the Scurvy Crew

So, when last we left off, I was missing Dual Core’s set. Fortunately, I managed to get back just in time to catch Captain Dan and the Scurvy Crew. I’ll sum up their set this way: F**k Howard Stern! Next up was the Random Encounter / Descendents of Erdrick Power Hour. They were both good bands, interesting and entertaining, but not really quite my cup of tea. Covers of video game music don’t really excite me as much as they do other geeks.

Adam WarRock, on the other hand, has written several of my favorite nerdcore songs. He puts on a high energy show, jumping around on stage while performing. Some of the highlights of the set include “616” and “River” from the Browncoats mixtape. I wish all of the artists had more time to perform, but that’s particularly true of WarRock since he’s so prolific with his music.

Schäffer the Darklord is one of the artists I was most looking forward to. Not only does he make great music, he’s a highly entertaining performer. Admittedly, his songs about drugs aren’t my thing, but that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate them. “Cat People,” on the other hand, is such a good song, as is “Buckets of Blood” (which he performed, along with a new song, with Kabuto the Python). He even brought out Schäffer the Puppet, “The Other Devil.” Epic win! (See what I did there? Yeah, OK, I’ll just go hide in a cave now…).

Next up for me (I skipped some bands in between here if you’re following along on the schedule) was Math the Band. I’d checked out a couple of their songs before the show, but I had no idea it was only two people! Wow, they really impressed me! They really brought my energy back (I’d been up since 6:30 and drove two hours so I was a bit tired). Of all the bands at Nerdapalooza, I have to say that they were most likely my favorite act, especially considering that I barely knew any of their music. I’d really love to see them again at some point, and I’ll definitely be checking out more of their music.

The final act of the night was crowd favorite, The Protomen. I was curious why they are so popular (I’ve mentioned before that I’m not really a fan of Mega Man), so I checked them out. I get it now, or at least partially. I didn’t necessarily fully get the lyrics, but musically they’re very good. Someone compared them to Kiss meets Mega Man, and I’d agree, but I’d also add in Queen (whose music they covered on Sunday night). I’m glad I stuck around for their set, although I decided to call it a night after they played (which means I missed out on the Epic Win Burlesque, which I heard was great).

New friends at NAP 2012

So, I’ll finish off with a couple of stories from the night that illustrate the community aspect of Nerdapalooza. Before I got down to Orlando, I caught a retweet by Z from Hipster, Please! of a group of people who were meeting for breakfast at the hotel on Saturday morning. I asked if they mind if I joined them, and they said sure. Thus I got to meet (from left to right in the picture) Poore, Matt, Andrea, Larry, and Steve (aka Funky 49 from EPP; he’s not in the picture because he was still in his room). It was really cool to have some people to hang out with because my wife didn’t come with me.

It’s not just the fans who are cool, but also the performers. Many of them were accessible all weekend, and one story will suffice to demonstrate. I noticed MC Lars hanging around after one of the sets (he didn’t play at the official show, but he did perform at The Day After on Monday), so I wanted to talk to him. He was talking to someone else, so I complimented eMpyre ramireX from sAMPLE tHE mARTIAN on his set in Gainesville (more on that show in a future column); he then introduced me to MC Lars, who introduced me to Chuck from Sci-Fried (who knew who I was thanks to my review of Co-Op Mode!). I also got to meet Professor ShyGuy (who is really cool), Marc with a C, D&D Sluggers (only briefly — The Protomen were playing so it was hard to talk), and Pete Mitchell from No More Kings. I’m not trying to brag (OK, maybe just a wee bit), but instead trying to show how cool and approachable the performers were. On the other hand, I’m kind of on the shy side, so if I couldn’t think of a specific thing to say to an artist, I found it difficult to talk to them. But that’s just me; they all seemed cool with meeting fans.

So, that’s Saturday wrapped up; tune in next time for the Sunday recap!