Sunday actually began with quite a few artists that I had not yet seen: MC Ohm-I, The Detectives, Milk Carton Superstars, and Claire and the Potatoes. Something I’ve observed with a number of Scrub Club Records is that their live performances are frequently much more impressive than their studio work. Such is the case with MC Ohm-I. I really want to go back and listen to his albums again; I don’t think I gave him enough of a chance when I listened in the past. Deviating stylistically from all of the other bands at Nerd Fest was The Detectives. They had a ska / jazz / rock feel that I really enjoyed. And they even did a cover of “You May Be Right,” one of my favorite Billy Joel songs.
MC Ohm-I
I was equally impressed with Milk Carton Superstars, a band I had heard of before, but had never checked out. Two songs stand out: “Sugar Palace” and “This Is This,” both on their wonderfully named album Sesame Streetcar Named Disaster. And two members of that band also help form Claire and the Potatoes, fronted by Leslie Rising and Marc with a C. Unsurprisingly, I enjoyed their set quite a lot, and the final song was particularly cool.
There were also plenty of artists I’d already seen before, but was looking forward to seeing again. I wrote last year about how much My Parents Favorite Music impressed me at Nerdapalooza, and they put on yet another great set. MC Lars, YTCracker, and MC Frontalot rounded out the nerdcore artists that night, all with typically wonderful performances. Front in particular had an interesting set, with some songs I’d never heard him do live, and only one from the new album.
I didn’t make it over to “Stage C” much over the weekend. That’s where the karaoke, non-announced bands, and video games were located. I wandered in a couple of times, once catching a brief snippet of Eyeshine (I’m not a big fan of screamo, so I didn’t watch their set) and also managing to see some of Nuclear Bubble Wrap’s set. But I had to make sure to catch Marc with a C’s acoustic “secret show” in which he took requests and generally played stuff that didn’t fit in to his other set. The audience actually sat on the floor for the whole thing (well, except me; I was holding my monopod so I could record the set. There’s also video from the other side of the stage at Geek World Order’s YouTube channel), which gave a really mellow vibe. If Saturday’s show had some lesser played stuff, Sunday’s set got much more obscure. There were songs I hadn’t even heard before, though with the recent rerelease of Bubblegum Romance, I now see where they came from. All in all, it was probably one of my favorite parts of Nerd Fest.
RPG-Unit
And lastly we get to Monday at the Geek Easy behind A Comic Shop. I finally got a chance to go! After hearing so much about A Comic Shop, I was surprised to find that the shop itself is pretty small, but it has a really good vibe. The Geek Easy itself serves food and beer, and if you get a chance to have the grilled mac and cheese sandwich, I can highly recommend it! Most of the bands that played were the same as the main event, but of course this part was free. I think the only non-repeat artists were ProjektZero, HDNinja, and E-Turn and SPS. Still, it was great to see some other songs that the artists didn’t get to perform in their main sets. Plus I got to see RPG-Unit, who I’d missed on Sunday. I kept hearing that their set really killed, and if their performance at the Day After was any indication, I’d imagine I missed something really great. But at least I got to see them!
The inaugural year of Orlando Nerd Fest saw over 1600 tickets sold, which is just awesome! I really had a great time, and barring unforeseen circumstances I plan to go next year. Because, yes, the dates have already been announced for next year (August 6-10, 2015). Supporter passes (which include Event T-Shirt, Event Poster, Event Supporter Badge, and Front of Line for Autographs and cover extra cost VIP Events) for $100 are already on sale now, and you can be sure that I’ll be helping to spread the word when more details are announced!
Thanks for the right up on this amazing event and your kind words about RPG-Unit! ^_^