Cursing the parking situation in downtown Ballard, my friend and I arrived at the Tractor Tavern a few minutes before Jonathan Coulton's set was supposed to begin. Thankfully he did not hit the stage until ten minutes after the start time, which gave us time to visit the facilities and secure seating.

The small venue was packed, and all of the seats were claimed, but we located two stools and re-positioned them on the other side of a post, thus allowing us to actually see the stage. Other latecomers were not so fortunate, and by the time the show began, the standing-room only overflow area was filled with concert goers straining to see the stage over the heads of those in front of them.

Without any introduction, Coulton stepped and was greeted with raucous applause. He seemed taken aback by both the enthusiasm and the size of the crowd, and launched straight into "The Future Soon," one of his more popular tunes. This was followed by another favorite, the pharmaceutical anthem "I Feel Fantastic."

Although I've listened to the recording of his cover of Sir Mix-A-Lot's "Baby Got Back," I was not prepared for the setup when it came. "I'm going to take this opportunity to slow down for the ladies… and also for some of the more sensitive men," he said, with a sincere tone and a straight face. "This is not my song, this is a cover song, but in a way it belongs to all of us." Transcribed, it loses some of the humor, but in the moment it caused the crowd to break up in laughter, which continued on throughout the song.

The rest of the show was a mix of geek favorites ("Skullcrusher Mountain," "Mandelbrot Set," and "Code Monkey"), intelligent acoustic pop ("Better," "I'm Your Moon," and "A Talk With George"), and the just plain bizarre-yet-cool ("Creepy Doll," "I Crush Everything," and "Mr. Fancy Pants"). One standout is "Re Your Brains," which involves some audience participation. After the song ended, Coulton commented that the experience for him was what he imagined it would feel like to be chased by a mob of zombies.