If you're ever unsure whether to spend an evening seeing live music or at a comedy club, check to see if Jonathan Coulton and Paul & Storm are in town, because you'll get plenty of both. They are the Razzles of live entertainment.
Coulton has gained fame in the past two years through his folky cover of Sir Mix-A-Lot's "Baby Got Back" and songs about loveless mad scientist and software developers. Since the end of his Thing A Week podcasts, one year ago this week, he has only released one song, but toured extensively between small clubs, science fiction conventions, and folk and comedy festivals to rave reviews and growing audiences.
Paul & Storm, who were previously in the popular a cappella group Da Vinci's Notebook were there to celebrate the release of their third CD, Gumbo Pants. The duo are regular contributors to the nationally syndicated Bob & Tom radio show and have been touring with Coulton on and off since Memorial Day Weekend 2006.
Paul & Storm went on first beginning fittingly with "Opening Band," their tribute to the unsung heroes who exist "to do five or six or seven songs/don't be long/and get the hell off the stage." From there they did some hysterical parodies of Schoolhouse Rock songs, rejected commercials ("When you finish your Domino's Pizza/Eat the box because it tastes the same"), and examples of movie themes, if they had been written by Randy Newman.
Coulton came out to provide some harmony on "Nugget Man," they're tribute to chicken nugget creator Robert C. Baker, a song made more relevant by this past Tuesday's death of Robert Johnson, who held the first patent on a nugget-making machine. Paul & Storm finished their one hour-and-fifteen-minute set with "Six Guys, Ten Teeth," a breathless take on a rednecks' night on the town.
Coulton opened his set, as usual, with "The Future Soon," a deliciously ironic tale of a teenage geek's fantasy to get the girl of his dreams. The audience also heard the rarely played "Better," and the debut performance of "Octopus," his only post-Thing A Week song to date. In between were longtime favorites like "Code Monkey," "Skullcrusher Mountain," and "Re: Your Brains."
Article comments
1 - Anna Creech
Yay! Awesome! Wish I could have been there.
2 - Gina
Fantastic concert. I had a blast!
But it was the 31st, not the 13th, as the title says.