The 4th Annual Nerd-A-Thon took place in the Hillcrest area last Friday during the chaos that is San Diego Comic Con and through the kind heart of MC Lars I was able to attend the event. Before I go any further I just want to give the man a shout out. When I emailed his publicist about attending the show Lars himself responded and told me I was on the list, I think he even got back to me the same day I sent the email. Now that is a class act if I ever met one. Now with that out of the way let’s talk about how amazing the event was. The southern California nerdcore hip hop scene was in full force as legions of nerds packed out the venue to catch the show consisting of MC Frontalot, MC Lars, Schaffer the Darklord, Dr. Awkward, a special unannounced set from Random, and chamber band. On top of the stacked line up of MCs the audience was also treated to not one but two burlesque performances provided by The Devil’s Playground; both of which were Star Wars themed as well as spectacular to say the least. If that wasn’t enough there was an impressive array artwork on display as well as live painting demonstrations going on as well. If you’re still not sold there was what looked like a kawaii photobooth in there. YEAH!
As I arrived chamber band was playing and I wasn’t too into it, nothing against them they just weren’t my cup of tea. I listened to a song or two to give them the old college try before wandering about and checking out some of the fabulous art work displayed. There was a fair amount of X-Men on display and my heart may have skipped a beat. Unfortunately I don’t have a spare $1000 dollars to invest on artwork to hang over my non-existent fireplace. Someday! After scoping the place out chamber band’s set had ended and Random had set up his laptop to perform a quick set. His set, while short, was full of energy that got the crowd bumping. I mean who can really resist the charm of a MC who raps about Mega Man and sports a NWO shirt? I know I can’t!
It just wasn’t meant to be Mega Ran, but I can see why you’re heartbroken.
Once Random, or is it Mega Ran, finished up his set Dr. Awkward was quick to set up and keep the energy going. Almost spilling his drink and looking fresh in a blazer he had people raising their hands throughout his whole set. I mean you gotta have them raised if you’re gonna give out high fives right? Perhaps what I admired most about his performance were his beats, not to say that he wasn’t a good MC but out everyone who performed that night I felt his beats were the best by far. He even had a moment with Schaffer before he wrapped things up for the night.
Speaking of Schaffer, when he took the stage things got a bit dark. Given that he is ” the darklord” I should have expected this to be the case but given I’m a dum dum I was taken by surprise. At points it was almost a bit too dark for my tastes but never quite going “too far”. In fact, Schaffer straddled the fence so well he must have been chaffing( I resisted a very horrible play on words here, you’re welcome.) pretty bad towards the end of his set. Although I am not a Katy Perry fan by any means one of the standout songs during STD’s set was his song Rawr which samples the song Roar. No real way to explain it but somehow I couldn’t help but bounce to it.
That Storm though…
Before Lars would take the stage the first of two burlesque performances went down and I have to say, it was pretty hot. As she slowly disrobed I couldn’t help but notice a swarm of cameras all around me as photographers began to snap shots of the sultry imperial guard strut her stuff, hopefully they didn’t get too excited. I was even part of the show for a few brief moments as I not only got to remove a glove, but was also slapped as well as given a kiss under a veil. As an old and dear friend of mine would say, sexy stuff. As the scantily clad performer exited the stage Lars set things up to bring the post rock rap to the kids.
The man dug throughout his bag of songs and brought us jams both new and old going so far as to playing “iGeneration”, the first MC Lars song I ever heard. Lars closed out his set with “this gigantic robot kills” and brought some “skankers” onto the stage to live like like it was 1999. Yours truly got to be one of the lucky few to show off his moves and in typical ska fashion i looked like a dork but that’s the point.
Once Lars wrapped up his set the stage was cleared for our second and final burlesque performance of the night. This time Courtney Cruz would be doing her thing as a Stormtrooper. Needless to say she was amazing as she slowly disrobed, blaster on hand as she intimidated the front of the audience. At one point she went so far as to put her boot square on someone’s chest, obviously I don’t think he minded as he was too busy collecting his drool. Again I was brought into the fold, the ladies must have been attracted to my lack of sleeves, and I removed one of Courtney’s arm guards before being shot right in the face with streamers from the blaster. That alone is worth the cost of admission if I do say so myself. Once Courtney was done with her set our final set change took place and MC Frontalot took the stage, bald head and all. I’m not a huge fan of Frontalot but I gotta say, the man delivered the goods. Despite only knowing 1 song he was able to get me bumping my head throughout the whole night. He even played the 1 song I knew so I would consider the set a total success!
As I headed out for the evening I had a shit eating grin on my face from such a stellar night. However, little did i know this high would be destroyed as the hot dog joint next door would run out of veggie dogs by the time I showed up. I didn’t expect the nerdcore scene to be full of so many vegetarians. That or a critical mass rolled through. I wouldn’t be surprised if the latter happened. Either way I high tailed it out of there in search of sustenance. Can’t wait till year five, maybe they’ll bring back Nerf Herder! I can only hope.
Not now sign! I am crying from lack of veggie dogs. Also, shows over bro!