This past weekend was probably the nerdiest weekend of the year. Anime Boston, a Japanese comic book convention, and PAX East, a video game convention, were at the Hynes and Boston Convention Centers, respectively.
PAX always features the best and nerdiest in video game culture, including the musicians that celebrate it. Their concerts this weekend were performed in front of an audience of thousands, but bands like The Protomen and MC Frontalot thought that wasn’t enough, so Monday night, they put together a show at the Middle East Club to keep the party going.
These artists are wildly different in just about every aspect, except for their fan bases. MC Frontalot is a nerdcore rapper from Brooklyn who has toured the US and UK playing to huge crowds with support from his band. He rhymes about things geeky people can relate to: reaching the final boss in a video game, Star Wars conventions, and pop culture spoilers.
Frontalot put on a similar show to the one he did this past November in the upstairs room at the Middle East so his fans were pleased. He ended his set with “Goth Girls,” a personal anecdote about being unable to hook up with the goth chicks who go to his shows. Don’t knock it—it’s a great jam that gets stuck in my head all the time.
The Protomen closed the show with a different set than the one they played at PAX East this weekend where they performed their entire second album, Act II, with the help of an orchestra quintet in front of thousands of people. Last night, a few hundred people were there and they got to hear a little bit of everything.
The Protomen make music inspired by the video game Mega Man, which is where their nerd crowd comes from, but I didn’t know that about them the first time I saw them perform last November at the Middle East Upstairs. Their rock music is also largely inspired by early rock with an operatic feel –think good Styx with dark synth and hard rock influences.
The crowd for The Protomen blew me away again that night. Fists were thrust into the air ready to fight the good fight. A small mosh pit even broke out in the middle of their set. It was the hardest I’ve seen nerdy people rock out probably ever.
They covered a few songs at the end of their set, including “Under Pressure,” by Queen and David Bowie, which will be part of a Queen cover album they are releasing in the future. The show went past midnight, but that was something PAX East attendees and performers are use to: The Protomen performed their set this weekend at 12:30 AM to a room that was still packed with dedicated fans.
The sudden surge in nerdcore music may or may not be something you’ve noticed, but it’s certainly out there. The great part is that there are actually incredibly talented artists behind the songs about video games and comic books.
The Protomen can be found at http://www.protomen.com
MC Frontalot can be found at http://www.frontalot.com
By: Deanna Archetto