Jonathan Coulton played the Lula Lounge in Toronto!
July 10th, 2008 by Michael Zimmermann
Who is Jonathan Coulton, and why should you care?
Well, if you’re a geek, or a geek in training, you’ll appreciate almost every one of this man’s lyrics. I like to think of it as witty music for adults (or those that are in an adult frame of mind). Almost three years ago, he quit his job as a computer programmer to pursue music full-time. He started a project called “Thing-a-Week,” a regimented approach to his creative side, and one that would cement a great connection to his fans. The concept was simple, but required dedication to pull off. Every week, he would release something. Anything. Most of it was cool stuff. Some of it was übercool. Much of it was about monkeys, and other everyday topics. He’s also the man behind the song at the end of the Valve game, Portal, but you have to play it through to fully appreciate the lyrics in that one.
His recordings, while good, don’t come close to the experience at a live show. I had the privilege of attending (and helping out a bit) at his first show in Canada, and it was a truly fun and amazing experience.
The venue was West of the Toronto downtown core at the Lula Lounge, a great little place that was a first for me. (I plan on coming back on a Friday or Saturday, they apparently have dinner shows, salsa lessons, and dancing). I’ve been planning on trying that for a while. The middle of the room is a big open floor, with rows of loose chairs set up, with an aisle down the middle. It’s a testament to the audience that this structure pretty much stayed intact until the end of the show.
I owe my first awareness to a friend of mine that was in town that day, so he got to see one of his idols in person, and we helped out and manned the merchandise table for him and Paul and Storm, along with my lovely girlfriend Jennifer. The fans were great, polite and genuine, and there was a good, open source feel to the entire night.
That self-selected community is what is so nice about people that promote open exchange of ideas in their daily lives and work. Jonathan Coulton makes a point of releasing his songs to his public under the Creative Commons license, and encouraging them to riff and play with as they please.
The crowd was nicely warmed up by a wonderful, vibrant performance by Paul and Storm, with the duo making a big impression on me with their live show. They enjoyed themselves on stage, and it showed. They enjoyed the audience being there, and it showed. The audience fed into this, and so that dialogue that’s so important between performer and crowd got well-established.
By the time Coulton came on, the crowd was beyond warmed up. Paul and Storm actually stayed up on stage longer than they intended, but nobody noticed, since they were all having a blast.
Coulton started the show with favorites, just him and a guitar for the most part, but there were a few highlights, with a drum/sample contraption for his performance of Mr. Fancy Pants (I had hoped for a Bruce Campbell reference) that couldn’t have been more appropriate.
The single guitar made Coulton’s soulful styles come out, but it’s his lyrics that really capture the hearts of geeks, and he definitely delivered, clear and crisp, verse and chorus went out to the crowd. The sound man knew what he was doing, from where I was listening. Paul and Storm got up for quite a few numbers, and there was much friendly banter.
I was a fan before, but the live show made me an advocate and an enthusiast – I’m going to make sure that people know about the three great performers I saw on stage last night.
Links
- Yes, he’s got a wiki of his own
- and a blog
- the author’s favorite songs include Code Monkey, Still Alive, Re: your brains, Ikea, Skullcrusher Mountain.
- Paul and Storm
- The Lula Lounge
- Hopefully, Dale May will forgive me for taking advantage of his cool photography skills.
Tags: Code Monkey, culture, Jonathan Coulton, live show, Lula Lounge, music
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http://www.geeksintraining.com/about/ Michael Zimmermann
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Rock
