On Friday I got a chance to attend the Jonathan Coulton Show in San Francisco. He was recording the show to make a live show DVD. If you are not familiar with Jonathan (JoCo, as he is called), here is a Yahoo story about him.

When I bought my ticket about a month ago I didn't have anyone to go with. Dodi didn't want to go and none of my friends were big fans. I was pretty bummed because there is nothing as lonely as going to a concert alone, particularly a show like JoCo's, where he is so community based. I figured I was probably not the only one who going alone, so I posted on one of his blog posts. colleenky  helpfully pointed me to the JoCo forums where I made this post.

Over the next month I managed to get 7 other people who were going to the show alone or in small groups to join up with me. I had people from Israel, Boston, LA, Sacramento, and around the Bay Area. I collected everyone's cell phone number and coordinated our meet-up via e-mail. Oded was in from Israel for the Game Developers Conference which was taking place that week. He was staying in the city, but a ways away from the Great American Music Hall (GAMH), so I arranged to pick him up.

I cut out of work early and drove down to my parents place in Walnut Creek. I called everyone up and finalized plans, then headed into the city to grab Oded. He had just gotten out of the GDC and needed time to clean up, so I parked outside his hotel. Well . . where I thought was his hotel. I tell him that I'm on 2nd street and he says "Wait, I'm on 4th street". It was already 6, when our group was supposed to start lining up, and neither Oded or I had eaten. I spent the next 30 minutes driving around in circles trying to get on the right side of the street as Oded. We finally caught one another and headed over to park. Of course, the parking structure on the map was not there, or closed. We ended up parking, for free, down an alley that was less than a block from the hall! Score!

We stopped and got some food from [REDACTED]. Apparently, if Oded's wife were to find out where we ate, he would be killed for having that food without her. He said she'd rather he sleep with another woman than have [REDACTED] without him. Poor man. We hoofed it over to the line outside the GAMH where Colleen flagged us down. Colleen and her friend Rick had met up with Mark and three of her friends, Donavan, Mira, and Jade, for lunch earlier in the day and were able to get over to get in line by 6. We were maybe the 3rd group in line, just outside the doors. In front of us was a gal who had set up a "Zombification Station" for fans of Re: Your Brains. Our group ended up gaining a Zombie, as Brian, who had flown in from Golden Colorado, was standing behind us. Appearantly he actually bought his plane tickets before he got his Concert tickets and was lucky enough to grab a concert ticket from the forums.

Over the next hour or so we had the remainder of our forum meet-ups join up with us in line. We decided we needed a name, so we became "Single Concert-goers, Alone Together" (SCAT). We had a great time dropping geek references and jokes. We had a very nice mix of folks from ages 22 to 38.

SCAT

From Left to Right:
Oded (From Israel), Abby, colleenky , Keith, Mira (below), Rex (above), Mark, Jade, Brian, Donavan, and John

We had been worried that it might rain, but it was just very very cold. They finally opened the doors and let in the Dinner Ticket guests in, then we all trooped in. I had a brief moment of panic as I couldn't remember which of my 9 pockets my ticket was in. We ended up with AWESOME seats/tables, just behind the dinner ticket people. We were just far enough back that it was not a strain to see the stage. The venue was smaller than I expected, which was awesome. We were maybe 30 feet from the stage.

Paul and Storm were the opening band, singing:

We are the opening band
We are here to do five or six or seven songs
“Don’t go too long, and get the hell off the stage”
We are the opening band
We’re probably not the band you came to see tonight
But it’s alright, ’cause soon we’ll go away

They were awesome! They had a number of interactive songs, like the Pirate song, where the audience had to yell "Arrr" in different tones. This turned into a running gag once JoCo came on stage, as the audience would Arrr at inappropriate times throughout the show.

Many times I go to a concert and I just sort of zone out - it's like listening to a CD, only louder. JoCo was totally different. He was constantly talking back and forth with the audience, explaining about how he came to write the song, and telling jokes. He's not polished, either. Because the show was being taped for the Live DVD, he actually restarted a couple of songs. He got about 30 seconds into one where he was playing bass and said "oops, that's too many mistakes, time to start over". So he did.

The show is kinda a blur in my memory - I mostly remember smiling so hard and so long that my cheeks hurt. I also talked/sang so much that my voice was creaky by the end of the night. One notable event - Andy Bates, one of our group, volunteered to go up on stage and help out with Chion Beta Prime. He got to be the [MESSAGE REDACTED] robot voice and ended up doing an instrumental solo and singing the last chorus. Very cool stuff. JoCo also did a version of his song Still Alive using the game Rock Band. We had just heard that it had been performed at the GDC and would be available as a download. The crowd went insane as he pulled down a screen and the game came up. He had Leo Laport and a couple of famous bloggers playing "guitar" and "drums" with him as he sung the vocals. To cap it all off, at the very end of the show four people came on stage with large cakes for everyone! The cake was not a lie! (This is a Portal joke).

After the show Colleen convinced us to hang around. I bought a copy of the Thing-a-Week box set (#1115). I didn't realize it, but JoCo was across the room signing autographs and taking pictures. Colleen dragged me over to be a cameraman as she presented JoCo with a book she had picked up for his daughter. Since I was there, I got my copy of TAW signed and a picture taken. He asked me my name and said "Oh, Rex is a cool name." - I was so excited that I didn't notice what he had written on my TAW box - see below. Of course, I looked like a total dork in my picture, but I manage to not make a complete ass of myself. No, I don't know why he has a name tag on that says "Tom".


After we finally got kicked out of the hall, it was down to Colleen, Rick, Oded, Mark and myself. We headed drove over to Oded's hotel, which was supposed to have a neat Bar at the top. Unfortunately, it was closed, so we chilled out in the lobby lounge until it closed, about 2am.  I dropped Colleen, Rock, and Mark back at their hotel and headed home. 

A Great show, a Great night!