MC in the hizzy.

Charles, Marie, Garrett and yours trooly went to the Jumping Turtle to catch a show, a band called the Ergs, which rocked so hard I bought a CD, SNMNMNM, which had a tuba player, and the one and only mc chris, rapper fuckin extraoidinaire, who's mug you may remember from last month. The show was part of the "Revenge of the Nerds Tour", with dates available on the mc chris' site.
We got in at about 530 in the evening, which was early, but we were bored. The Ergs were doing a soundcheck when we walked in, and the drummer was whacking one drum over and over again to get levels. There was a dude in a Packers jersey yelling at him "Shut it down! I put money in the jukebox to hear this song!" The drummer, hilariously, completely ignored him. James Brown was singing "I Feel Good" on the jukebox, and the drummer and bassist started a rousing rendition of it to placate the drunkard. It didn't work, but it was hilarious. We were hoping Des could make it, but it didn't happen til too late...she did get a special surprise, though.
The place is kind of a shithole, but not as bad as some joints. The sound got decent review from the front from Garrett, but a thumbs-down from Charles. Marie and I stayed out of the way in the 21 and up section. It's all-ages til ten PM, and the show ended about ten til. Chris explained "because of the stupid fucking curfew". I couldn't really hear the vocals too well on the first two bands.
The Ergs are exceedingly skilled. They played at a frenetic, hopping, near-frenzy pace. The drummer was doing the majority of the singing, while the guitarist hopped around with everything from the classic scissor-step to the Angus Young duck-hoppy thing. The guitarist has a sizeable keister that was basically pointed right at me for the whole show, and he had plaid shorts on, so I may forever associate plaid with this band. I bought the CD afterwards, which gives you an idea of what I thought of this band. I'd see them again in a heartbeat.
SNMNMNM was a good, tight, pop band, with clever songs though I had a problem understanding what the lyrics were and that seems to be part of the band's appeal. The tuba in place of a bass guitar was awesome, it's a very expressive instrument. Overall I liked them, though I'd recommend a name that's easier to pronounce. Apparently it's the initials of all of the band members.
mcchris came on almost exactly at 9 and rocked for 50 minutes. He didn't just rap, though, it was a standup comedy show too. As soon as he got near the stage people began crowding in close...I'd bet by the time he got on there were a couple hundred people in. He's about 5' even, standing on box, and pretty approachable. He had a Cubs hat and a Slayer shirt on, as well as an Adult Swim hoodie (ironic people were missing Adult Swim). At one point he thanked the WoW players for coming out of their bedrooms for the first time in six months, said "I was in Time magazine...FUCK TIME, I was in last month's NINTENDO POWER!" He sucked on an inhaler all through the show, drank O'Douls, and air-humped the amplifier. He was funny, self-deprecating, and sly...for a small guy on a rather wide stage he filled it up nicely. He seemed to really enjoy entertaining, which always will get fed back to you from a crowd. He played Fett's Vett to open, and again to close, did Cookiebreath, Hijack, White Kids Love Hip-hop, The Tussin, DQ Blizzard, and Fuckin' Up My Christmas. There were two other songs I didn't know. The crowd was loud and raucous and completely into the show, with nerds, hipsters and, well, me and my friends leaping around and spilling beer. From time to time I looked at Charles and we both had the same shitty grins on our faces...we'd both sung most all of these songs to our monitors so many times, it was bizarre hearing them live, and made us giddy idiots.
After the show we got signed shirts and hung around outside with the bands and various hangers-on, though the Ergs had taken off. A few people promised to email pictures because I'm too stupid to take my own. The mc came out and chatted while admirers shared some...medication (we are in California). I have to say, Chris was about as easy to chat with as you can imagine. He paid attention when you were talking, and was polite and friendly, which rules. He dropped a super-bomb, like the one where you knock out all the on-screen enemies, when Desi showed up...she'd missed the whole show, and came around back when she got there. Charles, who'd already bugged mc about fifty times prior to this, ran over and asked him to say Hi to Des, and instead he dropped a little freestyle rap on her (I think he was hitting on her a little, but that's cool, it's mc chris). She was a little flustered, but had a similar shit-eating grin to me and Charles and Marie. So that was cool.
I'm kind of amazed to say it, but October 30th 2005, at the Jumping fuckin Turtle of all places, was one of the best shows I've ever seen. I am still in a tizzy, and we have percolations of hauling ass up to Bakersfield, I'm not kidding, and catching tonight's show. When the mc calls, you gotta go.