Jonathan Coulton Feels Fantastic

Before JoCo jogged up to and jumped on the stage, it was already the funniest show I’d ever been to. And while not all of JoCo’s songs are funny (yes, some are actually quite heartwarming and sweet), I could still not stop smiling. For his set, however, I knew most of the words to all the songs, as did mostly everyone else. Needless to say, there was a lot of sing-along fun to be had.

Coulton introduced most of his songs with a bit of a back story (in fact, Paul and Storm teased him about his over explaining of songs during their set by saying that the explanation is usually longer than the song itself). While this was an exaggeration, JoCo didn’t disappoint. The banter was great to hear and at times it felt like he was a narrator at story time and the audience were captive children, listening to tales of creepy dolls that always follow you and helping in a zombie sing-along chant of “all we wanna do is eat your brains!”

Loud applause erupted from the audience when JoCo introduced a song by simply stating “this is a song I wrote for a video game” before launching into “Still Alive,” from what many consider 2007’s video game of the year, Portal. In the game the song is sung over the end credits by the disembodied voice of GLaDOS, a female computer, so it was a special treat to hear it sung by the person who wrote it.

Paul and Storm joined JoCo on the stage to sing backup, play percussion, and to provide additional hilarious banter, including a mock band argument and falling out. When it came time to play “Mr. Fancy Pants,” which is a song that’s a little under a minute and 20 seconds, Coulton explained that he bought this instrument to make the song longer. The Zendrum is an incredibly cool MIDI controller which Coulton used to not only perform the song, but also Rickroll the audience with a mischievous grin on his face (watch the YouTube video here).

When Coulton left the stage prior to the Encore, a fan ran up and placed a giant stuffed lobster in his place (a reference to the JoCo tune “Furry Old Lobster”). Upon returning to the stage, JoCo joked about having to take the lobster on the plane with him (watch the YouTube video here).

After the show, I got in line to purchase the box set of Thing a Week (JoCo’s project from 2005-2006 where he recorded a “thing” a week, “thing” being defined as “song”) and got him to sign the tin it came in along with my copy of The Orange Box for Xbox 360. I felt like a bit of a goof when I realized later that all the Thing a Week box sets are already signed and numbered on the inside of the tin! What’s even better is that he signed a ton of them that night.

I’ve been on a huge JoCo kick since seeing that show and have woken up many mornings since with one of his songs playing in my head. After listening to his music for free for so many years, it was great to finally get to see him live and give him some money in return. He certainly deserves a lot more than that.

Additional Resources:

Read a recent interview with Jonathan Coulton on Toronto Thumbs.

For more of Jonathan Coulton’s music, please visit his Official Website or his MySpace page. And for more Paul and Storm, you can visit their Official Website or MySpace page, too.

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