NerdPow '09

In a world where The Jonas Brothers, Lady Gaga, and The Black Eyed Peas rule the airwaves, groups like Dual Core, MC Router and The Protomen are barely a blip on the public soundscape. And if you think these groups like things you could hook up to your computer, then you’re probably right.

The genre is Nerdcore, The show is NerdPow. The venue was in a middle-of-the-road Holiday Inn in downtown Cincinnati, OH, sandwiched between the Weight Watchers banquet and a loading dock. Gamers, punk rockers and hip-hoppers joined together to celebrate their love of the internet, technology and overall nerdiness.

Take an unassuming music genre, like punk rock, add in a few Star Wars references, don a foam Pac Man head, talk of a robot invasion…add some hackerspeak to taste, sprinkle with a few twenty-sided dice and there you have it! Nerdcore….sort of. Nerdcore topics range from computer games to cartoons, but one thing holds true in all cases: if you know what they’re talking about, then you are a nerd.

I arrived in Cincinnati ready for the show. NerdPow ’09 was slated to be the biggest Nerdcore show in Ohio, including bands like MC Cool Whip, The Super 8-bit Brothers and a new group called Oxymoronatron. This twelve-hour geekfest was attended by the standard motley crew of gamers, hackers, and anime fans. Between rounds of Rock Band and Call of Duty, these Dukes of Dork took the stage and offered their best, backwards-compatible, under-modulated, over-synthesized musical mayhem.
It was great! Being a nerd myself I really appreciated Oxy’s re-engineered motorized fish plaques, who managed to flip their tails to the beat of each song. Their pneumatic drummer-bot was amazing, and only slightly off-beat when the compressor had to repressurize.

Dual Core, a two-man hip-hop crew was by far the best rap group present. One DJ and one rapper managed to cover Dungeons & Dragons, Gears of War and Daft Punk all in one show. The highlight of the set was when they asked the audience to hold up random objects, and Int 80, the rapper, made up a freestyle about each item on the spot.

MC Router, a young lady from Texas also made a strong showing. She said, “I’m a bit out of practice, I’ve been programming Beatles Rock Band for the last few months,” which garnered a roar of enthusiasm from the tech-obsessed crowd.

The Protomen stole the show with their rock opera styling. Their whole show was based off of Protoman and MegaMan, the main characters of the MegaMan video games series. They capped off the show with a mosh pit and a round of crowd surfing. It was something to behold.

NerdPow ’10 is already in the works and, If you are truly 133t, then I’ll see you there.

Image 1: (left to right) Int 80 of Dual Core, MC Cool Whip, and Jerry Branco of My Parents Favorite Music (Justina Roberts Photography)
Image 2: Oxymoronatron stuns the crowd with their robot punk power (courtesy of Rachel Isaacs)

-Cameron Wiliamson, Media Assistant at the OSU Urban Arts Space