Jonathan Coulton at the Great American Music Hall

It came late in the week, the IM saying, “Spare ticket for Jonathan Coulton[*] at the GAMH this Friday. Interested?”

“Let me check my calendar…” I replied, reserving the thought, “so I can see what I have to cancel to make it to this show.” Because, you see, very little would take precedence over this. It turns out that the evening was free (how’d that happen?) so I could attend the concert unburdened by the guilt of backing out on someone else.

I checked the Great American Music Hall website and noted that the opening group was someone called “Paul and Storm.” Huh. That sounds kinda familiar. Well, whatever. It’ll come to me sometime.

The show started, Paul and Storm hit the stage. That’s when it all came flooding back. “Of course! Paul and Storm! Formerly of DaVinci’s Notebook! Woo hoo!”

Their set went long but no one cared. OMG, these guys were great. It was like getting two, two, TWO shows for the price of one. They put on a fantastic performance, asking questions of the audience and chucking Moonpies at the winners. Linda, in our party, was the BIG winner of the night, taking home a vinyl LP of Lionel Richie’s Can’t Slow Down album, a framed poster of N Sync and a signed copy of Paul and Storm’s latest CD Gumbo Pants{.broken_link}. This half of the evening was one big grin festival.

Jonathan Coulton hit the stage and the very first thing I thought was, “Hang on…he’s hot!” A hot geek musician? I reiterate: Woo hoo!

He started to perform and proceeded to prove (as though that were necessary) that he’s not just another pretty face. For many of the songs he had Paul and Storm on stage to sing backup. Accompanied or solo, all of the songs were great. It doesn’t hurt that the crowd, geeks every one, was really into it. “Audience participation? Bring it on! That thing you see us sitting in is the palm of your collective hand, boys.”

Of the many shows I’ve seen so far this year this one ranks near (or at) the top of the Enjoyability Scale. I had a complete blast and am indebted to those who kindly included me in the last minute plans.

*: See my previous gushing of the wonders of Jonathan Coulton in this earlier post.