Code Monkey Goes To Concert

Last night we went to see Jonathan Coulton in concert in downtown Atlanta. It was a great show! Donna went mostly to humor me, but she ended up having a great time as well. I first heard of JoCo (as all of us "cool" people call him) a couple of years ago when we bought a CD of his for one of my nephews, for Christmas I think. At the time, I wasn't familiar with him and unfortunately didn't really investigate or listen to any of his songs. Then, I'm not sure, maybe a year or so ago I heard his song Code Monkey on a podcast. That song became my anthem and I became a devoted fanboy. After listening to a few more of his songs I bought the "box set" of pretty much all of his music.

I was really excited when I found out he was coming to Atlanta. The venue was downtown, which I generally try to avoid like the plague, particularly on a Friday, but I decided it was worth the sacrifice, and I was right. I had seen entries on his blog when he posted other tour dates that Paul and Storm usually appear with him, and would be at this show at well. I wasn't sure what a Paul and Storm was but I found out last night ... and they are awesome as well. So now I have a whole bunch of other slightly bizarre, perhaps even deranged music to start listening to.

Honestly I think it is the most fun I've had at any concert I've ever gone to. It was an intimate setting and there was a lot of energy in the crowd. And JoCo was just the nicest guy, he hung out after the show and talked with people, and as you can see, I managed to get a picture with him. I'm sort of an introverted, shy person at times and I really had to force myself to go talk to him but I really wanted to and was so glad I did. I told him I was a Code Monkey (as proclaimed by my T-Shirt) and was really glad he sang the song at the show. He asked me what languages I programmed in and for a couple of seconds I couldn't actually remember any. Did I mention I was a little excited and nervous?

I wish every Friday night could be like that. Good times ... if you are into slightly, oh, shall we say, different and highly entertaining music, you should definitely surf over to his site and check out some of his songs. You can listen to just about all his music for free right on his site, and he also sells nice, juicy DRM-free MP3's for your downloading pleasure.

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