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Jonathan Coulton at the Cactus Cafe

I made the trip all the way down to Austin to see Jonathan Coulton at the Cactus Cafe. We also took the opportunity to visit with friends in New Braunfels so it was a rather busy weekend, but a lot of fun. To everyone that shared time with us, Thanks! We miss you already.

I was fortunate to get in line when I did. I arrived right at 8pm and the line was already quite long. When I got to the door I literally paid, walked in the door, and snagged the last 3 chairs. Mark and his friend joined me moments later. I'd guess another 50-60 people got in the door before they sold out. Most of them ended up standing between the seating area and the bar, making it near impossible to get a drink without dumping half of it down someones back.

Samantha Murphy opened up the show with her lovely voice. She put on a good show and fits pretty well with Jonathan's style of music. Her songs are a little more serious than his, but there she carries a good sense of irony and wit in her lyrics and damn, she can sustain a note. I had time to think wow, she's got a helluva set of lungs, decide to take a photo, wake my camera up, and focus for this picture before she even started to waiver. Samantha also pulled some of Jonathan's lyrics into her set with the chorus from Shop Vac touted the reason she left her lover.

Jonathan ran through the popular songs, including Baby Got Back, IKEA, Code Monkey, Shop Vac, Millionaire Girlfriend, Skullcrusher Mountain, I Feel Fantastic and many, many more.

When he performed Chiron Beta Prime he asked for volunteers from the audience. One Michael Wood stepped up, assuring everyone that he knew the words, knew where to step in, and that he had a great robot voice. Unfortunately when the time came he didn't know when, what or how to deliver the line. Michael was supposed to say "Message Redacted" in the robot overlord voice, but I'm not sure he heard the word right and it sounded more like "Message Rejected". Regardless of his skill, it was hilarious and everyone in the place was laughing with Michael. Or do I mean laughing at Michael. Either way, his Google number should be significantly increased by this event. Michael should hook up with Alyssa for some lessons.

Through the entire show the audience participation was great. There were quite a few geeky shirts, including a real cute gal with a Domo-kun shirt. We weren't very surprised to see people with Backberries and the like checking email or blogging about the event, but that didn't stop us from making fun of them. (Thanks Mark for catching this shot for me.)

The show ended with a single encore of First of May [NSFW lyrics] which brought the house down. If the F Bomb bothers you, do not follow that link. If you haven't heard any of his music you can listen to the songs on his web site and even purchase the MP3s for a reasonable price.