The Nevada Sagebrush

On Monday, Oct. 26, comedic rapper MC Chris performed at Tonic Lounge with opening acts I Fight Dragons and Whole Wheat Bread for one of the single nerdiest events to grace a stage in Reno.

I Fight Dragons, a Nintendo-rock group from Chicago on their first tour kicked off the night, sparing no expenses to emphasize their dedication to video games. Several of the band members—including Laura Grene, equipped for most of the show with only a power glove to make music—used video game controllers to create sounds within their songs. The band had set up a power pad on the stage, which they jumped on to make sounds, and they even allotted for a solo played entirely on a Rock Band guitar.

The band’s set cemented the evening as one with all of the chaos of a rock concert combined with all the geekiness of a comic book convention. When lead vocalist Brian Mazzaferri announced that I Fight Dragons was to perform a song entitled “No One Likes Superman Anymore,” a small fight broke out in the crowd with audience members fervently shouting their superhero preferences back and forth.

Following I Fight Dragons was Whole Wheat Bread, a punk/rap group that completely changed the pace of the evening. The group played a myriad of songs alternating between picking up their instruments to play punk rock songs and leaving them behind to rap. Whole Wheat Bread performed songs like “Bombs Away” and thoroughly enthused the audience to the point of establishing a full-on mosh pit.

Finally, MC Chris himself took to the stage leading the audience in a sing-along of Weezer’s hit song “Buddy Holly” and announced that Reno was the most apocalyptic town he’d ever seen, suggesting, “we should go outside and play zombies instead of playing this concert.” Chris performed many of his most popular songs, including “Fett’s Vette,” “Pizza Butt,” “nrrrd grrrl,” “Robot Dog” and an exceptionally quick rendition of “Hijack.”

At one point, Chris began to perform a song off of his forthcoming album, “MC Chris Goes to Hell” and paused it mid-way through to bring the moshing to a complete halt. After stopping the music, he exclaimed, “Hold on, you realize that this is about Harry Potter, right? You don’t push nerds around.” Not long after that, Chris again stopped the show to ensure that someone who had been yelling “You suck!” was escorted from the building, stating, “I don’t kick people’s asses. I just don’t rap until they’re gone.”

Throughout the evening, Chris provided an entirely excellent performance for the audience, urging them to do various dance moves with him, such as “zombie arms” during the song “MC Chris is Dead.” At the end of the evening, he concluded his show by thanking the audience profusely and encouraging everyone to wear the seatbelts and refrain from drinking and driving.

Ah, nerdy rap with a conscience.

Related Posts:

• No Related Posts