The Wake

Ol’ Dirty Bastard blasted through the speakers as I walked into MC Frontalot’s 21-plus show on May 28. To my left, a stuffed dear head occupied the center of a small stage, while around me was a sea of guys in ponytails and glasses, who seemed less concerned with looking tough than making sure the Galaga arcade machine stayed occupied. This was not a typical hip-hop crowd, but it gave a look into the scene that Nerdcore is beginning to create.

A man in his 20s who occupies himself with “Dungeons and Dragons” rarely conjures up thoughts of a hip-hop emcee. But MC Frontalot, a self-proclaimed nerd from San Francisco, is turning the bad-boy-dominated genre on its head. Instead of bling and brand names, Frontalot dons freshly pressed ties, thick glasses, and a headlamp to rap about the internet and video games—not money and hos.

True to tech-geek form, Frontalot (a.k.a. Damien Hess), got his start posting MP3s online before releasing a full-length album last year. The disc, Nerdcore Rising, takes a humorous, tongue-in-cheek approach to topics from the war on terror to a crime spree of jaywalking and ripping tags from mattresses.

Since his CD release, Frontalot, along with keyboardist GMinor7, drummer The Sturgenius, and bassist Blak Lotus, has attracted nerds and non-nerds alike, playing small shows in California and the Penny Arcade gaming convention—which makes perfect sense after hearing the disc’s Nintendo-esque tracks, composed by Badd Spellah.

Opening act St. Pauli Grla seemed to confuse the group of onlookers more than anything. Taking the stage in a filthy rabbit suit, Grla rambled over beats emitting from an iPod as if he had hit the bar before the show.

Between the incoherent yelling and moaning, on songs with titles like, “Snakes on a Plane” and, “Hippo Rodeo,” Grla provided little more than a few cheap laughs before finally bowing out, cradling the stuffed deer head to his body.

Twenty minutes later, The Sturgenius walked onstage to launch the main act, with G-Minor7 and Blak Lotus soon joining him in a jam session that concluded with MC Frontalot appearing in his trademark attire. As the rapper’s headlamp shone into the crowd, Frontalot’s robot-like movements were the perfect accompaniment to his frantic vocals, which often switched speeds but always remained on track.

Meanwhile, Lotus plucked away at his bass, the head of which resembled a five-inch floppy disk. It was G-Minor7, however, who stole the show with his innovative keyboard riffs and high-pitched croon, when not energetically dancing into the sparse crowd.

The two also contributed to the melodic hooks scattered throughout most tracks, creating three-part vocal harmonies with Frontalot. The lyrics were humorous and light-hearted, aside from the politically charged “Special Delivery,” an attack on Bush’s war laced with his samples of his numerous war-time speeches, which drew the largest crowd response of the night.

When not singing or showing off their disco dance moves, the crew kept the mild-mannered audience amused by rolling a novelty 20-sided dice, rattling off bad jokes (What did the zero say to the eight? Nice belt.), and even busting out Magic cards, which drew heavy applause from their fans. For their finale, the group also orchestrated a sing-along to their album’s single, “Nerdcore Rising.”

Despite his growing success, Frontalot calls himself the “579th greatest rapper in the world” on his website, which just goes to show that the king of the nerds still has a long way to go before “nerdcore,” his self-designed sub-genre of funky hip hop, becomes an MTV staple. With a national tour underway, his fan base is only likely to grow as he spreads his frenzied stylings from Spartanburg to Kalamazoo.