The remix of mc chris’s Older Crowd by Optimiss (click through to listen) is one of my favorite songs, so I was glad when it happened to pop up in my playlist this morning on my walk to work. Today’s Daily Post prompt asks us to post the third line of the last song we heard today, but “These kids are such a disgrace” has a negative ring to it, and today’s been a good day so far. Plus, I remembered this morning that I forgot to tell you guys all about going to the mc chris show last week, so that’s what we’re going to do right now!

First, a little background, since lately it seems that no one I know has an idea of who mc chris is. mc, if you’re reading this, don’t be discouraged, it’s not you. I just don’t have a ton of truly nerdy friends.

mc chris is a nerdcore rapper that first popped up on my radar around 2002/2003. I was seeing this guy who was pretty much the first hipster I’d ever met, though back in those days, “hipster” meant something cool, not trite. Anyway, we spent a lot of time watching Adult Swim cartoons, including (of course) Aqua Teen Hunger Force. There was one episode in particular that made me die laughing every time. It had a giant evil spider who masqueraded as a tiny African American baby rapper who sang about candy. It doesn’t have to make sense, just go with it. Anyway, the rapper’s name was MC Pee Pants, and he was voiced by mc chris. I fell in love.

A short guy with a high-pitched voice that some might call annoying, mc chris raps about all kinds of geeky shit, like Star Wars and comic book heroes. In between songs he just talks about whatever’s on his mind. He’s one of those guys who’s just clever and makes people laugh during the course of a natural conversation, and for me, the in-between moments are the best part of the show.

His fans are the kind of people who cosplay, wear t-shirts with in-jokes about software coding, and spend their down time gaming or creating improved cuts of popular sci-fi films. There’s this incredible sense of community and geeky solidarity, and I’m always surprised at how easy it is to fall into an amazing conversation with kids I’ve never met before. For instance, during a break between sets I went downstairs with my friend so he could smoke a cigarette, and pretty much instantly got pulled into a conversation with two strangers about Ben Affleck in the new Batman film (the horror!).

I went to the show with my friend Wheels, a guy I met back in 2006 when we were both waiting tables at a local pizza place. We have the same birthday, and share a love of sci-fi films, Guinness, and mc chris. We try to spend our birthday together whenever we’re both in the same town, but I won’t be in New Orleans this year to celebrate. Luckily, this was a great way to party pre-birthday, and was actually our second mc chris concert together. We went to our first one back in 2006.

All in all, it was a great show. The opening acts, Jesse Dangerously and Dr. Awkward (and effing amazing!) got us pumped up for a night of geeky fun. Even though mc chris didn’t rap any of my favorite songs, he did rap everyone else’s faves, like Fett’s Vette and The Tussin. I had an awesome time hanging out with Wheels and his friend Doug, who works the door at House of Blues and luckily got off of his shift somewhere around the middle of the mc chris set.

Best of all, at the end of the show I got mc chris to sign my iPhone case, and had a second to chat with him about what’s going on in his life. It was pretty sweet, since last time I stood in line for his signature, I had nothing of relevance to say to him. Seven years down the line, though, and I had a little something to say. Not even fan crap, either (go me!). It was a nice moment of getting to connect with a regular dude who just happens to be my favorite nerdcore rapper. Before knowing that his fiance was the woman behind the merch table, I’d noticed her early on in the show looking up at the stage with this overwhelming glow of love/adoration in her eyes. It was beautiful. Later in the show, he pointed her out and mentioned their relationship, and I felt so happy for him, especially knowing what I’d seen. Since I was the very last person in line for an autograph, and the tiniest bit drunk, I took the time to tell him about it and wish them luck together. I’d like to think that I brought a moment of sincere happiness to them both at the end of what had been a very long day. Otherwise, I made them laugh about it later, and that’s still OK in my book 🙂