Midwest Media Expo find: The Geekiest song - GeekDad (blog)

This weekend I bought the chance to take a look at the Midwest Media Expo, held in Detroit, Michigan, on the opulent prevalent Motors Renaissance center. This expo is a occasion of so a good deal that makes us geeks, with guests from anime, motion pictures, television, and comics. My find from the weekend, however, became a treasure trove of each new and re-found out geeky track. if you're attempting to find something new and geeky to put in your iPod, i recommend you check these out.

concert – The Harp Twins

Given the identify "The Harp Twins," it definitely shouldn't shock any one that this musical efficiency became literally twins playing harps, nonetheless it become so an awful lot greater than that. This wasn't your time-honored harp track they played. specializing in covers of directly recognizable songs that you simply're not acquainted with hearing on harp, over the route of the concert they performed every thing from the theme of running useless to Iron Maiden, making both songs lots extra hauntingly alluring with their harp renditions.

Their stage presence became stylish and easy, twins donning identical outfits with identical hair patterns, the usage of identical devices. Synchronous movements, similar appearances, and overlapping melodies created the phantasm that the Harp Twins were in reality two elements of an entire.As a massive Whovian, i used to be stoked once they played a edition of the medical professional Who theme that that they had arranged themselves, taking features of the various models of the theme through the years to create one that turned into definitely representative of the display as a whole. And, as if my geek-out wasn't comprehensive enough, this turned into quickly followed via a medley of the Skyrim and Morrowind themes from the Elder Scrolls sequence.

The Harp Twins have two albums out, attainable on their website and on iTunes.

live performance – Time CrashBeing the Whovian that i am, i used to be excited from the second this band took stage. Heralded via a edition of the intro modified to reveal the faces of the band individuals, the band's power was infectious from the primary second on stage. many of the band participants wore doctor Who t-shirts, with the one exception being the lead singer, who came on-stage as a cross-play (go-gender cosplay, for the uninitiated) of twelfth medical professional Peter Capaldi. The lead guitarist sported a custom TARDIS-designed electric powered guitar that the band have fittingly dubbed the "GuiTARDIS."all the band's songs had been doctor Who-themed. They started with the track "Little Amelia," following the story of young Amy pond before the activities in "The Eleventh Hour," taking about the scary crack and her missing fogeys.

This become followed by a tune about regeneration and the one that made me geek out, "Who Am I?" the tune about the 1996 tv film that served as my introduction to the long-lasting reveal and is the primary appearance of my medical professional. different songs included "Metacrisis Man," a love track between Rose and the doctor who was stuck in the parallel dimension together with her; and "A Soldier's Promise," a track according to the finale to the newest season, written and carried out inside 24 hours of it airing.

average i was impressed by means of the undeniable fact that the band turned into musically gifted enough to be successful at mainstream music. This made it so that the doctor Who-themed music changed into that a great deal extra advantageous.

Time Crash has an album out that can be discovered at their site and on iTunes.

concert/performance – Steam Powered Giraffe

The superior manner I've heard Steam Powered Giraffe described nonetheless doesn't do justice to exactly how odd and surprising the event become of seeing this performance. They have been described by using the MC, Vorteque, as "vaudeville meets Queen with a dash of Bowie," which is true, if it had been all performed by means of steam-powered robots. The concert all started with promotional videos from "Walter robotics" introducing the three performers (Hatchworth, Rabbit, and the backbone), as well because the supporting characters. These introduced a touch of humor before, preventing the inevitable exodus of americans going to the bathroom and grabbing a smoke, guaranteeing that the entire crowd would continue to be despite the lengthy length of tear-down and set-u p between Time Crash's full rock band setup and Steam Powered Giraffe's clear stage however technically complicated outfits (mics near mouths, steam machines on belts, and sophisticated costumes and paint jobs).

From the moment the performers stepped onstage to the second the reveal turned into over, they had been their characters. actions had been made in linear and jerky motions, to look robotic, and character quirks made them look like they have been created within the 1800s. This, combined with track that become both funny and well-written, created a exhibit that kept me so enthralled that I didn't remember to take pictures for the article. this is one of those "sorry however not sorry" moments.

Steam Powered Giraffe is obviously comfy with the conference atmosphere, with a lot of their live shows being at media and steampunk live shows, even catering one tune to the anime crowd via singing thoroughly in japanese. now not being even vaguely fluent within the language, I'm now not sure if it was suitable or what they had been saying (other than "Steam Powered Giraffu"), however it became convincing to me.

so far as labeling this band, I'm now not absolutely sure even if to name it a concert or a efficiency, as it appeared to land somewhere between a live performance and track theater. The band has a number of albums attainable (on their web site and iTunes), and sang are living on stage with recorded instrumental backing. whatever thing you call it, Steam Powered Giraffe became a hilarious and incredible demonstrate that could entertain all a long time.

fantasy Formal – DJ Vorteque (Electro Swing)

whereas not precisely a live performance, i would be remiss of I ignored the personality and DJ skills of Vorteque. A former circus performer and a stickler for detail, even right down to the steampunk-styled DJ station he mixes on, Vorteque is a man who is aware of how to have an outstanding time. The delusion Formal turned into an experiment this yr, with Vorteque spinning Electro Swing late into the night Friday.

whereas the test wasn't as a success as hoped, typically because of scheduling conflicts that made the dance start considerably later than advertised, each Vorteque and his tune have been fan favorites. if you've certainly not heard Electro Swing, it's a burgeoning genre of techno wherein swing track is combined, creating some thing that directly sounds historical and new. It's immensely danceable, highly catchy, and created a sublime think to a excessive-energy party.

Vorteque has an album coming out soon, the particulars of which will also be discovered on his web site.

live performance – Aurelio Voltaire (Warning: no longer All-a while pleasant)Of the artists that played this weekend, Voltaire has possibly essentially the most fantastic name. He and his tune have spawned a cult following, having appeared in a Halloween episode of The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy on caricature network, and with Voltaire himself often being introduced onto the news to serve as the "goth professional" when the subculture makes its method into the general public eye. His song is funny, geeky, and basically now not appropriate for the whole family unit. His subject depend can vary from the innocuous and geeky to the sexual and perverse, and intensely hardly ever do his songs abstain from the use of profanity. That spoke of, for the parents and youngsters who are de emed old enough, Voltaire is fun-insurrection.

Voltaire, as a are living adventure, was a true deal with. From the second he stepped on stage, he in no way let his viewers go for a second. He would stop between songs to inform humorous stories, frequently an awkward but on the other hand beneficial type of transition, and would constantly locate new how you can entice the viewers into singing or shouting along. These interactions all felt natural, personalised, and never like the inventory transitions and reviews that an artist receives familiar with telling at every show. It became, actually, the funniest concert I've ever been to. now not a one-trick pony, youngsters, Voltaire pulled the heart strings of the audience with a music from his upcoming album coronary heart fashioned Wound that he dedicated to the late Leonard Nimoy. Fittingly, it turned into a Spock-themed love music that turned into each funny and surely touching in a means i'd have sworn unattainable before hearing it.

Voltaire is one of those artists I had encountered before (for the primary time in the aforementioned Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy episode) however never took the time to in reality take heed to, but is now becoming a member of my iPod for those kid-free moments when a little profanity and delicate discipline-rely is barely high-quality.

Voltaire has a few albums available just about all over the place, together with his website and iTunes.

concert – The Silent Hill Band (starring Akira Yamaoka and Mary Elizabeth McGlynn) This last concert of the weekend for me was the biggest shock. The song of Akira Yamaoka is, by means of a ways, essentially the most listened to of all the artists this weekend. His song has seemed in Silent Hill (all of them), Contra: difficult Corps and Shattered Soldier, and Gradius among many many other games. listening to these songs are living, besides the fact that children, changed into a deal with I didn't recognize I needed.

Akira's band, which blanketed Ann Arbor locals on bass and rhythm guitar, turned into headed with the aid of himself on lead guitar and singer/voice-actress Mary Elizabeth McGlynn on vocals. There's so lots compliment i can write about this event that I might give it a submit of its personal, but a lot of it could just be phrases except you'd been within the room. Suffice it to assert, the Silent Hill Band was technically surprising in the excessive. With a high quality and complexity of sound that one rarely hears in conventional mainstream bands, pushed through the elegant combination of the two main facets: Akira's guitar and Mary Elizabeth's vocals. Akira Yamaoka deserves to be listed among the many superior guitar soloists of all times. being attentive to his solos, that have been abundant, jogged my memory why the guitar solo had become such a well-liked art form. developing the framework for the solos to exist within was the efficiency of Mary Elizabeth McGlynn. I discovered myself stunned as her voice would span the finished latitude of styles, often going from the angelic to the punk rocker of our '80s and '90s dreams all through a single music. At one factor, within the core of a music on addiction, her scream brought me back to any variety of the feminine giants of metallic.

The band's songs are sometimes hauntingly alluring or drivingly extreme and are all the time evocative. The track itself generated the reactions from the group, without a notice needing to be observed from stage. during the potent metal songs of the beginning, the gang became on their toes, however as the track became more haunting and evocative, many sat and appeared entranced.

This concert, in reality, stunned me the most. I by no means concept, getting in, that video online game music might go away me writing such a protracted evaluation that appears so inadequate in comparison to both my experiences and my notes, however I continue to be as astounded and impressed as i used to be leaving the auditorium. whether you're a gamer who has experienced Yamaoka's songs of their herbal environment, or only a tune enthusiast who's interested in come truly advanced and astonishing hard-rock/metallic, give these guys a hear.

The Silent Hill Band has a few albums purchasable on Akira's web page, on iTunes, and in fact anyplace else music can also be found.

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