Comicpalooza Update: Scrub Club Records Show Tonight

I was able to make it to the George R Brown last night to get a peek at some of this year’s Comicpalooza offerings. If you follow SCR’s Twitter account, you might have seen some of the pictures I was tweeting. Characters from comics, movies, and TV shows were represented by an array of costumed attendees. Vendors offering anything from wooden weapons to a life-size origami Iron Man sculpture. More coverage is definitely on the way, but I wanted to drop some information about a great performance happening tonight (Sat., May 25th) at Comicpalooza.

If you missed Friday’s Nerdcore Entertainment System (NES) performance, you’ve got another chance to see the artists of Scrub Club Records tonight at 5PM. If you’re not familiar with the term “nerdcore,” imagine Wu-Tang Clan and The Big Band Theory had a baby. That baby’s name would be Nerdcore. While much of the content of nerdcore focuses on “nerdy” interests like video games and comic books, anyone with a sense of humor and an affection for hip-hop, electronica, drum and bass, or dubstep would thoroughly enjoy a show from these energetic performers. To hear what you’re missing, you can check out their Website and download most of their music for free.

What should you expect? Well, King Pheenix dropped a brand new song, “Box with the Gods,” playing God of War (“Screen covered in blood / Just keep pressing X till my mind melts away”). His vocal quality is deep and textural, his rhymes quick and dirty.

There’s also DJ Robo Rob, who mixes video game soundtracks, electronic dance music, and computer hardware noises to great effect. After DJing for four hours for the other acts, Robo Rob still had the energy to do an hour-long set of his own, mixing techno, dubstep, GLaDOS’s “Still Alive,” and the Resident Evil theme. I couldn’t decide if I should reach for a couple of glow sticks or my XBOX controller.

I was introduced to Pheenix and Robo Rob courtesy of my friend, Michael Benningfield. He first met DJ Robo Rob through his music online seven years ago, but this was the first time they’d met in person. We’ll post an in-depth interview with the duo sometime in the near future.

MadHatter, founder of Scrub Club Records, emceed the event. He started the show off with crowd participation, throwing coins in the air during his Mario Bros anthem, “Pipe Dreams,” and revving the crowd’s engine with an Excitebike song, “Overheat.”

You’ll also get Maros, Soup or Villainz (who had a catchy song about losing your car keys), 2 Mello, and my personal favorite, StarF. His act, culminating in an attempt to set the stage on fire after his song “Arsonist,” was filled with skits and guest appearances by Hatter and Pheenix. His ode to public indecency, “Like a Periscope,” had me doubled over with laughter, and the creeptastic tune “Stalker” gave us the ins and outs of dating someone without that pesky barrier of personal interaction.

Catch all these Scrub Club artists at the Geek Music Showcase tonight, May 25 at 5PM in Hall A. Also performing will be video game cover band Descendants of Erdrick, Professor Elemental, and the Singing Tesla Coils of ArcAttack.

There’s still time to get your Comicpalooza tickets and make the show. $30 online or $35 at the door gets you access to the entire convention, plus the Geek Music Showcase.