Written by Dennis Hansbury
Photographs by Denika Robbins

Let me start off by saying that my only exposure to Nerdcore was the mix cd my fiance Denika made after listening to Radio Free Hipster & Drown Pirate Radio. She found out the Mediocre Tour was coming to L.A. and decided that we should make plans to drive all the way to California.

Initially I was a little hesitant to travel so far to see an all Nerdcore show. I only knew two of Beefy’s songs (Tub of Tabasco & 1-800-Nerdcore) and they were starting to wear on me. MC Router (from what I had read online and watched on YouTube) seemed to be a bitch (not quite the “8bit bitch” I would later meet and enjoy) and Doc Pop was just a guy my age that had yo-yo skills and circuit soldering mastery.

I just didn’t know if a 6 hour drive and mucho dinero would be worth seeing them and I didn’t know anything about the rest of the performers.

So, a couple days had passed since she had brought up the subject and I was starting to come around to the idea. I had never been to California so I started getting more excited about it.

We got to the Whisky A Go Go on the Sunset Strip a little before 7 o’clock and stopped at Dukes to grab a bite. The fliers had said that the doors opened at 7PM so that’s when we showed up but the show didn’t start until about two hours later.

After eating we started walking up and down the strip. As we were walking up the street we saw Router and Zealous1 in a pizza shop. We stopped for a sec to check them all out through the window but not knowing them personally, we were hesitant to just go in and say hi so we walked back down to the Whisky to wait.

A little before the show Denika was spotted by IllGill who started saying, “I know you from the internet. I know you from the internet.” which she found endearing. He introduced us to Zealous1 and we started chatting. I had heard he liked zombies so I offered to do a custom zombie doll for him. I love zombies and want to spread the undead love; not to mention he would make a pretty intimidating corpse.

Cut to the show

IllGill: He was funny as hell and despite not knowing all the lyrics, his songs made me laugh and he had lots of energy to get the crowd pumped. I noticed as soon as he got on stage that his fly was down and mentioned it to Zealous1. He told me he probably did it on purpose (which was confirmed later by Gill).
Unfortunately I don’t remember the names of the two other guys that opened that night. They were talented and rather entertaining I but never spoke to them so their names are forgotten.

Zealous1: He was great. His Level Up, WoW song was hysterical and made me want to come home and install Warcraft again. His rhymes were pretty solid and he definitely made me want to listen to more of his music.

The Mediocre Tour: Having seen some video of them performing together, I looked forward to seeing them interact on stage. I loved Router’s attitude and her songs were a blast. Doc Pop is way better at yo-yo…ing (?) than I thought and his Speak and Spell bending was a lot of fun to watch/listen to. Beefy didn’t bore me (which I had feared on the way to L.A.) but was also very well spoken and made me look forward to hearing more songs than the two I’ve been beaten with for months.

After the show we went drinking at the Carriage and Horse about a mile down from the Whisky. We sat with the guys from Dead Circuits, MC Router and Doc Pop whilst chatting about topics ranging from corrosive moon particles to the science behind global warming.

At the end of the night (damn near 2am) I knew I would be back to see them all perform if I had the opportunity. No one disappointed and not only did my opinions of Router, Doc Pop and Beefy greatly improve, but the show introduced me to other artists that I listen to now and enjoy.

The trip to L.A. would not have been as fun if it weren’t for meeting them all and getting to know them. I look forward to a possible San Diego Comic Con show and hope that even if we move to Florida we can still be a part of the Nerdcore community.

Find more of Denika Robbins’ photographs of the Whisky show on her Flickr set or her Flickr group, the House of Nerd.