Recently it became necessary for my wife and I to wade back into the swamps of Florida. The tales spawned by that journey are many but this post is about just one: a sojourn to The Haven on Monday the 19th, where I took in the phenomenal experience that is a performance by The Protomen, and had a fine chat with a couple of them besides.

Last Summer, I made a similar trek to Nerdapalooza with Bryan (that’s Autopsy IV to you) and was disappointed to see The Protomen’s efforts undermined by all manner of sound problems. Especially after, as Commander graphically retold at the recent show, they risked life and limb to get there; piloting their tour van, Jesse Christine, on a nervy course down the peninsula with a near-total lack of braking ability.

With The Protomen’s recent appearance at PAX East, YouTube has been flooded with (often crap, sometimes not) videos of their performance, reminding me that my previous experience was not representative. So when I discovered, my appetite already stoked, that my visit to swamp state would coincide with that of our freedom fighters, my excitement was …frothy.

And so it was that I found myself broiling wetly in the cell phone waiting lot at Tampa International Airport this past Monday afternoon, soon answering my brother’s signal to retrieve him and dash as swiftly as we dared through searing sun and relentless rain to land at dusk upon the threshold of The Haven, nodding and grinning foolishly to an amused Panther as he strode to the door, amused by my stupor.

A guitarist co-worker of mine told me to expect excellent sound and lighting at The Haven (the fortunate result of Full Sail University’s immediate proximity) and his words were true. The technical production of the show was flawless excepting only the volume of Panther’s Protoman helmet mic, which probably should have been set up separately from what he used for the rest of the show.

I wish I could give you a set list, but I’m terrible about that. I can’t interrupt my intake of the performance to take notes, and I’m simply unable to remember which songs were played unaided. Just pretend that, whatever your favorite Protomen songs might be, they were played. It was an energetic performance with few lulls, and a thoroughly engaged audience. There was clapping, stomping, more clapping, fist pumping, yet more clapping, indeed more fist pumping, and sometimes too much singing from the crowd.

When the music stopped, I turned to find the entire bar had filled behind me. Dazed, I made my way through the crowd, found my brother who had backed away when a sort of mosh pit sprang up even as I pushed through it to the edge of the stage, and left the bar. As I considered whether to find and attend the after-party at A Comic Shop (allegedly not far) others filtered out and conversations began, eventually including several of The Protomen.

I approached Commander and struck up a conversation that grew and mutated as other participants came and went, including Sir Robert Bakker and Nerdapalooza’s Hex. We talked about upcoming shows (they’ll be playing Nerdapalooza again this year, if you hadn’t heard) and Act III, which Commander was exceptionally cagey about and from which I took away two clues. But for the safety of The Protomen, I will maintain silence on those planned operations.

Yours truly surprisingly struck a nerve when asking why the Father of Death single was not made available digitally, sans accompanying physical media. Commander expressed, let’s say, passionate umbrage and some chagrin at my complete disinterest in owning CDs and records. So much that after our conversation had tapered and he’d disappeared into the bar again, he soon came pounding back out the door toward me, Act II case and its booklet open in his hands, perplexed album owner trailing after.

“This is what I’m talking about!” he proclaimed, going on to describe the art on every surface of Act II’s packaging and every page of its booklet, front-to-back, while swiveling and turning the subjects of his narration to ensure my maximum ocular intake. I smiled, nodding and returning comment with each new vision. “And here’s a train, ’cause there’s a train in the song!” “Oh yeah, Light leaving the city. Sure!” A less hardy soul, one who perhaps had not been on the front lines of humanity’s fight for survival against an army of oppressing robots for years now, may have felt satisfied that his message was communicated after a few of these exchanges. Commander soldiered on, stopping only when there was nothing more for him to show me.

The subject’s owner looked on, having eased slightly but still alert. Apparently Commander would provide the second-to-last autograph required for his complete set, decorating the interior of his Act II case. But when my tour of the Act II art was complete and Commander found a place for his scrawl, the marker was found to be dry, having sat open for the duration of his sprint and explication. Another marker was produced, black rather than the silver of all the other autographs, and the collector’s request was fulfilled.

I hadn’t simply been placating him with my responses to the narrated journey through Act II’s physical aspects. I was totally unprepared to defend my digital-only music consumption, giving only a lame “uh, portability…” when prompted to provide some excuse for it. But all of the usual arguments for physical media, though brought up, are not why I found myself agreeing with Commander. The thing about The Protomen is that their songs are a soundtrack for their story, which is delivered in whole in the CD booklets.

Before my brother and I decided to call it a night and make our way back to Tampa Bay by a reasonable hour (I’m not as young as I used to be) Commander decided I needed my own Act II package, retrieving it from the merch booth and delivering it himself. Whether he did it out of kindness or to challenge my anti-CD lifestyle, I don’t know, but I gladly accepted it with the anticipation of devouring the booklet’s contents as I eventually did during my flight back to cool, green Seattle.

Hex has finally posted more concrete details about this year’s Nerdapalooza. There’s good news and bad.

The good news is that Nerdapalooza is returning to a two-stage format, setting up in the newly-remodeled Orlando Airport Marriott, which is hoped to reduce the downtime between performances and the resulting, notorious schedule drift that was such a problem at last year’s event. Be sure to check out the event rates for rooms at the hotel in this post.

The bad news is that this required rescheduling the entire event, so that it is now on Saturday, July 17 and Sunday, July 18. The reason that’s unfortunate is that it meant Dual Core was forced to withdraw from the bill due to scheduling conflict. Dual Core’s most recent album, Next Level, was one of our picks for 2009′s Essential Listening, so naturally I’m bummed about the news.

You can find the always up-to-date list of performers on Nerdapalooza.org. Personal favorites among them are MC Frontalot, Schaffer the Darklord, Captain Dan & The Scurvey Crew, and Random.

A few of the names I’m hoping to see appear on the list soon are The Protomen (their current tour dates only extend through May), Scrub Club (especially Kabuto the Python and Dr. Awkward), and Metroid Metal. To be honest, I’m on the fence about flying across the country for it this year (I was nearly local, last) without the addition of a few more of the performers I’m interested in seeing.

There’s an unfortunate lack of organized information on the official site, but you can find concise venue info on the Facebook event page, and info about the artists on this page of the official site. For anything else, you’ll have comb their blog, and failing that, contact the organizers directly.

In hindsight, I’m still not sure how it happened.  Sure, I loved the original, self-titled Protomen album.  But it was a frenetic, metal-laced cannon shot of an album with only occasional moments of contrasting lo-fi, acoustic notes.  Act II is another matter entirely.  It retains some of the first album’s organic components, and rather than metal it features a fearlessly executed retro ’80s pop-rock style.

I have to admit, my age probably has a lot to do with my initial bias against that element of their composition, where younger listeners probably find it as endearing as I found ’70s rock when I was growing up.  Nonetheless, my initial reluctance to embrace Act II has been fully reversed.  I now find myself listening to the new Protomen album more than anything else in my collection, combined.

Yup.  It has me in a grip, no doubt.  I find myself wondering how many times I can talk about the Protomen before I annoy my wife enough for her to say something about it.  And my followers on Twitter.  And Facebook.  And IRC.  You get the idea.

It’s hard to say where the turning point was.  Certainly, I became more and more engaged as I worked out the lyrics and the story they tell.  And I suppose I’ve built up some immunity to the cheese factor through repeated exposure.  Regardless of the causes, I’m now free enjoy Act II for what it is: a thoroughly awesome concept album that tells an overdriven drama of heroes, villains, and the robots they create.

I am so sold on the new album at this point that I want everyone to hear it.  If you like robots.  If you like the hero’s journey.  If you like music.  If you have hearing.  If you have partial hearing.  Or even just a pulse.  You get the point; Act II – The Father Of Death is Essential Listening.

Official Protomen Site | Random Protomen Stuff on YouTube

Update: Be sure to read the follow-up to this post!

Is it possible for me to describe how I feel about The Protomen’s long-awaited release, Act II?  I’m going to try.  Forgive me if it gets muddled, but that’s just the state of things here.

Before I awkwardly stumble about the page with haphazard and confused words about this album, let’s just take a good look at the cover art, OK?  It’s brilliant, isn’t it?  The whole noir aspect, the early vs. late 20th Century cities, bridged by Dr. Light and Emily.  Is that Wiley on the screen?  And who is that watching from the ledge?  Brilliant work.  Few album covers are as interesting these days.

Now the music, well, the music is hard to pin down.  It reflects the same division of culture depicted on the cover, varying between acoustic thrumming when describing the world Light grew up in, and heavy synthesizers and electric guitars when the setting shifts to the hyper-industrialized world where Light becomes a pariah and fugitive.

To be honest, I’m a little disappointed with the direction they took musically.  I was greatly excited by their Father of Death single, expecting it to be more representative of the whole upcoming release.  I admire their dedication to concept and think they did a fantastic job of executing on their ideas, but I should have heeded the warning that was their cover of “Danger Zone” when I saw them at Nerdapalooza this summer.  Half of this album is, unfortunately, just not for me.

On the other hand, I’m still dreadfully starved for more details of their story.  I think the mythology they’ve constructed around the thin skeleton of the MegaMan games is awesome and exceptional.

And if there’s any way you can make it to a live Protomen show, I highly recommend it.  They were great at Nerdapalooza and I still have some slim hope of attending their Act II CD release show in Nashville on the 25th.  If it’s even half as epic as they describe, missing this show will be a dreadful mistake.

The Protomen – The Good Doctor
The Protomen – Breaking Out
The Protomen – Here Comes The Arm

Official Site (includes links to buy)