It's hard to believe that the tinny, Casio-beat soundtracks of the Nintendo Entertainment System could inspire an entire genre. But with nostalgia being the hot commodity that it is, from old Nickelodeon series on DVD to the continuing popularity of the theme party, it's understandable where these bands, and fans, are coming from.
The Advantage, one of the vanguards of Nintendo-core, showed a small but dedicated crowd just how technical a video game theme song can be at the Warehouse Next Door on Monday. With their fingers gnarled around the necks of their guitars, like so many NES controllers of their youth, The Advantage let the crowd relive their adolescent victories.
A kind thing, since many of those people are probably still living in their Mom's basement with the same NES controller buried somewhere underneath a growing pile of pizza boxes and candy bar wrappers.
It should be said that The Advantage don't look anthing like how one would expect a video game cover band to look. These aren't chubby, pale kids who make the yearly journey out of their parent's basement to go on tour, covering their amps with crumbs falling from their Cheetos-stained hands and taking breaks to look at their Mom's Victoria's Secret catalogue.
But they aren't exactly hipsters, either. For instance, one of the guitarists was wearing a XXL Advantage shirt on Monday, taking the definition of "that guy" to a ridiculous new level.
But maybe they and their fans are just the right mix. In Monday's audience, there was a kid in an "All your base are belong to us" shirt standing next to a guy with a labret piercing. So you see, this band builds bridges between people.
Opening act Durga Temple, hailing from Fairfax, played southern deep-fried metal. Their sloppy back porch breakdowns and whiskey-breath vocals failed to get the crowd moving, but an announcement that this was their second-to-last performance was received with a tinge of sadness.
After a sufficient beer-break, Durga Temple launched into "Velocitractor," a tempo-changing riff fest sure to induce many a hangover the next morning. For a band with such a down and dirty metal sound, their music is surprisingly technical.
Following Durga Temple's set, D.C. multi-instrumentalists French Toast launched into their dissonant, exacting indie-punk. The band has District history behind them, featuring James Canty of Nation of Ulysses and Make Up. Their new album, "Ingleside Terrace," drops on October 9 on Dischord.
French Toast's choruses against President Bush and Durga Temple's pseudo-intellectual hard rock made The Advantage's laid back style a welcome relief. The only politics for them were Sega vs. Capcom.
Completely without politics and largely without even addressing the audience, The Advantage plowed through a set list of game themes likely to give any fan boy a rumble-pack in his figurative controller.
Drummer Spencer Seim, who plays guitar in noise-duo Hella, rocked harder than any drum machine could ever hope. And he needs to, because the guitarists are so busy plotting every pick that they can't be bothered to look anything less than constipated. Remember, these aren't just covers. These are video game covers.
The Advantage is due to embark on a tour of Japan, the home of their musical inspiration. The music is sure to be more poignant to an audience raised in a culture even more saturated in video games, but D.C. waits with bated Cheeto-breath for their return.
