I remember telling fellow volunteers at the university paper about these musicians. I remember our after-term parties and me bringing Rock Band over so I could at least let them hear “Opening Band.” I remember doing my first ever open mic night at the campus pub with “Re: Your Brains” on my setlist—that, mind you, was the only good part about my set.

Jonathan Coulton and Paul & Storm have been two acts I’ve been wanting to see live for a while. While my bucket list of live concerts include internationally-high-profile acts like Daft Punk, Franz Ferdinand and Arcade Fire, JoCo and Paul & Storm were pretty high up on the list before their concert at the Mod Club last Saturday night.

So I went alone; I invited five or so people, but they couldn’t/wouldn’t go. That didn’t stop me and I’m glad I went. It was great!

JOCO f. PAUL & STORM, PERFORMING “FIRST OF MAY” AS THEIR LAST ENCORE SONG @ MOD CLUB, TORONTO.

Highlights of the night included:

• Knitted panties thrown on stage during “Opening Band” (Storm called them “Etsy panties”)
• All three performers sporting strong forms of facial hair
• Paul & Storm trying their damndest to focus their “cover band” jokes on Canadian bands and artists
• JoCo performing new (and great) tracks from his upcoming album and both ending themes from the Portal series
• The use of the Mod Club’s stage effects, as well as the performers’ love of the bubble machine
• “Mr. Fancy Pants” performed, including samples from the Mario Bros. theme and Beyonce’s “All the Single Ladies”
• JoCo starting off the encore with “A Talk with George,” which has my favourite melodies written by him

It was an amazing show at a really nice venue that I’ve never been to before! While I’ve checked them off my bucket list, they’re now on my list of acts I need to see again.