Jonathan Coulton

Symphony Space; Fri 27

Jonathan Coulton

Photograph: Dale May

The crowd at a Jonathan Coulton show is as engaging an act as the singer-songwriter himself is. Fans dress up as zombies in anticipation of his playful pop ballad "Re: Your Brains," about an undead coworker who's nonetheless professional. They brandish homemade T-shirts and dolls; they boldly engage the performer in conversation between songs.

Coulton encourages this behavior. His fans are responsible for his success in a way more substantial than buying concert tickets. The guitarist licenses his work under Creative Commons, and since he began writing songs in 2005—after quitting his job as a computer programmer—like-minded online souls have shared tunes, created homemade videos with World of Warcraft footage and even helped Coulton write at times. The winner of a remix contest using his biggest hit, "Code Monkey," frequently joins him onstage.

Coulton's melodies are straightforward, catchy and earnest. Clever lyrics about evil geniuses, squids with low self-esteem and robot overlords betray his songs' true subject matter: heartbreak, self-doubt and isolation. His unashamed sincerity makes him a hero to geeks, and to the geeky parts inside the rest of us. If programmers and role-players are the hippie counterculture of today—a formerly mocked minority now coming into power and repute—then Coulton is their Jonathan Edwards, and his feel-good guitar anthems are the force drawing them out from behind their blue-hued monitors. As for the jaded, ironic music fan…he'll cringe after the first couple of tunes. But if he sticks around, we wager he'll be as hooked as a zombie on brains.—Jane Borden

Download Jonathan Coultan's music on iTunes

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