Chipocrite

I just came across these reviews while going back over a few shows I attended this summer and I just wanted to stick up for Chipocrite and sort a few things out. The two previous reviewers are fair in some of their criticism, but some of what they're saying seems a little skewed. Calling Chipocrite a "novelty" is ludicrous -- Lebowskifest is a traveling fan convention celebrating a relatively cult classic film from what, 15 years ago? The whole thing is a NOVELTY EVENT. If the waitresses dressed up as Maude, random Dudes in sweater jackets and audience members cheering at various moments and reciting lines along with the movie didn't scream "novelty" to you, then sure, the guy onstage playing "Hotel California" on a Game Boy probably seemed absolutely absurd. As for the length of his set, OK, maybe it was a little too long for people who aren't used to the chiptune sound, but your criticism is that he played seven songs? At about 3.5 minutes per song, that's just about 25 minutes -- totally standard for an opener. Most acts take longer to set up, sound check and get off the stage. Kudos to the event organizers for seeking out something unique and taking a chance. If you're paying close to $20 to watch a movie you've already seen probably 50 times, you should be glad they tried to spice it up a little with something at the very least memorable. I was also at Lebowskifest two or three years ago and the opener -- some completely forgettable alt country band -- got just as tiresome after a few songs, and not because they were playing Nintendo sounds or reminded me of geeky 80s bands. They just brought nothing to the table at all. Finally, I want to clear up the "Booing" situation. I saw this happen also and the way the last reviewer described it could be easily misinterpreted. It wasn't like the crowd burst into an angry, nonstop jeer for the last 10 minutes of this poor guy's set. He mentioned something before one of his last songs that it was a song not from the soundtrack (out of the 7 or so songs he played, almost all of them were) and a small group of people started booing THAT, not really him or his skills. As soon as the song started, a lot of people were dancing again, and those people seemed to feel kind of bad, I could tell. I agree that he maybe could have cut down 5 minutes or so and it wore off after a bit but I had a blast. As a big chiptune fan myself, I was totally psyched to see this on the bill, and I asked a lot of people around me what they thought. Most people seemed to be smiling and dancing, so really, if you were that impatient to see the 51st viewing of the movie, you let your impatience rob you of a fun time. (Also, it's kind of unfair to criticize the event as a whole in a review on Chipocrite's Ticketmaster page.. All that stuff about when the movie started late and the loud sound wasn't his fault!)

The show could have been great, but I have a few major gripes. The musical opener, "Chipocrite", was a novelty and was entertaining how into it all he was...for the first three songs. 4 songs later Thomas Dolby's grandson was still going strong. Too much beeping even for a Nintendo fan like myself. Second, it took almost 45 minutes to start the movie after the music stopped. What the hell were they waiting for, Jeff Bridges to show up? Lastly, the sound was up so loud that my ears are still ringing. This was a movie screening guys, not a Rammstein concert. What? Did you say someting?

Chipocrite was cool, but they allowed him to show show off his gameboy skills for TOO LONG!! I felt bad because some people in the audience decided to express their impatience with 'boos!'. I, on the otherhand, was just curious as to why the TIME wasn't on the agenda, ticket or website???? I came here assuming the movie was going to start ON TIME.....and it certainly didn't. I really think if you're going to advertise a start time, make sure you're clear on when the movie's going to start. They showed The dude WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYY TOOO LATE!!!!!!!!!!!!