Pocket Universe

I need to start at the end of this story, because that is freshest in my mind right now. I’ll get to the beginning and middle parts later.

It has been said that luck equals preparation plus opportunity. If that is the case, I got very lucky last night. But first, let me back up and provide some background.

When I saw Jonathan Coulton perform the first time, he asked for an audience volunteer to help with a song. Naturally, my hand shot up, but then he said, “Well, wait a minute, let me first tell you what you’ll be volunteering for,” so I put my hand back down. He explained that he needed a robot voice for one line in a song, and then he picked…the guy in the back of the room, who raised his hand (the second time) before I did. So that guy got to say the one line in Chiron Beta Prime (which you can download for free), while I sat and watched. On the way home, I said to Dean, “And you know what would have been cool? I could have sung harmony with him on the chorus!” So ever since then, I regretted that missed opportunity.

The second time I saw JoCo in concert (in a bigger venue, the Great American Music Hall), he performed with Paul and Storm, who also sang backup vocals on many of his songs. Since they were already up there singing harmony, he didn’t need an audience volunteer. And besides, he didn’t even perform Chiron Beta Prime at that show. So it looked like my one shot to sing with Jonathan Coulton had come and gone, and all I could do was practice the harmony part in the shower, as I had done for months before (and since).

Cut to last night (Friday), where Jonathan Coulton had another concert at the Great American Music Hall, with Paul and Storm opening for him once again. I ended up attending the concert at the last minute (more on that later) with a bunch of other people who had bought single tickets. So we’re all sitting there, in the middle of the set, with Paul and Storm on stage singing backup for Jonathan Coulton, and he says:

“Okay, now for this next song, I need a volunteer from the audience.”

I leapt up from my seat with my hand in the air.

As he started with his “Well, before you volunteer” warning, I kept standing there, ready to go up onstage. So finally, he called me up, and I jumped up on stage. He asked for my name, announced it to the audience, and said, “Have we corresponded before?” I told him that I had emailed him looking for a comp ticket (more on that later), “but I finally got one!” Cheers broke out from the audience! And then I whispered, “Can I ask a favor? Can I sing harmony on the chorus?” He responded with, “Sure, you can do the last chorus. That’s kind of the tradition.” I shook hand with both Paul and Storm, then they offered me a seat on the couch on stage, gave me a few dolls to hold, and made sure I was comfortable until the third verse. Oh, and he gave me a waiver to sign. I also pulled out my camera to take a picture on stage, and Jonathan said, “Oh wait, Andy is taking a picture. No rush Andy; we have plenty of time.”

When the it got to the keyboard solo, there was not a keyboard on the stage, so he asked, “Hey, do you want to do the solo?” So I belted out a vocalized approximation of the solo, again to thunderous applause. I kept the microphone for the third verse, where I nailed my two-word solo. Then Paul joined me, and the two of us sang harmony for the final chorus. The song ended, the crowd went wild, I got the “Ladies and gentlemen, Andy Bates!”, and a shook a few hands and left the stage. As I shook Storm’s hand, he leaned in and said, “Really, we couldn’t have asked for a better volunteer.” And as I returned to my seat (getting high-fives from audience members the entire way), Paul said, “We’ll have to call this DVD, ‘Jonathan Coulton in Concert, Featuring Andy Bates.’”

Did I mention that this concert was recorded for a future DVD release?

Afterwards, I talked to the band members as they were signing autographs and shaking hands. Storm said, “We were just talking backstage about how perfect you were. I mean, the harmony, plus that keyboard solo and everything.…” Jonathan said, “When you stood up, somehow you managed to be taller than humanly possible. It was like one of those tricks where a magician forces you to pick a certain card; as soon as you stood up, everyone was pointing, and we just had to pick you.”

Meanwhile, I had random audience members walking around saying, “Is that the Andy Bates?” I had people coming up to shake my hand. People asked to have their picture taken with me. I even signed a Paul and Storm CD, right after Paul did. And when I met the guys from Harmonix (again, more on that later) and asked to get my picture taken you them, they said, “Are you kidding? We want to get our picture taken with you!” In all, I was able to sing with Jonathan Coulton on stage for a DVD concert, I got to be a pseudo–rock star for the duration of a concert, and I got to rectify a missed opportunity that I had been regretting for months. How often does that happen?