It was a nerdfest.

I’m not saying cool no longer sells, but there’s a whole subset of charisma-challenged, intelligent acts speaking to an audience that knows every feature of its iPhone, which adopts technology instantly, call it the anti-"Jersey Shore" crowd.

Used to be you wanted to be distant, mysterious. But that’s impossible in the digital age, if you try it looks manufactured, we laugh at manipulation, we embrace honesty.

Nataly Dawn said growing up in Los Angeles she never dreamed of playing the Troubadour. Then, a beat later, she added that she had no idea the Troubadour existed. That’s the difference. There are those studying the industry from before puberty, no-talents like Rebecca Black believing they can crack the entertainment game after a lucky break, then there are the educated industrious people looking less for a lucky break than creating their own.

I’m not gonna sit here and tell you Pomplamoose’s music is ready for the Top Forty, but whose is? Top Forty is so specialized, so unique, so controlled by a handful of producers and labels that most people don’t feel left out or abandoned, they just ignore it, the same way you do some exotic sport that that kid in high school plays. Meanwhile, like puffed-up high school bullies, those playing the Top Forty game keep telling us it’s the most important, most valuable endeavor and we should all pay attention. But we don’t. Didn’t they bill Jai alai as the "World’s Fastest Sport"? So what? Bombed in America anyway after a small burst of success. Then again, most people believed Jai alai was rigged. Kind of like the Kardashians. Maybe nitwit savants care about this mercenary clan and their producer Ryan Seacrest, but most laugh. Kim didn’t go to college, she needs someone else to help her with her technology. She thinks it’s all about the outside, but the geeks know it’s what’s on the inside that counts. Nataly Dawn looked like she was ready to go to Biology class, like she’d bought her outfit at the Gap, there was no designer in sight, and that’s why the audience loved her.

And her boyfriend Jack was follicly-challenged and didn’t give a shit. Sure, he had a beard, but could you imagine trying to sell this duo to Top Forty or network? They just don’t look right. Almost all of America doesn’t look right. Isn’t it better to throw in with the mass as opposed to perching yourself above? This is the problem with bankers. They think they’re special, they think everyone wants to be them. But they’re wrong. We don’t like people who wreck the economy for personal gain, we don’t want to be them, we abhor them!

And Jack is definitely talented. He was playing tiny keyboards effectively, pounding away, not looking like a novelty act but a man possessed. And he and the other players switched off instruments. Music is supposed to be fun, life is supposed to be fun. Who’d want to be a model, posing all day? We want to feel alive, we want to move, we don’t want to do the same thing over and over but progress.

Meanwhile, it’s not like Pomplamoose is broke. They just came back from doing a commercial in Austria. It’s kind of like the sixties bands, ignored, they’d tie up with anybody, troll the Web, those commercials of your heroes are plentiful. But when they made it, they pulled back. It’s not about licking the ass of the corporation so you too can be rich and famous, it’s about utilizing the money to stay alive, to fund your art, to help you stay on the path.

Granted, it was just the Troubadour. But it was sold out, and the audience was rabid, and if they stay at it, who knows where Pomplamoose could go? Maybe they’d write those infectious ditties… You’ve got to work it out before you get it right.

And now you work it out in public. No one rehearses in his bedroom unknown until he’s twenty. You evolve in front of and with the audience. The concept of emerging fully-formed, the major label/Top Forty way, makes no sense, it would be like being ready for the MCAT after graduating high school. Kids today know you’ve got to jump through hoops to get where you want to go. Just because idiots parade on reality TV don’t think this is the way most young people are today. No, they believe in hard work, degrees, resume-building…they’re doing their own personal artist development, if you want them to take you into their bosom you’ve got to be on the same path, lightning bolt fame is to be made fun of, that’s what all these reality and Top Forty stars just don’t get, they’re not heroes, they’re zeros.