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Nerd rock is back. Actually, I don’t know if it was ever gone, or if it ever existed in the first place, but suffice to say it’s here now in the form of Chester French. Formed by two Harvard freshmen in 2003 and named for the American sculptor who built the Lincoln Memorial, the nerdyness extends not only to their roots, but also to the duo’s stage presence.  Take their recent show at Hollywood’s El Rey Theater, opening for Lady Sovereign, for instance. Front man D.A. Wallach bounds on stage in ill-fitting red trousers (you know, the kind of pants your grandma would suggest you wear on your first day school), a somewhat dingy white t-shirt and a mop of unruly strawberry blonde hair. Guitarist Maxwell Drummey is a skinny white kid with a backwards haircut, sunglasses that engulf his face and a skirt.

The music, on the other hand, is not so nerdy. Wallach proceeds to whale out some telling lyrics with such in-your-face energy that I find myself dancing and singing along to the catchy chorus despite myself. “But you feel so clean/ Well she craves affection/ So I use protection/ And I know she loves me/ She loves everybody,” he belts out, over riffs that meld glam rock with surfer melodies, funky baselines and even some hip-hop beats. The juxtaposition of preppy and party escalates from there— Drummey strips off his cross-dressing attire at one point to reveal his, um, heroin-chic chest, and the climax of the evening just might be when Wallach jumps off stage into the audience, flinging sweat upon the screaming masses and jumping up and down with mosh-pit style enthusiasm.

I’ve just discovered an important truth: nerd rock is hot.

Words by Christine Spehar, photos by Parts Department

 

4.86 (7 votes)

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