"Still Alive" played on Rock Band by Jonathan Coulton and a band of Geeks

If you click the link, you can go to the blog of Veronica Belmont (of Mahalo Daily) to watch a video of Jonathan Coulton playing his song "Still Alive" on Rock Band with a band of Geeks: Merlin Mann, Leo LaPorte and Veronica Belmont.

Originally, I just thought it was cool that a Jonathan Coulton song made it into something so freaking cool! But by the end of the episode of "This Week In Tech #133" I realised that it was much cooler.

Seems that "Still Alive" is the song Jonathan wrote for the guys who made Halflife and Portal. It is the ending Credits song sung by the computer in Portal! Which made me understand what was actually happening in the song and made it so much more over the top cooler!

For those who will not be checking out the video, allow me a quick review:

The person who recorded the segment did an excellent job, but I suspect that he was a professional, so not too surprising. Jonathan pulled down the screen and people cheered. Jonathan introduced "The Band" and people cheered. The music started and Veronica played the guitar fantastically. The crowd cheered the sounds and Jonathan started singing. Merlin Mann on drums seemed a bit flummoxed and made mistakes when his part came in, but he did fairly well all told. Then Leo came in. Leo in his stylish western wear and his bass guitar. It was quite a show. He knew he was making the mistakes and he became a showman on the stage while Jonathan sang the song perfectly right beside him. Each time Leo failed, he would toss his hands out and the crowd would groan and cheer at the same time. The Song failed with 99% completion, but, seemingly according to the crowd, that stat was off a bit. The crowd loved it and, so -- it seems -- does the internet crowd.

I for one did.

Thanks guys! and thank the makers of Portal for a) a fantastic mind-bending logic game and b) for hiring Jonathan Coulton for writing the end song.