Pizza Underground at Kings Barcade

The murmur of chatter turns into a starstruck silence, as Mccauley Culkin comes out with that recognizable smile. He still has his childhood squinty eyes and chubby cheeks-- the only difference between him now and him during his Home Alone career  is his scraggly auburn ponytail. Culkin introduces the opening act, Toby Goodshank, and disappears behind the curtain. A sigh of relief as Goodshank announces his last song is followed by some man named PussyJoel in a ski mask who dances around a projector with cat pictures. As this concludes, the crowd anxiously waits for Culkin and the other pizza enthusiasts.

Any impatience is made up for when the members of The Pizza Underground surprises the crowd with boxes of cheese pizza! Culkin on the shekere (a type of gourd instrument), Matt Colbourn on Guitar, Austin Kilham on keyboard, Deenah Volmer on tambourine, and Phoebe Kreutz as the self-proclaimed "girl-hitting-the-pizza-box-with-a-drumstick" start on their medley of Velvet Underground covers; the meaningful lyrics of the 60's hippie band, however, were replaced with delightful puns.  Kreutz, in an interview with Vulture, calls the band "more of an art project than a band-band". Looking around at Kings Barcade, the crowds' response was in accordance with this title: the usual dancing at Kings-- whether it be the full-out mosh or the calming sway-- was missing. Instead, the crowd responded to the band's medley with constant chuckles.

Pizza eating Culkin-- I gave this poster to Culkin after the show.

Childhood Culkin is pizza-- I also gave this poster to Culkin after the show.

Those there for the music were in the wrong place. While some would label the band as "pathetic" and "druggies", I rank the band somewhere between notably clever and borderline genius. The emotional puns of "Cheese Days" (which parodies Velvet Underground's "These Days"):  "I've been out walking/ I don't do too much toppings/ cheese days…/don't ask for pepperoni/ not today" somehow work  really well to dramatize ordering a pizza. "Pizza Gal" parodies Velvet Underground's "Femme Fatale", which maintains the warning aspect of the Velvet Underground song, but instead comically warns the listener that "here she comes/ better hide your slice" for "everybody knows she's a pizza gal".  Combined with their other songs like "Delivery Man", "Take a Bite of the Wild Slice", the Pizza Underground's medley successfully honors pizza.

Check out the band's blog!

Cheese pizza from the band! Yum!

Kurt Cobained parodied Nirvana songs, singing in the past tense

"Do you like pizza? Do you like puns? Then this is the show for you!"
Culkin clearly has retained something from his childhood acting days.