Being an avid music fan, I tend to watch album reviews from time to time. One music critic in particular I have come back to often is Anthony Fantano. Fantano is a Connecticut native who describes himself as “the internet’s busiest music nerd,” and it’s a pretty accurate statement.

On his channel, you’ll find album reviews- some good and some bad. You’ll also find weekly track reviews, each video spanning across multiple genres. That alone is commendable because most of us don’t often venture outside of our own music bubble. He also decided to do a live tour, very similar to a comedy show.

Since Fantano is from Connecticut, he’s always had my support- yet I will admit, I was on the fence when I saw this show pop up in my email. After all, what is a music critic going to do on stage for over an hour? A quick search on YouTube will show you on his last run, he did a lyrical analysis of “All Star” by Smash Mouth from the movie “Shrek.” Since that alone convinced me to go, here’s what happened.

The show started off with a video of Cal Chuchesta, a character from Fantano’s channel (played by Fantano), saying he was sorry he couldn’t make it tonight. Chuchesta then came out on stage, waving to the crowd and letting us know we had gotten “goofed.” Chuchesta then proceeded to mumble rap and start “beef” with another rapper. A video appeared of Fantano telling Chuchesta to come back or else his favorite cassette tape would be destroyed (in which Fantano actually pulled the tape out). Chuchesta ran off stage and we had a short break.

After the break, Fantano showed up and explained to us the beauty of 8D audio. 8D audio is a song that has eight dimensions or layers on it, supposedly sounding cooler. I’ll be honest, I couldn’t tell the difference. However, Fantano wanted to show us something better: 420.69-XD audio. This was really just Fantano putting a snippet of Vanessa Carlton’s song “A Thousand Miles” into a Metallica song.

 After another short break an audience member was needed for the next segment. Alicia from Middletown was chosen to play the game “A Death Grips lyric or a Maya Angelou poem.” Here, Fantano read off a set of lines and Alicia had to guess which it was. She was pretty good at it, and got a free shirt for her efforts. This part I genuinely did like.

  Next came a Ted Talk on why Drake is the most influential rapper of the decade. Fantano had a slideshow presentation showing the change in rap music since the 1990s and how Drake has been able to create such an impact through memes and inspiring dance crazes.

After this came the lyrical analysis of Smash Mouth’s “All Star.” I know I’ve already mentioned watching this, but this is one of the only things that wasn’t related to rap music, so I was very excited for this segment. The funniest part was when the crowd read the lyrics, but no one made the record scratch noise like Fantano wanted them to. 

“We’re gonna do it again, Connecticut is not that rhythmic it seems.” We eventually got it down and the analysis continued.

 The night concluded with a live version of “Let’s Argue.” This is a segment featured on Fantano’s YouTube channel when he talks about unpopular opinions, hot takes and tough questions. For this segment, he took ideas from the crowd. The content ranged from “’Wish You Were Here’ is the best Pink Floyd album,” to “Anthony Fantano isn’t real, he’s a character played by Cal Chuchesta.” It wasn’t a bad segment. It was actually pretty funny.

If you like rap music and memes, then you should definitely spend a night with Anthony Fantano. You can find all content related to Fantano on Youtube, just search “The Needle Drop” or “fantano.”