Poster for The Protomen’s April 2006 show in Nashville

The Protomen

The best way to describe The Protomen can be summed up in four words: Mega Man. Rock. Opera.

Their music is heavy and diverse. Diverse not only in the styles of songs they play but also in the depth of the sound. There’s ten people in the band, with drums, guitars, basses, synths and singers.

While their album borrows heavily from Capcom’s famous franchise both sonically and thematically, it’s their original take on these stories and sounds that is so surprising and captivating. Any Mega Man fan worth their salt knows who Proto Man and Mega Man are, but this band has the courage to flesh out the interpersonal relationships between these two brothers and their creator/father Prof. Light that were never fully explored in the 8-bit video games.

I won’t burrow too deeply into the story of the album because I don’t want to reveal any of the plot twists.

Very few bands release albums as complete and unified thematically as The Protomen’s Hope Rides Alone. Although individual songs more than stand on their own, every one is a vital piece of the greater story being told.

This is also the first album I’ve seen in a long while in which the liner notes were critical to completely understanding the theme of the album. It’s not as though Panther’s voice is unclear or hard to understand, but rather there is so much not being said that is important to the plot that is only filled in when you read the notes while listening to the album.

Of course, everything’s different at a live show. I said this was a rock opera and I meant it. The Protomen take the stage in black outfits that look like they were designed by Gene Autry’s evil twin. Their faces are painted in silver and black as if to mimic the metallic forms of robots. And, of course, two of them are wearing helmets, one red, the other blue, with microphones built into them. Thus do The Protomen rock out.

Panther on stage in full costume

The Protomen

In the past year I’ve managed to see The Protomen twice – once in Nashville and again in Baltimore. While I was thoroughly rocked by both shows, I was surprised by how different the feel of each show was.

Nashville is their home turf and that’s where their biggest following is. After my twelve-hour drive down there from Lancaster, I was floored to see this bar, The End, packed to capacity with Protofans. Not only were they just as rabid as I was, they had practically come in uniform. Black and red clothing was everywhere and the most elite wore pseudo-military outfits.

In contrast, the show in Baltimore had lots of room to move around in and not everyone who came was there to see The Protomen. There were no outfits in the audience this time, but the fans who did show up were just as ravenous as those in Nashville.

In fact, every fan of The Protomen that I run into seems to be of the die-hard variety. They know all the lyrics and all the music, and all of them eagerly push to the front of the stage. Online their fans are just as rabid. Much of that has to do with their unusual PR tactics and the fact that they never appear out of character in any public setting. They speak of their fans as soldiers in Dr. Light’s army and make numerous references to the tyranny of Dr. Wily. Updates are made on their websites in the form of archaic military communiqués. Usually things make sense, but every now and then they throw you a curveball like “We have spoken to the Father. He is pleased. Keep your eyes tuned to the proper channels for more information.”

Unfortunately, The Protomen are rather hard to get in touch with so I couldn’t find out any hard information on their latest projects. What is known is that Hope Rides Alone will be “devolved” to an 8-bit sound with the help of Makeup and Vanity Set, who opened for The Protomen’s April 2006 show in Nashville. The Protomen have said that the tentative release date for that album will be “April 22, 1987,” six months before the game was originally released.

They’ve also announced a new album only titled Act II for now. No information has yet been made public about this album. Their MySpace blog states “All we can say at this moment is that questions will be answered. Keep your eyes tuned to the proper channels for more information.”

Fortunately, the forums on their homepage are rife with rumors and speculation, giving one plenty to ponder. For instance, there’s the red timer on their home page. The timer finishes its countdown on July 1. Good money says that will be the release date of the 8-bit album created by Makeup and Vanity Set.

On their MySpace they have a blog post cryptically titled 525/SEA:

Makeup and Vanity Set doing his thing

Makeup and Vanity Set

TRANSMISSION
IT WAS A LONG YEAR, LIVING UNDERGROUND– WORKING BY THE MOONLIGHT AND THE HUM OF THE STREET LIGHTS OVERHEAD. I SPENT EVERY HOUR RUNNING FROM THE UNITS, EVADING THEIR EVERY MOVE AND TRYING TO REACH THE COAST. I HAD NOTHING LEFT. USING THE SCRAPS OF OLD 8 BIT TECHNOLOGY, I PIECED TOGETHER A MACHINE CAPABLE OF RECREATING THE SOUNDS OF THE RESISTANCE; SOMETHING POWERFUL. BEFORE IT FINALLY COLLAPSED AND SELF-DESTRUCTED, I HAD ASSEMBLED THE DATA I NEEDED. WITH THE DISK IN MY HAND, I FLED TO THE HILLS. MY ONLY COMMUNICATIONS WERE, UNDER AN ASSUMED ALIAS, WITH A SMALL TROOP OF BANDITS VIA THE INTERNETS.

SOON ENOUGH, THIS DISK WILL BE EVERYWHERE. DON’T SLEEP. KEEP THE FURIOUS FIRES FLAMING ON FIRE. AFOOT.

MAKEUP AND VANITY SET PRESENTS THE PROTOMEN
SOUNDMACHINE

001 HOPE RIDES STALLONE
002 POWERFUNERALZ!!!1!
003 UNBITS IN THE HOUSE OF BITS
004 THE WILL OF ONE BYTE
005 VENGEANCE
006 THE STAND 1986
007 SONS OF DOUG FETTERMAN
008 DUE ARPEGGITRON

It couldn’t be much clearer, really, as two of the tracks are already available to stream over MAVS’s MySpace page.

The biggest questions now are when we can expect Act II and what the nature and content of the album will be. Will we have more Mega Man-inspired rock goodness, or will they explore a new video game? Or will it be something entirely different?