Lots of bands run on internet memepower these days, but few do it as well as Starbomb. The rap/rock group hits that perfect intersection between scatalogical humor and old school video game references, and it drew in a sold out crowd on Friday at the House of Blues.
Though, to be fair, a good chuck of the crowd was primarily there for the opening act, Epic Rap Battles of History, which admirably lived up to its name. There were contests framed as rhyme-offs between Rasputin and Joseph Stalin, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and their four Renaissance painter counterparts, and the Biblical figures of Adam and Eve.
That last one involved the duo pulling up an local woman, Natalie Cox, who flawlessly rapped out Eve’s part from their viral YouTube video. I ran into Cox later in the merch line, and she told me she’d never been on stage before in her life. Her day job is as a legal videographer, which is as close to the polar opposite of rap goddess as you can get.
“This was a dream come true,” she said, her arms full of fresh merch.
But it was nothing compared to when Starbomb took the stage. The group brought an entire storyline with them. Through a series of video calls on stage, they were harassed by the CEO of Video Games (Mark “Edward “Markplier” Fischbach), who said the band was in debt for 20 bajillion dollars that he wants paid back in poopybuttfartcoins cryptocurrency. Other internet personalities like Harry “Hbomberguy” Brewis also dropped in via video to help the band out, turning the whole thing into a pretty good “let’s put on a show to save the rec center” sort of tale, though with more dick jokes.
While a crowd dressed as internet memes, game characters, and decked out in N64 T-shirts cheered on, Starbomb trotted out most of their big hits. Highlight from the setlist included “It’s Dangerous to Go Alone Take This,” a Legend of Zelda rap about propositioning Link for a handjob; “Rap Battle: Ken vs. Ryu” with the iconic line “my rhymes ar fat like the sumo E. Honda/I’m the king of dick jungle with my giant anaconda”; and a track from 2024’s Rise of the Lyrics which has an ode to the incomparable sexiness of a warrior jar full of innards from Elden Ring.
These tunes had the crowd bouncing and cheering, but the real surprise was the covers. Starbomb went deep into the 1980s and dredged up some truly weird bits. Did you know that McGruff the Crime Dog did an album of anti-drug songs released solely via cassette by mail order in 1986? Well, Brian Wecht does, and he serenaded the crowd with McGruff’s “Cocaine and Crack.” As if that wasn’t weird enough, they also played a rendition of the notoriously bad rap song “Top That” from Teen Witch (1989), a song I thought I had hallucinated during a flu when I was eight.
There are a lot of bad things to say about the internet. I know; I’ve said them right here on this site. That intersection between edgy humor, video games, and memespeak has bred some truly terrible things, including a very weird modern version of fascism.
Starbomb brought out the best of the internet. There was a real sense of community there, banded together by a love of pop culture repackaged as in-jokes. Where else are you going to see a packed house sing the “DK Rap” from Donkey Kong 64 from memory? I wish being online was more like being at a Starbomb concert.
