Nerdcore Summer Camp prepares to make its debut in Columbus

Ryan Francis, who records and performs as Huge Euge, said that even among its purveyors, efforts to define nerdcore can sometimes be contentious.

“I tend to think of nerdcore as a space for people who don’t necessarily have a space,” said Francis, who first discovered the hip-hop subgenre when he saw MC Lars perform alongside Bowling for Soup and American Hi-Fi at Newport Music Hall. “This is a space for people who like Magic the Gathering. This is a space for people who are really into anime that no one really talks about. This is a space for people who really thrive and find joy in ’80s and ’90s nostalgia. … I truly believe any topic involving nerd culture up to and involving computer hacking, the door is open for that to be expressed however you wish.”

All of these approaches and more will be on display when the inaugural Nerdcore Summer Camp Festival takes over Spacebar on Saturday, Aug. 29, with performers whose songs dwell on tech (Ohm-I, whose “Tabs” documents the experience of having too many tabs open on your computer browser), the manga series “Sailor Moon” (Prowess the Testament), and even the realities of life as a stepdad set to the Home Depot jingle (Mayor Wertz). Then there’s Francis, aka Huge Euge, who rhymes about everything from snack foods (“Hummus on a Cracker”) to the prime reason you don’t want him to be the one prepping the gifts for Christmas morning (“Bad Wrapper”).

Francis said Summer Camp is the brainchild of NYC nerdcore rapper LEX the Lexicon Artist, who envisioned Summer Camp as a rebirth of Nerdapalooza, the annual celebration of nerd-themed art and music that debuted in 2007 in Orlando, Florida, dissolving in 2013. “And that’s where things were really seeded with the genre,” Francis said. “And [LEX] really wanted to bring back that energy and bring back the feel that show had.”

Envisioning the festival as a yearly event, LEX and Francis talked early on about the importance of building gradually, landing on Columbus as the location owing to the city having emerged as a fertile market for the form in recent years. “The attendance that we’ve seen at these shows here has just been so consistent,” Francis said. “And in year one, we really wanted to focus on … folks who could really bring that energy. We want punches in the gut. We want to laugh. We want to sing along. We want to dance.”

While Francis dreamed up the Huge Euge persona more than 15 years ago, he said it wasn’t until the Covid lockdown that he began to approach the music more seriously, the alter ego serving as an occasional fun distraction in those formative early years. Forced into isolation by the pandemic, and with significantly more time on his hands, Francis began to invest more time in songwriting, turning out tracks that were often rooted in those childhood memories he held dear, such as Nickelodeon’s Super Toy Run and its grand prize timed shopping spree. “The winners got to take a grocery cart through Toys R Us, grabbing anything they could, and they got to keep it all,” said Francis, who captures the childhood excitement of witnessing this experience on the aptly titled “Super Toy Run.” “With everything happening during Covid, the music … really became a form of escape, and it was wonderful.”

The song “Hoopin’ for Days” has a similar backstory, based on Francis’ Covid-era experience watching Columbus native Arrow Hibbs train in a failed attempt to recapture the Guinness World Record for continuous hula-hooping, which he first established in October 2009 when he kept a hoop going unbroken for 74 hours and 54 minutes. 

“He was living in Arizona at the time, and he would wake up at 4 or 5 in the morning, hit the streaming on his phone, and start hooping,” Francis said. “And I’d watch him and hop in the comments for a bit. Then I’d leave and come back for dinner, and he’d still be hooping. And it was like a form of escape and inspiration all at the same time.”

Coming into nerdcore, Francis said he was initially enamored with the sense of freedom afforded by the genre, having previously played in assorted punk bands where he felt more compelled to write about particular topics such as politics. Nerdcore, however, gave him space to write “a goofy song about Albert Einstein, or something completely nonsensical,” as he explained it. Amid Covid isolation, Francis’ appreciation for the music continued to expand, with the rapper coming to a greater appreciation for the sense of connection the music has fostered between him and the many diverse creators who have made a home within the space.

“That’s really when I realized how freaking cool this community is,” Francis said, “and that I really wanted to do this more than just a hobby.”