It’s hard to think of a nerdier band than the Mountain Goats, which is usually just one guy who pretends he’s a whole band. (He might have a band with him at this Showbox this weekend, though, who knows?) Singer/songwriter John Darnielle’s fascinating musical catalog includes a song written from the perspective of Toad from the Super Mario Brothers franchise, a borrowed chorus from 2007 PlayStation 2 game “Odin Sphere,” and two pieces about historical writers: a song about American horror author H. P. Lovecraft and another about English crime author Sax Rohmer, who wrote the Fu Manchu books. He also sings a whole lot about geography, so much that someone on Reddit made this gigantolor Google map of all the geographical places he’s mentioned in lyrics. World-class nerdlinger right here. <3