Andrew Novick's PowerPoint Presentations Go on Tour With the Melvins

“It’s pretty much made to fail, because nobody really wants to see a guy with a laser pointer doing a PowerPoint, especially at a concert,” quips Andrew Novick. He’s talking about his own work as GetYourGoing, a sing-along show turned PowerPoint performance project that is currently on tour with the Melvins. Novick has been acquainted with the Pacific Northwest weirdo punk godfathers since the ’80s, when his old band, the Warlock Pinchers, played shows with them (both acts were also on West Coast label Boner Records). Recently, the Denver-based musician and all-around avant-garde guy reached out to his old friends to see how they were doing. It turns out the Melvins were gearing up for a tour, one that comes through Colorado this week. Novick mentioned grabbing an opening slot on the Fort Collins and Denver dates with his PowerPoint performance piece, and Melvins drummer Dale Crover asked him to join the band on the road for a few weeks instead. 


Novick rearranged his work schedule and flew out to Minneapolis last week to perform a handful of shows with the Melvins and Le Butcherettes, reimagining his set each night. “I do something different every time; I never announce what it’s going to be ahead of time,” he says. “The idea is to get you to come to see something different in the hopes that it’s going to be cool, and maybe you’ll be surprised.”

Novick started performing GetYourGoing in the early 2000s, during the days of famed shows at long-gone Denver DIY institution Monkey Mania. He would dress up and perform elaborate sing-alongs to obscure songs from moments in pop culture: Olsen twins VHS tapes, the 1982 “Rock Devil Rock” episode of CHiPs, and a Mr. T rap all got the GetYourGoing treatment. Eventually, the musical component fell away and the act became focused on PowerPoint. Sometimes the show is interactive — like the time GetYourGoing was opening for Lion Sized and Novick took an ad out on Craigslist seeking potential participants for a “focus group about music.” Those who showed up for the market-research call subsequently became part of a live performance called “Corporate Solutions Live.”

“The idea is that I’m taking an opening band’s slot and just doing something different,” says Novick of GetYourGoing’s intent. “At work or at play, nobody wants to see a PowerPoint presentation on anything — but then it ends up being kind of funny, and some people get really angry, or some people come up after and tell me that they really learned something,” says Novick with a laugh.
As with all of the art projects, musical endeavors, food displays, photography exhibitions, personal-toy-collection shows and general pop-culture-obsessed performances Novick’s done over the past few decades, it’s all in fun. GetYourGoing is just another work of art this bizarro Denver dude has up his sleeve — and what better place to take his good-natured pranks than on the road with the Melvins? 

Catch GetYourGoing on stage with The Melvins and Le Butcherettes Thursday, July 16 at the Aggie Theatre in Fort Collins and Friday, July 17 at Summit Music Hall in Denver. Follow Andrew Novick's antics through his website.

Be my voyeur (or better yet, let me stalk you) on Twitter: @cocodavies