The night began with the Pinky G crew getting the Rock Band rig set up. Tiny plastic instruments were hauled in from the bitter sloppy rain, and the business of setting up the stage for the evening’s rock began. Some early bewildered patrons, unaware of what the evening had in store, looked on in confusion as the game was set up on the stage.

After a little early technical difficulty (splitting an audio and video signal between a flat screen TV, in-house projector and sound system isn’t as easy as it seems), Pinkapalooza officially began. Pinky and the Godzillas took the stage first, setting the high score for the evening with a whopping 1.3 million point performance of Dani California. If a band was able to beat that score, they would get a neat Pink Godzilla swag bag – needless to say, we had plenty of those left over at the end of the night. Slowly but surely eager bands filled the club, got over their cold feet, and the band signup sheet quickly filled up with acts eager to get on the stage. Between sets, some awesome prizes were given away – Xbox and PC games from Microsoft Game Studios (Crackdown, Blue Dragon, Age of Empires, Flight Simulator X), holiday drink packs from Jones Soda, a couple of copies of Halo 3 signed by the guys and gals at Bungie, a puzzling number of copies of some Burger King themed Xbox 360 games, and no shortage of Pink Godzilla plushies were tossed into the crowd. Nintendo even parted with a Wii console and a copy of Super Mario Galaxy.

As the night continued, the acts got even better. Some highlights included Penny Arcade’s quartet getting up on stage:

a solo Beastie Boys song by one of the most energetic front men of the evening MC 117,

PG and PA put a bitter rivalry on respite (for the kids) as Tycho belted out a spot-on Little Sister rendition:

and a far-too-long David Bowie set with an all-star cowbell (cow bells/tambourines could be rented for a $5 CP donation) performance by a mysterious stranger:

That wasn’t the end of the evening’s cowbell shenanigans – Pinky and the Godzillas performed a rousing rendition of Don’t Fear the Reaper. The crowd demanded more cowbell, and we’d like to think that we really explored the studio space with it. Golden diapers were passed out all around:

Leeni’s performance was next, Game Boy and all – the crowd loved it. Hypnotic 8-bit beats filled the club, and spontaneous geek dancing (arguably the best kind of dancing) broke out all over.

After the musical performance, it was back to the business of rocking the house, and the serious business of choosing the participants in the night’s penultimate event, the battle of the bands. Chosen by the Pink Godzilla crew, the three finalist bands – Unhandled Exception, To Be Determined, and MC 117 – were given a simple task. Choose a song, let Pinky and the Gs play it, then play it yourselves. Take your score and divide it by the PG total. The band with the highest ratio when all was said and done walked away with a full Xbox 360 Rock Band set, generously donated by Harmonix. So, what band walked away with the prize? Who came out on top? Unhandled Exception! They came out on top with a .56 ratio, barely beating out their worthy competition. In an eerie stroke of luck, they also managed to win the Wii in the raffle. The Rock Gods must have conspired in their favor...

So, with the competition complete, it was time for the evening to come to a close. When the stage lights dimmed, about $1700 was raised for Child’s Play, and countless faces were rocked off. We’d like to thank everyone who contributed to make the night such a huge success – Bungie, Nintendo, Microsoft, all the guys at Nectar, Corey Lewis for the kickass flyer, Harmonix, Jones Soda, and last but not least, everyone who showed up and contributed to a great cause. If you weren’t able to make it out to Pinkapalooza, you can still donate to Child’s Play via their web site, www.childsplaycharity.org. We’ll see you next year at Pinkapalooza 2008. Maybe Accordion Hero will be out by then… we can only hope.

Check out more awesome pics of Pinkapalooza at Nozomi's and Zac's Flickr sets.