Pitchfork

Photos by Rich Orris; text by Jen Nathan

If there's one thing every teacher's pet daydreams about, it's revenge. On Sunday, the nerds had their day, at the second (and hopefully annual) Revenge of the Book Eaters extravaganza at New York's Beacon Theatre.

A benefit for Dave Eggers' tutoring program-cum-superhero haberdashery 826NYC, this musical celebration of all things literary featured such smarty pants as Feist, My Morning Jacket's Jim James, Grizzly Bear, Spoon's Britt Daniel, the New Pornographers' A.C. Newman, and Broken Social Scene's Kevin Drew.

The always erudite Demetri Martin kicked things off with an in-depth analysis of the finer points of farting on airplanes. Then Newman, America's favorite newly married Canadian, rocked out with a small symphony of back-up players, followed by Brooklyn's own Grizzly Bear. The band's ethereal set included a haunting take on Yellow House's "Marla", originally written in the 1930s by singer Ed Droste's grandmother. The set was rounded out by a vaguely creepy rendition of Paul Simon's "Graceland".

The highlight of the evening offered a glimpse behind the cape-filled shelves of 826NYC: Feist's dramatic reading of student work. The riveting adventures of a five-foot-tall peanut named Mystic Waters and his wife Jelly Taker could only be topped by Britt Daniel and A.C. Newman's joint cover of an Alex Chilton song.

The moral of the story? The geeks shall inherit the earth.

A.C. NEWMAN


FEIST


GRIZZLY BEAR






BRITT DANIEL (OF SPOON)


JIM JAMES (OF MY MORNING JACKET)


KEVIN DREW (of BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE)



SARAH VOWELL


LEO ALLEN, DEMETRI MARTIN, EUGENE MIRMAN


DEMETRI MARTIN


EVERYONE