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Media Credit: John Kernan MK Reed, Robin Enrico and Liz Baillie present a Nerdlinger Award at the comic shop.

Media Credit: John Kernan Gas Can Sam performs using "internal distortion," drawing sound from his own body.

Atomic Books rang in their sweet 16 on Friday night with vegan cake, "internal distortion" and copious amounts of alcohol. Small groups of friends fused into larger groups that slowly filed into the Hampden bookstore.

At some points in the evening, the store was packed so densely that many were awkwardly pressed against a display of books with drawings that would make even the editors of Cosmopolitan blush. With only a few hours of celebration for three events - an anniversary, two comic releases and a pre-party for Saturday's "SPX-Plosion," - the night jumped from one form of entertainment to another, allowing only enough time in between for a quick stop at the bar.

After 40 minutes of perusal-time of Atomic Book's self-proclaimed "literary finds for mutated minds," the evening began with a series of comic book readings. A comic reading is not unlike those kindergarten story times in which the teacher would hold the book up to the class and narrate in colorful voices. The only differences are that the comics were projected onto a screen and the subject matter was most definitely not suitable for those still wearing Velcro shoes.

The comic readings began with Ben Claassen's satiric "Employee Bathroom: A Potty Training Guide for Professionals" and was followed with other readings that covered such topics as the childhood fear of Playboy's Miss August in Julia Wertz's "Public Hair" or a borderline homicidal ex-boyfriend in Ken Dahl's "Love ... A Colossal Waste of Time." The narrations were performed by the authors themselves and sometimes by others in the audience. And with an audience where everyone knew each other, it wasn't hard to find volunteers to lend their voices to the characters.

The only lull in the presentation was Laura Weinstein's reading of "The Goddess of War." Her announcement of "Sorry I keep spilling liquor everywhere." was the first of several inclinations that the goddess was inspired by her own personality: The comic's main character, Valerie, is admonished for being drunk as well. Weinstein's reading dragged on and the majority of the laughs she seemed to receive were her own.

The guests ranged from girls with mullets to guys with ponytails who interjected Sarah Palin quips into the rare silences and laughed loudly at such lines as Theo Ellsworth's "I was played with and aggressively cuddled for hours." Standing on the fringe of the crowd surrounding the reader felt much like interloping on those "quirky yet oddly fascinating" kids from high school. And the high school flashbacks didn't stop there.

The Third-Annual Nerdlinger Awards were vaguely reminiscent of high school superlatives. The creators, MK Reed, Robin Enrico and Liz Baillie, were donned entirely in black with red ties for accent. One drunken night, the three decided that the same people were honored every year, so they decided to present their own awards.

The trophies were beer bottles with Tolstoy-length titles scrawled on them and were handed out to the recipients ,and if the recipient couldn't be found, they were given to random guests in the audience. Presenting the Nerdlingers in Atomic Books was a step up from the previous year in which the awards were given out in a hotel room that was noisy and cramped.

Following the presentations was a small break during which a vegan birthday cake from Brunie's Bakery was served. Although the cocoa cake was exceptionally delicious, the overwhelming sweetness made the lack of drinking water glaringly obvious. However, guests with trash-bag-wrapped booze were ubiquitous, so, fortunately, not everyone in attendance was dehydrated.

The musical presentations were varied and more along the lines of performance art. The only similarities each act had was the volume of the noise and the uncertainty of when the songs actually began and ended (it was a safe bet that when the clapping began, the song was finished.)

With a loose-leaf sheet of paper taped on an amp that read "Lord Jesus Christ Please Forgive Me," Gas Can Sam performed what he calls "internal distortion." This involved a mixer, a tape player on repeat and a sound-amplifying device that went from being inside his mouth to being duct-taped on drums. However, more interesting than the sounds that came from the amp were Gas Can Sam's actions of writhing on the ground, shirtless, looking to the heavens and repeatedly crossing himself.

Ambergris, the two-man band comprised of Hiroshi Kimura and Matt Thurbert, seemed to personally know every audience member. This was beneficial for the moments when the two played out of tune or when Thurbert forgot the lyrics and had to tape them onto the microphone stand. With lyrics such as "your scrotum is full of little boulders," it is remarkable that Thurbert was able to forget them in the first place.

Molly O'Connell's solo project, Hitty Titty, was more of a religious experience than the head-banging previous performances. Surrounded by cross-legged friends, O'Connell sat on an orange blanket and chanted phrases such as "eeyaadeeya" that her equipment distorted into high-pitched ramblings. However those who sat around her in a semi-circle seemed to understand the language perfectly.

Finally, Bearing Pieces's Chris Day, pushed the amps past 11 with his noise rock. This music required ears to be covered in order to drown out the piercing distortion so one could hear the chord transgressions and simple melody. Although most of the crowd had cleared out by this time, his performance easily ushered headache-prone individuals through the doors.

The Atomic Books 16th anniversary party had an air of exclusivity for an event that was not labeled "invite only." A guest attributed this to the tight-knit "community in Baltimore for small media." And it's quite possible that the entire small media community showed up for this evening of eardrum shattering performances, absurd narrations, inappropriate anecdotes and free alcohol. With that kind of turn out, it is safe to say that Atomic Books had a very good birthday.

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