Mayer Hawthorne Finds 'Redemption' at AOL's Geek Awards

Wednesday night at L.A.'s Conga Room, AOL's Geek Awards honored the biggest geeks in the fields of film, style, music and more. For his part, music honoree Mayer Hawthorne was incredibly excited. "This is redemption for me. I've been waiting my whole life for somebody to give awards to geeks," the silver-suited Hawthorne told Spinner as he walked the pink carpet.

The soul singer did double duty, picking up a Geek Award and rocking a 30-minute set after the ceremony, hosted by the hilarious Ken Jeong ('The Hangover,' 'Role Models') Hawthorne was equally stoked to be providing the soundtrack for a party that included film winner Kevin Smith and new Web darling Elyse Porterfield (better known as "Jenny HOPA" to the Web geeks out there for her famed white board hoax on the Chive). "This is awesome. I feel like we're at 'Animal House' or 'PCU' or something and we're Parliament-Funkadelic," Hawthorne said, proving his geek knowledge with movie references.

After a disco and techno-infused DJ set by Small Change, Hawthorne and the County took to the Conga Room stage to compete for fans' attention with an open bar that included alcohol snow cones and free food like Cuban sliders, crab cakes, pulled pork sandwiches and dessert trays of Twinkees and Ding Dongs. A seasoned stage vet, Hawthorne had a few tricks up his sleeve on top of his infectious soul tunes. He opened the set joined by four lovely ladies dancing onstage, and when fans weren't boisterous enough in appreciating the combination of his dancers and the musicianship, Hawthorne yelled, "Come on! That's hot girls dancing!"

By the end of the set, Hawthorne had fans in the front of the stage dancing as well, as he delivered songs like his silky smooth new single 'I Need You,' the engaging 'Just Ain't Gonna Work Out,' with the classic '70s-style spoken word intro in the vein of the Manhattans' 'Kiss And Say Goodbye,' and his always energetic cover of E.L.O.'s 'Mr. Blue Sky.'

As he wrapped up the set with the dancing girls back onstage, Hawthorne picked up his Geek Award and stood, one foot on an amp and triumphantly raised his trophy, capping his evening of redemption. To read more about the event, head over to PopEater.