CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Local math rock band Divisible By Nothing were taken aback after a chant of “PEMDAS” took over their recent show after their first three songs, intellectual sources confirmed.
“I just started thinking back to my days in eighth grade, when we had that order of operations shit drilled into our skulls,” said Daniel Archson, the fan who started the chant, after telling us the square root of the track time of Divisible By Nothing’s new single. “I was so pumped up, I just started yelling ‘PEM-DAS! PEM-DAS!’ To my surprise, people actually followed my lead. By the end of it we all had our TI-84s waving around in the air, what a rush.”
Divisible By Nothing guitarist Peter Burke was, initially, confused by the spectacle.
“Yeah, this stuff caught me off guard. I have heard ‘square that shit!’ once in between songs, but this is a whole new level,” said Burke while consulting his AP math textbook from high school. “I mean, I haven’t even thought about ‘PEMDAS’ since, what, 2011? And I say that as a double major in mathematics! I have a doctorate, for crying out loud. My parents always told me to get a real job instead of choosing music as a career. Maybe this is a wake-up call.”
Local math teacher Christy Kowalski was pleased to hear of the recent happenings.
“Maybe I should start giving out extra credit if some of my kids start attending Divisible By Nothing shows. If they can work in the quadratic formula into the lyrics of their next EP, then it’s a home run. Consider me a new fan,” Kowalski said before she returned to grading tests. “I’m just thankful they didn’t start a ‘show us you 80085’ chant, that is incredibly juvenile and hasn’t been funny since sixth grade.”
At press time, a 17-year-old roadie for Divisible By Nothing reported getting an unprecedented 89 on an exam, thanks to remembering the acronym before heading into the classroom.