Or do you mean if empeg fanatics just hung out on a known server/channel somewhere it would be cool?

More specifically, if everyone were given a REASON to hang out on the channel, even those who normally wouldn't otherwise use IRC, that would be cool.

I think part of the reason not everyone uses IRC is the hassle of setting up the client and congregating on the proper server/channel. If that were all just hard-coded into Jemplode, then I think people would use it.