Harry & the Potters

The Donnell Library had a bit of a treat yesterday when we were treated to a little old-fashioned sticking it to the man. If by "the man" we mean "Voldemort". Yes sir, yesterday marked the triumphant return of Harry and the Potters to our auditorium. I'm sorry. What's that you say? You have never heard of Harry and the Potters? You must be kidding me. They're amazingly popular, having started a couple years ago with (and I might be inaccurate here) four members of the band all dressed exactly like Harry. Each member was a different Harry year. There was Harry Year 4 and Harry Year 3. Now the group has its own MySpace page and their show are packed. Packed, I tells ye!

The concept of having a band come into the library is hardly new, by the way. Four years ago NPR had a rather nice piece entitled Heavy Metal In Libraries that brilliantly summed up the entire enterprise.

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Originally uploaded by Ramseelbird.

Okay. So here's how the performance went. I tried to get some shots of how big the crowd was at this show. We had people packed into the back of the auditorium and actual honest-to-goodness fights for seats. Here's a shot of the stage from the back before the show began.

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Originally uploaded by Ramseelbird.

But as any true concert-goer knows, you don't just start a show with the band you want to see. You have to have an opening act. So who is worthy of being the opening act for Harry and the Potters? You got it. Draco and the Malfoys. You can see them here. These guys went all out too. Featuring such fabulous songs as My Dad Is Rich (Your Dad Is Dead) and Potions Yesterday (with the recurring phrase of "'cept Snape") they totally won over the crowd. About the time they got to the haunting ballad Hippogriffs Deserve To Die and their cover of 99 Red Balloons (which adapts surprisingly well to the Harry Potter world) they had the crowd completely won over. There's nothing like hearing a guy say, "This goes out to all the Slytherin girls out there" and hearing the returning screams to make a person feel good about the youth of America.

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Originally uploaded by Ramseelbird.

Out of curiosity I wanted to see how the Draco and the Malfoys merchandise did against the Harry and the Potters merchandise. Here on the left is the Draco line...

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Originally uploaded by Ramseelbird.

... and to the right here you can see the Harry and the Potters line along the far wall. Good has triumped in the marketing department, anyway.

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Originally uploaded by Ramseelbird.

Then the real act came out. There were only two Harrys and a kid who looks suspiciously similar to one of the Draco and the Malfoys who was described by the Potters as Bill Weasley. This was smart thinking on their part. Bill's the one with the long hair, right?

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Originally uploaded by Ramseelbird.

These guys were also enthusiastic to the point of insanity. The guy right here would continually leap into the audience to get people to sing along. The crazy thing was, a lot of these kids knew the words already so it worked. Even the most jaded amongst you have to admit that anything called Voldemort Can't Stop the Rock has gotta be good.

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Originally uploaded by Ramseelbird.

The fellow who'd play the keyboard also seemed to have his knees jointed in incredibly odd ways. They literally spun on a pivot as he managed to play music along with his bandmates. Impressive to say the least. Also, this marks the first concert that I've been to where the band yells out, "WHAT YOU READING FOR THE SUMMER?" and a response comes from the audience, "A WRINKLE IN TIME!". Seriously.




For another perspective on the affair, check out my co-worker Warren's blog in which he displays some pretty cool pics of his own.