Since we gave the world Mr Blobby and the Spice Girls, I can't really say anything about American novelty acts, but a few nights I went to see one live. Thanks to a pizza place being very slow, I missed the entire set from blog-darlings Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, but apparently they were good.
I did, though, make it in time for Harry and the Potters. Two guys, both of them look like physics club secretaries, play songs about J.K. Rowling's juggernaut-books, and release balloons onto the crowd. They're kinda like They Might Be Giants, in that they're obviously big dorks but they play fun songs, many of which are under 90 seconds in length. The only difference is that these guys only sing about fictional wizards. If you're not a fan of those books/films, there's not much for you to see, but since I am...
They played songs like 'Voldemort Can't Stop the Rock', 'Cornelius Fudge is an Ass', 'Save Ginny Weasley', 'This Book Is So Awesome' and 'The Godfather'. They played for an hour, which is surprising given the brevity of some of the songs - like 'S.P.E.W.' which only features people shouting "Spew!" into the microphone. At one point, they tell a really convoluted story about Ghostbusters II and how it makes Voldemort sad. The songs are in a rough chronology with the books, which is weird. Lots of audience participation, jumping into the crowd, dancing... it wasn't a very big crowd, but they made it very fun. Best lyric of the night, in a song about Cho Chang: "I wish I didn't bring up Cedric Diggory / It's weird talking about your dead ex-boyfriend over coffee."
It made me want to start my own band, where all the songs are about the Police Academy series. And that's a high recommendation.
[download some Harry and the Potters songs here]
Are you petrified of being petrified?
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Let me be the first to offer my hypothetical musical skills should you ever form that Police Academy band.