I first heard of the brother wizard rock band Harry and the Potters in January of 2007. I had made an online friend, Molly, who also loved Harry Potter and lived in the same city as me in Florida. She invited me to go to a concert they were holding in a club and I accepted, never having heard a single note of their music. In her car on the way there, she played me their first CD, the self titled debut they’d written parts of in half an hour when they were forced into a spontaneous concert.
As I listened to “Harry Potter” singing about his awesome new Christmas present, a Firebolt, I knew I’d found something new and hilarious to listen to. But nothing could’ve prepared me for the actual concert. If you’ve been to a “normal” concert, you know the act probably says a lot of “hey (city name) how are you all doing tonight?” “Make some noise” “let’s see those hands” other interactions of this nature, maybe there’s some dancing, maybe there’s some moshing, maybe there’s some special effects, depending on who you see. But what you get with Harry and the Potters is borderline impossible to describe.
That first concert, I had heard about three of their songs, once. I had no idea what I was in for, but witty banter between Harry Year Four (Joe) and Harry Year Seven (Paul) between songs, during songs, with audience sing-a-longs (sing-a-screams?) of SPEW! was not even on my radar. I remember my face grinning uncontrollably as they sang “Oh my God you look like a frog” about Umbridge from their second full length CD, and most of all, the sheer joy and energy of the show. Because seeing Harry and the Potters in concert isn’t a show. It’s an experience. A 4-D, wild, inspiring, experience. Somewhere on an old flip phone is a pic of me, my friend Molly and the DeGeorge brothers taken after the concert but I haven’t ever seen it again, alas.
The second time I saw Harry and the Potters was later that year. I had been fortunate enough to be visiting my older sister in Boston right around the time the last book was released, and there was a phenomenal celebration in Boston Square with performances by Draco and the Malfoys and Harry and the Potters amongst others. My sister shot me the look of an older sibling putting up with something out of the goodness of their heart but hearing the dulcet sounds of “Voldemort Can’t Stop the Rock” knowing I was shortly going to be in possession of the conclusion to the Harry Potter saga was the best part of my trip.
(Harry and the Potters in Boston, 2007)
In 2011, I had finally gotten a job at my local library. I didn’t have much clout (I had no clout) as I hadn’t even made my six month probationary period and was stuck at the page level. (For those whose brains aren’t stuffed with dry library lingo, basically all I did was shelve books and check in materials.) So I wasn’t quite the librarian I would grow to be, but Harry and the Potters was coming to my job anyway. I wasn’t allowed to assist at the event so I made lemon drops out of lemons and invited my good friend Riley to visit me and we went as freewheeling concert goers instead.
(Harry and the Potters Florida, 2011)
Frankly, this turned out better then if I had been helping, because I got to rock out to my heart’s content, nary a worry in my mind about the running of the concert. I remember being impressed with the quality of the music really expanding. The album Harry Potter and the Power of Love is such a triumphant album, full of ludicrous lyrics
Draco, you’re crying again
Are you sad that you turned your best friends into women?
Well we know that you’ve had
Trouble with the girls
Pansy Parkinson’s not much
So I guess you turn to Crabbe and Goyle
“In Which Draco Malfoy Cries Like A Baby”
touching songs
Put your wand in your hand
Put love in your heart
Get your friends by your side
And tear evil apart
“Phoenix Song”
and more of my favorite, radical punk energy.
I’m not gonna be your mascot
I’m not gonna dance for the Ministry
No, I’m not gonna be your mascot
I’m not gonna put on the monkey suit
For you and your political aspirations
I won’t pretend that things are cool for your
Approval ratings
Oh, Rufus Scrimgeour
“(Not Gonna Put On) the Monkey Suit”
For above all else, Harry and the Potters is a witty punk band, one which points out injustice with humor, anger, and hope. As is appropriate for a band fronted by the boy wizard, they have a message. And it’s sassy, and it’s important.
It wasn’t until the end of last month that I was finally able to see them again. I’d become a librarian about a year after that 2011 concert, and had been steadily trying to convince my higher-ups to get Harry and the Potters back at my library alas, to no avail.
This year I recently moved across the country to California and received a happy surprise: Harry and the Potters were releasing their first new album in twelve years. Of course I had to buy it and of course, (even though I never go to concerts by myself because I have issues with feeling awkward and I detest traffic) I drove myself alone in my new state through LA to see them at the Troubadour.
It was everything I could ask for. The opening act, Hannah Moroz, rocked out with a group of mostly girl band members and I loved it.
Then Harry Potter squared took the stage, and blew me away. I’m talking this was beyond anything I’d seen from them before. There were props. There was banter. There was two grown wizard men singing under sheets that doubled as invisibility cloaks whilst still sounding phenomenal. There were high kicks and jumps during songs. There was a freaking dragon.
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What I’m saying is, every band should model their performances off of Harry and the Potters. Never have I seen such a command over the audience. Make us squat down on the ground for the beginning of “Save Ginny“? Sure, why not?
Crowd surf a stuffed basilisk toward the latter half of the song?
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Heck yes! Scream SPEW into the mic when it’s in your face? But of course! Toss around plastic inflatable fish during the new feminist anthem “Gone Campin‘”?
But of course! Form a conga line during “Luna Lovegood“?
If the jokes about endless camping, the pointed lyrics on gender roles and how Hermione shouldn’t have to cook (this got a huge cheer) and the wacky songs about getting stuck in Hagrid’s beard weren’t enough, Harry and the Potters ups the ante and makes their songs deep. Yes, punk rock songs written from the perspective of an angsty teenage wizard (I will defend CAPSLOCK HARRY for life!) also can be moving, and consequential. “The Banality of Evil (Song for Albert Runcorn)“, “No Pureblood Supremacy,” and
“On the Importance of Media Literacy Under Authoritarian Rule” among many others touch brilliantly on our current quasi dystopian reality (but it’s always from the perspective of Harry’s experiences) with humor and biting satire. Listening to these lyrics
When it gets dark turn on a light
Send out the signal, we must unite
There’s only two sides tonight
There’s no sideline
Will you choose what’s right
Cause we’re ready for the fight
“Lumos”
reminded me that we must take sides. As Dumbledore once said, “soon we must all face the choice between what is right and what is easy.” And to me, that’s Harry and the Potters real power. For all the laughs they bring me singing a whole song about how much Harry loves bacon (seriously he eats it a lot) and how Cormac McLaggen sucks because he listens to Jock Jams they also nearly brought me to tears with their closing song (before a rousing encore that involved the aforementioned conga line) “These Days are Dark.”
These days are dark, but we won’t fall
We’ll stick together through it all
These days are dark, but we won’t fall
My only regret is that my problematic shyness kept me from approaching the DeGeorge brothers and telling them how much their music has meant to me, past, present, and future and how I hope they keep doing what they’re doing. We need more music and more people like them.
*After I wrote this post I came along a Youtube video from SoundProofLiz showing her experience at this very concert! I asked for her permission to add the video to this blog, so enjoy! You can see the props, the fun, the way that Liz (like me at that first Harry and the Potters concert in 2007) went to the show without hearing the music and left a convert.*
I’m not into Wizard Wrock, but I really enjoyed reading your thoughts about it. 👍✨
Thank you so much! It’s such a special experience.