Harry and the Potters @ New York Public Library

May 16th, 2008 - by Linda

Indie, NYC, Reviews, Rock, Shows

I’m a total Harry Potter nerd. I’m talking dressing up for midnight book parties kind of nerd. I was an English major in college, so I’m pretty much a nerd for literature in general. And since I write for this site, I obviously love live music. So, seeing a band sing about Harry Potter in a building full of books on a Saturday night is my idea of a good time. Add in the fact that it was free (did I mention I’m cheap too?) and there was no way I was going to miss this.

Boston-based Harry and the Potters are two brothers, Paul and Joe DeGeorge, who write all their songs from the point of view of Harry Potter. Paul represents the seventh year Harry, and Joe represents the fourth year Harry (although I never quite understood this because they both sing songs representing Harry from other years at Hogwarts).

The band is considered the frontrunners of the Wizard Rock movement. They mostly play in libraries, but this was their first time playing at the New York Public Library and they kept calling it a dream come true.

I wish more bands would hold concerts in libraries. Everything seemed so efficient. Tickets were handed out the day before so as not to go over the 500 capacity limit. On Saturday night, since the library was already closed, a line of mostly excited tweenage girls formed outside (I think I was the oldest person there who was not a parent). When they opened the doors, everyone went inside in an orderly fashion and staked out their spots, but there was plenty of room to roam around. I was surprised at how few people were dressed up. Some were wearing Gryffindor ties or Harry Potter related tees (full disclosure: I myself was wearing my homemade “Real Men Play Quidditch” shirt), but very few people were decked out in full Gryffindor gear. Although after everyone had a chance to visit the merch table, I turned around to notice a sea of green “Save Ginny” shirts.

The excitement in the room was infectious when Harry and the Potters bounced onstage in their trademark grey sweaters, white collared shirts, Gryffindor ties, and of course, glasses. They passed out foam fingers, but unfortunately there weren’t enough to go around, and two little boys might have killed each other for one had their parents not intervened. I’ve heard Harry and the Potters CDs before and while I’ve enjoyed their songs, they are not great musicians or singers.

Their songs are simplistic and repetitive. But they do know how to put on a great show. They had lots of energy, frequently jumping into the audience and pumping up the crowd with speeches about the power of love and rock. Towards the beginning of the show, they taught the audience a dance to a song with the lyrics, “Hagrid is fun to hug. Hagrid is full of love. Just don’t pull on Hagrid’s beard.” At various intervals throughout the show, they would go into the song. The first time, some were hesitant, but each time, more and more people would join in the silly dance. At one point in the concert, the drummer, known as “Bill Weasley” got offended that the Harrys called his brother Ron a weasle during the song “The Weasle.” He left and was replaced by a man dressed as a squid (I don’t know what that had to do with Harry Potter), but then they reconciled and Bill rejoined the band.

Inspired by being in the library shown in Ghostbusters, during “The Human Hosepipe,” they segued into the Ghostbusters theme (replacing, of course, the word “ghostbusters” with “Harry Potter”). They played crowdpleasers like “Save Ginny Weasley” and my personal favorite, which they said they don’t play often, “(not gonna put on) the Monkey Suit,” a song about sticking it to the man. For the final songs, the band was joined by the Dumbledore Army’s horn section, adding a more professional level of musicality to the evening. The concert seemed to end much too song, but all in all, it was an hour and a half well spent.