Apparently, over the past two weeks MCC has been doing what they call the "School of Rock," a summer camp kind of thing where they have kids aged 13-18 who play instruments and/or sing come together and form a bunch of bands. It's a really cool idea, actually. But anyway, their concert was tonight and my voice teacher's daughter was the singer for one of the bands, so I went to see what all the hullabaloo was about.

It was... interesting.

The first band had out was really good--especially considering that they had only been together for about two weeks. It was a shame they went first, because they got a little gypped (sp?) by the sound guy; they played their first song (You Really Got Me) just fine, but you couldn't hear the rhythm guitar or lead singer for crap. (side note: I like writing these because I can say things like "can't [blank] for crap" and nobody's going to "red-pen" me) Once they got past the obligatory song and got to play the original song they had put together in their two weeks, they really did manage to rock. It wasn't like a Five Iron show or anything, mind you, but for junior high/high schoolers, they were pretty tight. The drummer was CRAZY good... awesome fills, syncopation like mad, and he never, ever ever ever rushed the beat. Beautiful. They had a little black kid on saxophone, too, and I was seriously impressed by him as well.

The second band... well, they weren't quite as impressive. The instrumentalists were just fine, but the singer was a bit tone-deaf. Ozzie Ozbourne's Crazy Train will never be the same for me.

Third band: Not bad, but not memorable... this was just a few hours ago and already I can't remember what songs they did.

Fourth band (Cameron's band): Hilarious group of guys, plus Cameron the twelve year old girl. Cameron was a little nervous for their first song, The Darkness' I Believe in a Thing Called Love, and so she sang most of the song a third too high. Their second song was solid, though. Christian overtones to the lyrics, which I enjoy, really nifty acoustic guitar stuff. I'm going to have to see if I can get ahold of a recording just so I can remember how some of their stuff went.

Also, I taught my first guitar lesson today. I relied heavily on resources from CyberFret, so if you're looking to learn then I recommend you go there and click on the "First Fret" link in the nav menu. Thank you, Mandie and Kathryn for being my first students; my apologies to both of you for having to wait for me while I learn how to teach.

Goodnight.