Starkid

Right after Mugglenet posted about a fan-made musical parody, I was all over it. I remember cracking up so hard during the first song that I had to keep pausing the clip so I didn't miss anything. And I remember falling in love with Draco right away, even before the floor scene in the Great Hall.

As I neared the end of act one, I knew I had to tell Brae about it. Luckily he was spending a lot of time at my apartment in those days, so he was already planning on coming over after work. I started the musical over again that night so he could watch it with me and we could watch all of act two together. We stayed up pretty much all night devouring the awesomeness that is A Very Potter Musical, before it was censored (so we got to witness the greats like “Ron, can you please take your wand out of your pocket? It's jabbing my back”, “Hermione, why did you bring those pillows with you”, "Hermione, you keep your legs open, and I'll keep my eyes open", and various other hilarious and not so appropriate moments that mysteriously disappeared over the first few days of skyrocketing fame.

We even introduced several of our friends to AVPM at our Potter party later that year. Most of them seemed to enjoy it since hardly anyone was talking and there was a lot of “shushing” whenever someone dared open their mouth which led to a lot of us gathering in another room around the “Cornelius Fudge Brownies”, butterbeer, licorice wands, Bertie Bott's, and various other snacks so as not to disturb the other guests during their first, beautiful, AVPM experience.

As I said, last year at Infinitus, there was an...experience? Incident? That we still joke about. When we were walking back from Night of a Thousand Wizards, a bunch of Starkids were in front of us. Joey Richter's hat fell off, I stepped on it accidentally, and Brae picked it up to give back to him. After a quick “thanks”, we all went about our merry ways. When we got back to our hall, though, we were joking around by trying to pretend to be all fangirl-tastic about the whole thing. I remember squealing “OMG! I stepped on Joey Richter's hat! Do you know what that means? My foot...has touched...his head!” Sadly, some people thought we were serious...which made it even more hilarious to us.

There was also an ill-fated attempt to put together a Scarf of Sexual Preference before the DH1 premiere a while ago. We ran around Wal-Mart in our robes right before going to the theatre to find appropriate felt, but we were unsuccessful. We just found some rainbow felt and cut it like a scarf. No one got it, not even those that were standing around quoting the musical, so I took it off quickly and stowed it in my purse because I was burning up anyway. We might be making a better attempt before LeakyCon, though!

The single best Starkid moment, though was seeing AVPS at Infinitus last year. Not only could I have reached out and ran my hands through Darren Criss's supermegafoxyawesomehot curls before he chopped them off for Glee, there was a spontaneous outbreak of singing during the reprise of "Back to Hogwarts" during the finale. I think I cried a bit when it was over, just because it was such an awesome experience.

Wrock On - Kat

My experience with wizard rock is similar to my entire HP experience. I heard about it through my forays online, and I remember turning up my nose at the idea of it all. I mean, I loved HP, but the notion of people who'd probably never picked up an instrument before writing music about the series and singing it to crowds of screaming preteens was a bit much for me.

But one summer I was basically stuck in my apartment with nothing to do. At the time, mugglenet had just started its wrock section. I checked it out briefly along with the wrock encyclopedia online. I stumbled upon the Moaning Myrtles on youtube and listened to “Prefects are Hot”. I was dying with laughter by the second verse. Then I discovered, through the related videos on youtube, the Ministry of Magic and listened to “Ascendio”. I remember tearing up, but it was nothing compared to when I found “Godric's Hollow” by Romilda Vane and the Chocolate Cauldrons!

Needless to say I was hooked. I can't say that I'm a die-hard wrock fan, and I've probably never heard of a large number of bands. I do try to listen to a wide variety of them, but I am picky about which I actually download because I'm picky about music in general. My favorite bands include:

Oliver Boyd and the Remembralls

The Butterbeer Experience

Swish and Flick

The Moaning Myrtles

The Ministry of Magic

Draco and the Malfoys

I also have some music from The Whomping Willows, Tonks and the Aurors, Tom Riddle and Friends, Marked as His Equal, Romilda Vane and the Chocolate Cauldrons, The Parselmouths, Riddle TM, House of Black, and The Hermione Crookshanks Experience.

It would be very difficult to narrow down my favorite wizard rock song, but the most played on my itunes are “You Can't Speak Snake” (The Moaning Myrtles), “Cedric” (The Moaning Myrtles), “Alone” (The Butterbeer Experience), and “Lullaby” (The Butterbeer Experience, which still makes me cry every time I listen to it) so those are high on the list as are “Bridge to the Other Side” (Oliver Boyd and the Remembralls), “The Ballad of Sirius Black” (Marked as His Equal), “Lovegood” (Ministry of Magic), and “The Radio” (Tonks and the Aurors).

Ah, OBatR! It should be noted that there have been several signs that we are destined to attend LeakyCon thus far. The first was the email that Brae received informing all attendees that Christian of OBatR was coming out of retirement to play live at LeakyCon! I knew that I had to be there when we heard this. This oh-so-important sign was followed by us getting what we can only assume was the last available (cancelled) room at the Portofino Bay hotel. We'll be documenting the other signs as we move along, but since this was wrock-related, it warranted mentioning in this post.

At Infinitus we saw some amazing wrock concerts (though we don't have much to compare it to since we'd only been to one other wrock concert to see Jason Munday of of MoM, Tonks and the Aurors, and Witherwings at the Y right before Infinitus to meet a semi-local HP group). Among the most memorable were obviously The Butterbeer Experience's last live performance (ever), Swish and Flick and watching the shocked expressions of those around us at the mature content of their songs, Ministry of Magic and the chaos that ensued when they took the stage, and The Moaning Myrtles. Of course MC Kreacher and House of Black were memorable, if only for their hour long performance. The Parselmouths' pajama-clad jam session at the closing feast was quite a talking point too!

At the top of this post, you can see pictures of Brae and I with various wrockers. From the top, there is me with Swish of Swish and Flick, Lauren from The Moaning Myrtles and I, Christina from The Parselmouths and I, and Lena Gabrielle of The Butterbeer Experience with Brae and myself.

I think what appeals to me about wrock, aside from the catchy and often hilarious lyrics, is the feeling of unity it inspires with the rest of the HP fandom. With the last movie coming out, many are feeling like the fandom is coming to an end. While I don't agree that the end of the franchise has to trigger the end of the (true) fandom, I can see where they are coming from. Wrock provides a unique opportunity to have a record of us moving through this series together and growing up with Harry. I know whenever I listen to “Gryffindor Rally Cry” (Ministry of Magic) I'll be right back at Infinitus in a throng of insanely passionate fans screaming and dancing like crazy for a house that I profess utter hatred for. Wrock is truly ours, and it brings us together because of that. We can all find a song that connects us to that whether or not one claims to be a fan of wrock.