It’s difficult to know where to begin. We’re nearly two weeks in and it’s been the usual series of ups and downs — mostly ups though, and morale is mostly high at the moment. We’re in a Best Western motel in Hope, Arkansas — the birthplace of President Bill Clinton. We drove around town tonight looking for a decent restaurant, and we found a ghost town. Abandoned buildings outnumbered functioning businesses; we found no restaurants beyond the usual fast food chains, and it seemed that the only remaining shops were tobacconists and hair salons. We also learned that Bill Clinton was born in a dry county; sadly, I think a couple bars might actually boost this town’s economy. The one business that appears to be thriving is Walmart. Although I have no means of verifying this, the Walmart appears to be new and a number of local shops appear to be recently closed. Hm.
Anyway, tour is rolling along and we’re making our way west. Today, I completed a 500-mile driving shift and spent another three hours finding dinner — we had to drive 30 miles away to Texarkana to find a restaurant that didn’t creep us out. I wouldn’t say that we’ve had a single bad show yet. Some have been better than others, but all have been worthwhile. Each of our house party shows has been an exercise in human kindness and generosity. We’ve received incredible support from so many people. We’ve introduced dozens to the HPA, collected new members and raised multiple hundreds of dollars. We’ve played shows with acoustic guitars and no amplification and managed to inspire dance parties. We’ve spent time with friends we haven’t seen in months. We’ve made several new friends along the way. In a sense, there’s nothing remarkable about any of this because we’ve done it before. But that in itself is remarkable — our formula keeps working, and we keep having success with a format that most would predict would be unsuccessful. A house party show with 15 people in attendance is as good as a summer tour library show with 250 people in attendance. It’s all a matter of getting those 15 people engaged in the party.
Today we crossed the Mississippi River; tomorrow we play Dallas. We have a number of house parties on the horizon and we’re expecting big things.
Shows Played So Far: 11
Money Raised For The HPA: $271
It’s times like these that I realize what a huge dork I am.
After having lunch with my father today, I immediately snapped into action, rolling and taping a few remaining t-shirts, putting the finishing touches on my (heavily organized) merch packing, setting up an example merch table in my living room so I have a plan of action going into tomorrow night’s show, and generally getting all of my loose ducks in a row. My personal bag has been packed for four days now (no joke), so I’m officially packed for tour — nearly two days before I actually leave Rhode Island. Further solidifying my status as a huge dork, I moved everything into the kitchen (which is the room that’s located nearest to my apartment’s main entrance) and stacked it up neatly so that it’ll be ready to pack into the rental car on Saturday morning.
Despite having this major jump start on fall tour, I’m still sitting here in my living room wracking my brains for things I’ve forgotten to do. I have a To Do list in front of me, but it’s not enough to comfort me. I’m sure that over the course of the next 36 hours, I will pace my apartment at least seven or eight times and scan every room for that one essential item I’ve forgotten to pack. Toothbrush? Check. Toothpaste? Check. Underpants?! Check! It’s all there, all ready, waiting for its journey across America. But that won’t stop me from worrying.
I am really, really excited. I love touring. I love knowing that over the course of the next month and a half, I will play 40 shows and raise money for the HPA and see all of my Harry Potter friends I’ve been missing since July. I love knowing that each show will be a celebration — of our boy HP, of our community, of friendships old and new, of music and fun and life. I love knowing that I’ll come home feeling a sense of accomplishment, and also a sense of relief because it’s impossible to take the comfort of your own bed for granted when you often go six weeks without sleeping in it. I love knowing that I’ll be traveling those same highways again and experiencing the awesomeness of our country’s diversity and beauty.
There isn’t much more to say except this: See you soon!
Days Left Until Tour: ONE!
T-shirts Screen Printed: 200
Tote Bags Screen Printed: 100
CDs Burned and Assembled: 150
If I was asked to put together a list of my top ten favorite shows of all time, one might expect me to include all of the biggest ones: LeakyCon, Prophecy, Wrock Chicago, the Yule Balls, Wrockstock, and so forth. Certainly, those shows would be among the first to come to mind; the big shows have an inherent sense of excitement and importance in everyone’s memory, and they’ve helped shape me as a performer and as a member of the wizard rock community.
However, after touring extensively for two years, I’ve had the opportunity to play a variety of shows, with audiences ranging from literally 1 to 1,000, and venues ranging from fancy hotel ballrooms to backyards and unfinished basements. One of my favorite shows of all time happened just a handful of months ago in Carrollton, Georgia; the show was set up by my friend Hope and it took place in her friend’s living room. There were about 15 people in attendance, and I’d guess that half of them were more accurately classified as curious friends of the host than wizard rock fans. Justin and I have played many shows like this during our house party tours, and most of the time it’s an awkward experience and we have to search fairly hard for the silver lining (which is something we make a habit of doing at all of our shows, lest we forget how lucky we are to be touring full time). Read the rest of this entry »
A tour really begins the moment you start booking it – you have to cut a path across the country in your mind before you can cross it physically. I’ve imagined this entire tour several times over; the point A to point B to point C of constructing that initial schedule, the forced rearrangement of cities when a venue falls through, the highways we’ve driven so many times now that we could probably find our way from Rhode Island to Santa Monica without consulting a map… Then there’s the obsession over details, the financial considerations, the anxiety over being away from home for a month and a half, the excitement over certain cities you know will be very successful…. By the time you’re actually done booking a tour, you’ve already completed it five or six times in your brain. Maybe more.
We’ve had some awesome merchandise in the past, but the new Harry Potter Alliance merch is through-the-roof-awesome. CHECK IT OUT HERE!
HPA tote bags and HPA water bottles - both of which look great and save you from wasteful plastic bags and bottles. New HPA and What Would Dumbledore Do buttons. An HPA tshirt that is so awesome everyone but Voldemort admits that it’s awesome!
And this is not to mention an amazing Wizard Rock compilation CD and the chance to buy the entire Wizard Rock EP of the Club set of 2008.
Support the Harry Potter Alliance while sporting some amazing new HPA merch!
The Weapon We Have Is Love,
Andrew Slack
Harry Potter Alliance, Executive Director
The UK based Wizard Rock band RiddleTM has a beautiful song for Jo Rowling that a fan turned into a youtube video. I think any member of our fandom would be proud of this. I’ll let the video speak for itself.
Seasons greetings! The holidays are upon us once again and there is we can think of no better way to celebrate than with our friends and family and a good old fashioned wizardly holiday hoedown!
Ladies and gentlemen, witches and wizards, muggle and squibs, you are cordially invited to join us for our 4th Annual YULE BALL!
Sunday, December 21, 2008 Middle East Downstairs
5pm | ALL AGES | $15 480 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA
This is pretty much always our favorite show of the year! For the fourth year running, we’ll be celebrating the holidays at the Middle East downstairs. We’ll be joined by: Draco and the Malfoys, Jason Anderson and the Best, the Whomping Willows, the LeeVees: an all-Hanukkah band featuring Adam from Guster and Dave from the Zambonis, and the legendary Dumbledore!
Formal-wear is encouraged! $3 from each ticket will go to the Harry Potter Alliance!
Buy tickets through Ticketmaster or service charge-free at the Middle East box office.
As of December 15th, there are LESS THAN 100 TICKETS REMAINING! Please BUY YOUR TICKETS IN ADVANCE! THIS SHOW IS ALMOST SOLD OUT!!! This is pretty much our favorite show of the year! We don’t play out so much anymore (this is actually our first show since August!), so we will definitely be making this one special! You can help with it too! Throw on your fanciest dress robes! Bring some cookies! Bring some friends! Bring your holiday cheer and join us in making this the best show of the year!
It’s official,Jingle Spells 2 is ready! “What is Jingle Spells 2?” you may be asking yourself. It is the follow-up charity compilation organized by the staff at the Leaky Cauldron in response to last year’s very successful fund raiser. Last year’s album, Jingle Spells, had new Christmas music from 14 amazing Wizard Rock bands. This year, the stakes have been raised, giving us music from 18 bands, and, as Melissa Anelli said in her news post on the album, “even if you don’t like wizard rock, we are sure you’re going to love this.”
Jingle Spells 2 sells for $15 within the US and $18.60 internationally. Every penny raised by the sale of this album will go to benefit the HP Alliance and Book Aid International. But hurry! Only 2,000 copies will be printed and sold! The album will be made available on iTunes sometime in mid-December, but it’s not the same as holding the CD in your hands and personally examining the original artwork by Frank “Frak” Franco.
To order Jingle Spells 2 or to listen to clips from the songs you can look forward to hearing, please go here.
Looking for the perfect holiday gifts for you Harry Potter friends? Or are you just looking for something fun to get yourself? Look no further! The amazing folks at the PwnCast of WRock have come up with a way to help raise funds for the Harry Potter Alliance while answering your need for creative gifts: they have put together a 2009 Wizard Rock Calendar featuring many popular Wizard Rockers including the Remus Lupins, Harry and the Potters, and Catchlove.
Calendars sell for $15 within the US and $16.50 internationally, all proceeds going to benefit the HP Alliance. You can get a sneak peek at the calendar at the website, where it can be ordered. More information can be found at the PwnCast of WRock blog or the Facebook group for the calendar, which can also be ordered using the PayPal button on the PwnCast myspace page.
A huge THANKS to Cody, Julia, and Dan of the PwnCast of WRock for making this holiday season something we can approach with love and fun in our hearts! You guys are amazing!
Hey everyone! Matt from The Whomping Willows here. The following blog pertains to a brand new chapter of the Harry Potter Alliance called GRAWP (Guitar-wielding Ragamuffins Against Worldwide Poverty). I’ve started this chapter along with fellow wizard rocker Justin Finch-Fletchley, and our first initiative is a nationwide fundraiser for disaster relief efforts in Haiti. We’ve worked this fundraiser into the structure of our upcoming fall tour, which starts in Boston on October 24 and runs through November 26. We’re hoping to raise over $1,000 for the cause, and we’re also hoping to raise awareness for a humanitarian crisis that has been largely ignored by the media. If you’d like to help out, the first step is to read this (rather lengthy) blog. Thank you so much, and we hope to see you on the road this fall!
The Harry Potter universe is a mirror to our society in many ways. The children and teens of the wizarding world are subjected to years of magical training, just as the young people of our world must meet certain academic requirements before entering the workforce. Grown-up wizards face grown-up problems: seeing to their children’s health and well-being, putting food on the table, and advancing their own careers. Even the most talented wizards have to make a living somehow, whether it’s a mundane administrative job at the Ministry or an exciting, comparatively glamorous position as instructor of Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts.
We learn early on that wealth wields power in the wizarding world. The Malfoys’ family fortune allows them to enjoy a large home and a number of luxuries not available to all wizards. Additionally, their money has apparent influence on the government; in the lead-up to Harry’s trial before his fifth year at Hogwarts, it is implied that Mr. Malfoy may have paid Cornelius Fudge not to clear Harry’s name (OotP). Like the corporate lobbyists and special interests prevalent in real-world America, wizards with wealth can expect their voices to be heard by the ruling class.
