Friday night at the Library

I spent my last Friday night at the library. Happily, unlike the grad school connotation, this was purely for entertainment. The Marion County Public Library recently built a new state of the art facility in downtown Indianapolis with every bell and whistle you could imagine a library could have. Technically I've only been to the children's section, but I imagine the rest of the library is just as awesome. If you've been to the new Indianapolis airport, think something like that, with books.

Anyway, Friday night was a student art show a teacher friend of mine was participating in with her class. They did light painting, which is a type of photographic "trick" where you open the shutter for several seconds and using small hand-held lights in a dark room you can "paint" lines and shapes that will show up in the photo although our eyes can not see them. This was accompanied by a sound project, students at another school created using various computer programs. All of it was so cool to experience and the new architecture surrounding the artwork only enhanced the wow-factor.

To the point of my blog entry- the Friday night at the library was complete when a twenty piece geek-punk, motley crew of a marching band came bursting through the front doors of the library. They stopped playing long enough to tell everyone SHHH!! we're in the library!! before they started marching again, playing right through the crowd of people, and to the delight of many squealing children. And when I say marching, I am describing more of a circus-esque, everyone for himself, playing the trombone from the top of the staircase, kind of marching formation. This was, amazingly, a perfectly choreographed chaos. Even with kids running around like mad, and drum players flailing about wildly, and the two cheerleaders jumping about uncontrollably, not for a second was there any worry about something going wrong or someone getting hurt. They played in the atrium for a while and then moved into the brand new Clowes library auditorium, (which was heaven itself. You know that feeling of a new performance space, where there aren't already someone's smudge marks on the arm rest and the one seat with the unsightly spot on the fabric to avoid. It was so beautiful.), for a real performance on stage. They played onstage for about an hour, playing both original and borrowed tunes from the traditional marching band repetoire, of course with a little twist.

Without further ado, I will post a video (make sure to watch at least 2 min.) so you can get an idea. The mismatched marching bad, Mucca Pazza:



This entertained me, delighted the kids, and made every middle-aged parent in the audience who had once played an instrument hopeful that, like these band rejects, they too might some day be destined for the bright lights of the local library auditorium stage.

I wanted to post this, not to just wax poetic on a great show I wasn't expecting to see, but to throw the idea out there for anyone who might be planning a family night. This isn't the first crazy marching band I've seen, there are more out there, maybe closer to your city. Mucca Pazza is from Chicago. With 20 people and all those instruments, I can only imagine their travel expenses are astronomical. But I know I have seen other crazy renegade marching bands, including hip-hop marching bands and other genres.

It was magical for the kids, great live music, and just enough irreverence to put classical style music in its place. two thumbs up!