For Harry Potter fans about to rock, we salute you
With the new book coming out at midnight tommorow, the Harry Potter juggernaut has swung into full gear. While wading through the piles of Potter induced blog fluff, I came across this article about wizard inspired rock bands.
“We’re the Hungarian Horntails! Are you ready to burn this place down into a fiery wreck?” yells 8-year-old Darius Wilkins, onstage with bandmates Rayn Feeney, 9, and his younger brother, Holden, 5. They’re in the middle of sound check on a muggy Saturday afternoon in June at Pete’s Candy Store in Brooklyn. Seconds later, there’s another high-pitched yelp from Darius: “We’re the Hungarian Horntails, and we’re going to blow this place up with fire and rock!”
The Hungarian Horntails are not just a rock band whose members are kids. They’re a wizard-rock band, one of a growing worldwide cohort — currently numbering 183 bands — that emerged from the tight-knit, do-it-yourself community rooted in Harry Potter fandom. These bands use MySpace for publicity, produce and release their own music, and book concerts at libraries. The Horntails are named after characters from “The Goblet of Fire,” and their songs have titles like “Kill the Basilisk” and “Which Witch Is Which?” Their first album is called “Burn Voldemort’s Butt.”
With momentum from the release of the final book and the “Order of the Phoenix” movie, wizard rock is crescendoing. For wizard rockers and their fans, this is a time to mourn and rock out: the last summer for this community to pay tribute to Harry Potter before the series is complete, and the last summer for Web sites like The Wizrocklopedia and WizardRock.org to keep loving, obsessive track of the bands, the shows and the wizard-rock-themed festivals where muggles can rock out.
Darius, who has been strumming a guitar since age 2, started the Horntails after seeing Harry and the Potters — the flagship band of the scene — play a show in his hometown of Philadelphia. The Potters, aka Paul and Joe DeGeorge, aged 28 and 20, are two brothers from Norwood, Mass. Their first show, in 2002, was an impromptu performance in their parents’ backyard, where they dressed up as Harry Year Four and Harry Year Seven and sang songs like “Platform 9 and 3/4ths” and “I Am a Wizard” to a smattering of pals. Since that day, the DeGeorges have run with the idea, playing libraries, house parties and rock clubs across the country. (I first wrote about the Potters in 2005, later becoming a fan and friend of the band, and an avid follower of the wizard-rock phenomenon.) This year, they will average 130 rock shows, mostly over Joe’s college breaks.
Read the rest of the article here.
