The Shlockers rock!

Well, there we were, running a serious version of "Jewish time"--the poor Punster having just returned from teaching an accounting course in the farthest reaches of Brooklyn, we left half an hour late. Oy. And walked into the Shlock Rock concert the same half an hour late. Double oy. (Not for nothin' we'd rented a car--there was no way in heck that we could have gotten there even that "soon" if we'd gone by subway and bus.)

But once we got there, it was party time!

I never even bothered sitting down. :) I just spent the entire concert dancing my feet off in the back of the room. The poor Punster, meanwhile, was trying to figure out how to get the flash on our digital camera to work, Sonny Boy having so kindly lost the instruction manual when we sent the camera to him at college for use in documenting a lab project. Fortunately, the rockin' doc rescued him during the intermission. (He showed the Hubster the famous PHD ["push here, dummie"] button :) The poor Punster still doesn't know what button he wasn't pushing before.) I'm sorry to say that almost none of the photos of the performance itself came out well, though the Punster did get a couple of decent off-stage photos of Mark and one of bandleader Lenny.

Since the concert was co-sponsored by the National Conference of Synagogue Youth (NCSY), we came prepared with a scarf to hold so that we could dance together without breaking any of the shomer n'giah rules by actually touching one another. So we were able to do something remotely resembling the jitterbug to that wonderful parody song "Abarbanel". (Check out this MP3 --since "Abarbanel" is from Shlock Rock's first album, "Learning is Good," that's definitely Mark Skier, the band's founding bass player, playing bass. And yes, obviously, a former syngagogue choir singer is guaranteed to go bonkers over any song with multi-part vocal harmony, so I was glad that both Marks were there--Mark Infield is a wonderful falsetto singer.) The Punster and I also got a two-person conga line going for the parody song "Into the Sea," letting the kids who were running around the back of the room pass under the scarf as if we were singing "London Bridge" or "Yesh Lanu Tayish."

Our favorite blogging musician physician got to sing one of the songs that he'd written for Shlock Rock back when he was a "full-timer" with the band. So we had the privilege of hearing "Someone Else's Place" straight from the singer/songwriter's mouth (to G-d's ear). (You can hear the whole song in the radio blog here--just keep a-scrollin' 'til it shows up).

Judging by the way he was bouncing around onstage, I would say that Mark had a wonderful time, too. We got to say hello to him, and also to his mother and his sister F. (whom we'd met previously under sadder circumstances), and we spotted a few of Mark's nephews, as well. Photos were taken all around. Everyone had a grand old time.

A funny thing happened to me while I was "cutting a rug" in the back of the room. Another woman came back there and joined the act. She was quick on her feet, and a quick learner, too--I showed her a Yemenite step (not the best description--someone should post a video) on the spot, and she picked it up right away. After the concert, we were talking, and I mentioned that I'd heard about the concert from my Internet buddy, the bass player. When I asked where she'd heard about the concert, she told me that she was Lenny Solomon's sister! You can't top that one! :) J. said that her brother always puts on a good show. Amen to that!

If there were any other bloggers there, they stayed in the closet. So much for a blogger meeting. Oh, well. You missed a great time. Don't miss the next one. Shlock Rock is a really fun group for the whole family. The adults crack up and join in on the parodies, and the kids get their jollies listening to the good music, and singing and dancing along. Join the party--it's guaranteed glatt by the Kosher Police! :)