The Holiday Concert

Last week was the holiday concert at Mark's school. He said he was playing the sleigh bells for half of one song, so I didn't bother inviting any of my friends along to watch. (With approximately one million basketball games/concerts/Boy Scout activities/school activities/fashion shows a year, you have to choose wisely or you'll burn out your friends!).

So there I was, at the concert alone, sitting in the very last row of the auditorium. I was waylaid by a flash flood on the freeway (seriously!) and a quick stop at home for the child who forgot his mandatory Santa hat, but I finally made it and claimed one of the last remaining seats.

The high school shows are waaaaaaay better than the elementary or middle school shows, because the high schoolers are really talented. There are also way more of them, so the shows are also twice as long, or as long as I can possibly sit for after an hour and a half commute.

Mark's concert band was up first. And there was Mark, onstage, playing his timpani. 

Edra would've loved that, I thought to myself.

At the next song, he switched over to the snare drum, rocking out the Christmas tunes like that other little drummer boy. 

Kathleen would've been impressed by that, I thought to myself.

For the third song, he switched over to cymbals, and then to the sleigh bells, before returning once again to the cymbals. 

That would've impressed Michelle, I thought.

For the next two songs, he played the triangle, the snare drum again, and a giant bass drum that looked like one of those massive Japanese Kodo drums. 

In short, he played all of the percussion instruments onstage, not just the lowly sleigh bells. And next time, I'm dragging at least one friend along to keep me company, no matter what Mark says he is or is not playing!

When the band finished, the choir climbed onstage. They all wore red Santa hats too, except for one boy with a giant stuffed Menorah on his head. I liked that kid immediately.

Again, the talent was impressive. The choir sang beautiful Christmas and winter melodies, their voices filling the vast auditorium with song. They sang together, then just the boys followed by just the girls. It was lovely, to everyone except the cranky older lady behind me.

"They're kind of mellow this year," she said loudly. "I wish they'd sing something more lively, like Jingle Bells."

And then, as if they'd heard her, the choir sang Jingle Bells. And she sang along--loudly--with them.

The flag team was next. They filled the stage with their red flags, dancing and twirling them all around. It was amazing how much they moved, considering the number of girls on that tiny stage.

The ballerinas took the stage after the flags. They danced lithely across the stage, an endless number of them jumping out from backstage. They flitted about, also twirling and jete-ing, until the sound guy slipped up and wrecked their music. The song skipped a beat at first, then skipped a longer beat, stuttering until the music suddenly died for good. But the girls never even slowed down--they kept on dancing, right until the very last step, when the crowd erupted into thunderous applause. 

Then it was time for the jazz band. They played lots of fun tunes, and sounded great.

It was a lot of show for just five bucks. But it wasn't over yet--it went on repeat, with the choir, dancers, flag girls and jazz band taking multiple turns at more song and dance numbers. My favorite was when the choir brought out not one but TWO Elvises crooning Christmas carols. One Elvis was tiny--not more than five feet tall, a small, skinny little dude with the deepest voice ever. I couldn't believe that deep man voice was coming out of that little kid.

I enjoyed the show, and was glad that everyone got a lot of time onstage to shine for their parents. However, two hours into it, I noticed that the ceiling speakers, air vent and the curtains framing the stage looked a giant face with fangs about to swallow up the dancers onstage. I realized I'd been fixating on that for about 10 minutes, which meant I had certainly exhausted my attention span.

Luckily, the concert band had finished a while, long enough that they'd even put away all the instruments. So I quietly escaped to the lobby, found Mark talking to his friends, and motioned at him to go. It was a really nice concert, but I was hungry, tired, and out of attention.

But I did feel merry, bright and full of the Christmas spirit. And I even got a picture of my musician in front of our Christmas tree!