Sunday, November 30, 2014

I Couldn't Help but Move to the Groove

Time to end this month on a high note...in fact, a bunch of them.

Those notes came out of a venue called the Waiting Room (6212 Maple St., 68104; 402 884-5353), where today, from 2:00 PM to 6:00 PM, the featured artist was...actually, a bunch of featured artists.

The performers were the students and teachers from Omaha's very own School of Rock.

And man, they cooked!  

What attracted me to the outing was the fact that one of the rockers is young Ben Rosenberger, the drummer in our church's praise band. In fact, Ben's the praise band's youngest member...by far.

School of Rock Omaha's outing had a theme: "Rock Timeline."

And you bet your blue suede shoes the young rockers started out with some 1950s stuff. (They really had it going by the time I finally arrived at the Waiting Room...2:12 PM. So...if the SOR students played and sang "Blue Suede Shoes," I missed it.)

Now, I did get to hear "Hound Dog," "In the Still of the Nite," "(We're Gonna) Rock around the Clock," and "All I Have to Do Is Dream," among other items. [By the way...Ben played tambourine on "(We're Gonna) Rock around the Clock."]  

And right from the time I got there, I found myself toe-tapping...and/or dancing to the beat. Just couldn't resist.

Another thing about the whole operation was that the School of Rockers formed five or six different bands (Ben himself was in a couple of 'em). As a result, every student got to tackle a different decade in rock...and that piece of strategy put the accent on versatility.

It all became clear when "Rock Timeline" moved into the 1960s.  

School of Rock versions of "Little Sister," "You Really Got Me," and "House of the Rising Sun" got my attention.

And "Sugar Sugar" (as sung by a six-year-old girl who sang lead in a half-male, half-female band) and "(Sittin' on) The Dock of the Bay" (in which a male keyboard player and a female lead singer featured on a number before that swapped roles so that he ended up singing lead while she played the keys) really stood out for me.

When the show barreled into the 1970s, I was still movin' and groovin' to the music of the SOR gang. Matter of fact, I found myself singing along to songs like "Superstition" and "My Sharona." And I really enjoyed Ben's drumming in "Psycho Killer."  


Speaking of drumming...two little boys and a little girl (all three of 'em playing drums as well as handling the vocals) turned in a "We Will Rock You" that set the house on its ear. (Well, I like to think so!)  

We also got a rousing version of "YMCA." (Where else can you hear this 1979 Village People classic done as 100% power pop?)


The school's Rock 101 class drove the proceedings into the 1980s; the first song in the set was "Should I Stay or Should I Go." (I got a kick out of this version, too.)


"Just What I Needed" turned out to be something I needed as well. 

A few songs later came the same band that turned in "Sugar Sugar." This time, they came back for a fine, fine version of "Billie Jean."

Well, the timeline marched to a halt with the 1990s, where the set included songs like "When I Come Around."
In this set, every band that performed during the show did an encore song.

Tell you one thing: Next time Omaha's School of Rock takes to the bar called the Waiting Room, I want to be there...I can't wait to see what Ben and Co. come up with next!

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