Out of the Rain

The 1980s were an era of big events and political stunts; an era of style over substance.

C. Everett Koop (Ronald Reagan's surgeon general) wanted to wear his old uniform from his days in the Navy to his new job...and because of that, all subsequent top doctors have had to don the fruit salad. 

There was Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No!" campaign to fight drug abuse. (And, by the way...alcohol is a drug, too. And that's a whole other post in itself.)

And what about the "effort" to prove the value of teachers in America...AKA the program to send one into space? 

About four months after Francis Scobee, Michael J. Smith, Judith Resnik, Ellison Onizuka, Ronald McNair, Gregory Jarvis, and Christa McAuliffe- said teacher- lost their lives in the Challenger explosion, the "Hands Across America" event took place. 

It didn't help that the 1986 Memorial Day weekend was chilly and misty outside in Monticello, IL. (Monticello was one of the "Hands Across America" stops.)

And it ultimately helped drive the Monticello Railway Museum to look for a new place to hold its top fundraiser, the World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest. For '86, the organization used Monticello High School's football field as the contest venue rather than the museum itself.

It was too much to take for everybody...so, the MRM made The Decision.

The organization took the whole show to the then Holiday Inn...in Decatur, IL.

And for the first time, OTPP wouldn't have to directly fight atmospheric conditions.

That first indoor iteration of Ted Lemen's claim to fame drew eighteen contestants, with all but two competing in the Regular Division. 

So while Neil Moe only had to get past Cathy Wamsley to become the first three-time Junior Division champion, all sixteen Regular Division hopefuls advanced to the division's 1987 semifinals. Three of the adult contestants were newcomers to OTPP who'd make names for themselves in later years: Dorothy Baldwin, Betty Keller, and...the "Perfessor" himself, Bill Edwards.

And, as things turned out, Bill and Dorothy joined Linda Harmon (a newcomer from the previous year) and longtime participant Paul Gronemeier in the contest finals...won by a man who, at that time, made the Washington, DC area his stomping grounds: Ron Trotta.

As the event's final outdoor Regular champ, Ron staged a near-Garrison finish (instead of standing in last place in the 1986 RD prelims, he was fifth; Ron moved up to third at the end of the RD semis). A year later, Ron started out in first place once the 1987 RD first round came to an end and stayed on top until he was officially declared the contest's first indoor Reg champion. 

OTPP '87 was a success.

With that in mind, the contestant field for 1988 jumped up to 23...twenty RDs and three JDs. 

In the Junior field, only Cathy had a 1986-87 connection...but she still wasn't able to connect with the division's top prize. Neither did Neil's sister, Mary Ann.

Mary Ann and Cathy could only watch as Dax Baumgartner inaugurated his own three-year stay at the head of the Junior Division. 

Mary Ann's brother was part of the activity that continued to reshape the Regular Division- a contingent that saw Ed and Janet Kaizer come back for some more prize money (and in Janet's case, a chance to snatch the Traveling Trophy out of Ron's grip and get the statue back for herself). Dale Wells came back, too.

To top it all off, five newcomers who'd go on to become huge names in old-time piano made the trip to Decatur: Dick Zimmerman, Todd Robbins, Jim Radloff, Marty Mincer,

and Betty's daughter Sue.

 

And after two rounds, it looked as if Sue (instead of Janet) would be the one to give Ron a taste of his own medicine.

But the ex-math teacher from the Nation's Capital became the third undefeated RD champion...after breaking a semifinal-round tie with Sue Keller. And Janet, Paul, Linda, and Marty joined Ron and Sue as Reg finalists.

1989 saw other OTPP changes besides a Regular Division field without Ron Trotta and his near-Garrison finishes. First of all, the contest would- for the first time- employ four judges (instead of the three of previous years). 

Second, two new JD contestants (Jason Planck and Christina Sparks) would try to stop Dax from successfully defending his newly-won crown. 

Plus, in the RD, seven newcomers would join in the hunt (nineteen performers strong) to hoist the Traveling Trophy. Three of the biggest names were a Michigander named Taslimah Bey,

a Bay Stater named Mark Lutton,

and...an Illinoisan named Julie McClarey.

Julie had the shortest trip of them all: She and her husband Steve lived on the other side of town from Decatur's Holiday Inn.

Five cash prizes (not the six of 1986-88) awaited the nineteen Regular Division hopefuls...and after missing out in '88, "Perfessor" Bill made sure he'd get a check from the contest in his third try. Marty, Sue, and- you probably guessed it- Paul were 1989 RD finalists, too.

In fact, 1989 represented Paul Gronemeier's best chance since 1980 to jump into the OTPP winner's circle. (He finished second to Bruce Petsche in '80.)

But Julie McClarey's near-perfect technique and enthusiastic performances prevented Paul from getting his hands on the Big Dough.

And, as things turned out, the McClareys could really use the championship money.

After all, Steve's and Julie's family was growing.

What kind of effect would a growing family have on Julie's chance to defend her newly-earned title?

I'll have the answer when I come back for Part Three. (Stay tuned!)

Oh, by the way...a Bay Stater is someone from Massachusetts.

Yes, Virginia...Was a Contestant

So was Tony (in 1982)...a couple of years before Virginia entered.

I'm talking about the World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest and Festival...an event that, at long last, has a database. 

And the credit goes to three people: Dan Mouyard (the first Junior Division champion to become a Regular Division champ at the Illinois event), Judy Leschewski (a 1977 contestant who found out she could make more of an impact by becoming the celebration's first contest coordinator- a job she held for decades), and Dale Wells (a 1994 Regular Division finalist whose own stint as an OTPP contestant ran from 1986 to 2010). 

Dan emailed me a couple of weeks ago; in his post, he added a link to the C&F database...and once I got on there, my eyes were some kind of full.

Lots of great, great memories!

I'd first heard of the contest in 1979. I was in college at the time, and one Saturday afternoon that May, I hurried back to my dorm room, turned on my TV set, and...watched the tail end of NBC Nightly News (Saturday edition, of course), where the last report showed Dorothy M. Herrold banging away on an antique upright piano placed on a caboose in front of the Monticello Railway Museum. (That's right...the contest was held outdoors back then.)

The reporter called Dorothy (who'd just become OTPP's first three-time undefeated champion after besting the previous titleholder, 1975-76 standardbearer Joybelle Squibb) "The Chopin of Ragtime." 

Two years and seven months earlier, I'd walked inside a church and decided to give the ol' 88s another chance (after a reluctant start in 1965).

After watching that TV report in which the old teacher from La Porte, IN showed the crowd how old-time piano really works, I'd never given attending the C&F (let alone actually entering it) any sort of thought.

Until 1993...thirteen years after the database starts. 

According to the database, three contestants went after the crown DMH had just vacated: John McElhaney, Paul Gronemeier (as things turned out, a longtime OTPP hopeful), and- as things also turned out- the first man to get the Big Trophy, a Californian named Bruce Petsche. 

At first, OTPP was a one-day competition in which each pianist had to prepare three selections. And the audience joined a panel of judges in selecting the champ. 

In those days, Ted Lemen's claim to fame had no Regular Division-Junior Division setup; everybody, regardless of age, competed for the top prize. (Bruce pocketed $250 for winning it all.)

So, in 1981, the field shot up to twelve hopefuls...including little Jennifer Booker, Paul G., and defending titleholder Bruce.

Even Dorothy came back to Monticello, IL to fight to get her crown back. (Can't do that today if you've topped the RDs three straight years.) 

Instead, Mark Haldorson (a man from Illinois' Peoria area) inaugurated his own three-year stint ruling old-time piano.

And Tony Caramia (now one of the big names in ragtime piano) was one of ten 1982 performers trying to end Mark's reign.

Two years later, 31 other pianists (Jennifer and Paul were two of them) fought to claim the title Mark had just vacated. 

One of those musicians was...Virginia Tichenor, who's now one of ragtime's big names as well. 

Nope...pianist-drummer Virginia didn't take the crown.

That championship went to a professor from Peoria's Bradley University, Janet Kaizer. (By the way...another of the contestants Janet had to get past to make it to the top was her own husband, Ed, himself a Bradley prof.)

Well, after that mini-marathon, the Monticello Railway Museum made some changes to its Number One fundraiser. 

First of all, OTPP was turned into a two-day event, with prelims on the first day and finals on the second day. Then the field was busted into two pieces- a Junior Division (for pianists eighteen or younger) and a Regular Division. With this new format, the JD champion was determined on the first day, and the top five RD performers would come back to play the next day for that division's title.

So, with a new format for 1985, Janet got to keep her Reg crown, while Neil Moe became the first Junior titleholder. 

Funny thing: Neil WAS the Junior Division for 1985. 

The next year was the final outdoor C&F (due to the weather turning bad and due to an event called "Hands Across America")...the only year the event was staged at the football field at Monticello High School...and the first year all RDs had to go through qualifications for a spot in the division's semifinals before five finalists could be winnowed out.   

In the RD field (fourteen performers strong), Janet and Ed were still in there, and Paul was still knocking on the door. They were joined by two newcomers who'd each go on to embark on a long association with the contest: Michigan's Dale Wells and Wisconsin's Linda Harmon. 

And a third RD newcomer would really shake things up: Ron Trotta.

Meanwhile, eight teens/preteens would make sure Neil wouldn't get to enjoy a second straight year of being the sole JD contestant. They included sisters Heather and Kori Wilken...as well as Ed's and Janet's son, Joe. 

And Jeremy Lehmen, who joined Jennifer in sitting out 1985, joined her in coming back to Monticello in '86 to challenge Long Tall Neil.

Neil pushed all his challengers aside to keep the Junior Division crown.  

Then, with circumstances producing a six-member Regular Division finals contingent, Janet was on her way to becoming the third performer to wrap up three adult titles in as many years...while Ed (holding down second place coming into the RD finals) was trying to make sure the two biggest cash prizes would go to the Kaizer family. 

But Ron snatched all of that away, charging from fifth (RD prelims) to third (RD semis)...all the way to the very top.  

With twelve World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contests in the books, the Monticello Railway Museum had some new questions to answer about its pet project as the museum prepared for 1987. 

The questions included: "Can Ron Trotta keep his hands on the championship trophy?" "What's Paul Gronemeier got to do to get that title?" "Has Neil Moe got one more title left in him?" "Are the Kaizers coming back?" "Will Linda Harmon come back? She's great...especially when she's playing upside down!" 

The biggest question was: "Where's the contest gonna be held NOW?" 

I'll tell you what happened in Part Two of this post.

I'm Jim Boston, and thanks for finding this blog! 

See What Happens When You Show a Movie in a Bar?

You pack the place, that's what!

It was standing room only at Ed's (No Name) Bar in Winona, MN, for the 2-17-2015 showing of "The Entertainers." 

And one of the movie's two directors, Nick Holle, joined us just in time.

Faye Ballard, Nick, and I received a warm, warm welcome from the audience...an audience that included festival director Crystal Hegge, Dave from the Upper Mississippi Jazz Society, and Ed himself (the man who runs said venue).

"The Entertainers" really went over with the overflow crowd at the bar located at 3rd and Franklin Sts.

About 95 minutes after the film rolled, Nick, Faye, and I fielded questions from audience members. (And we had a ball!)

Then the crowd switched from the barroom (where the documentary was actually shown) to Ed's (No Name) Bar's concert room...where a 1970s (or maybe 1960s or 1980s) Kimball studio piano was located.

Faye and I really went at it...me doing "St. Louis Blues," E. Warren Furry's "Robardina Rag," and "Santa Lucia."

Then Faye showed the stuff that made her a frequent Regular Division finalist at the documentary's subject event, the World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest and Festival (now held at the Embassy Suites East Peoria in Illinois). 

The contestant-turned-contest coordinator's selections were her trademark tune "Mack the Knife," "Sailin' Away on the Henry Clay," and "Pork and Beans."

Then the university office systems coordinator (Faye) and the factory machine operator (me) teamed up to do "Won't You Come Home, Bill Bailey."

The audience ate it up so much that they asked Faye to fire up an encore.

She did...and it was none other than "The Entertainer."

I ended up doing the last tune in the mini-concert...and it was a rag written in 1954 and recorded the next year by Fritz Schulz-Reichel (its author) and by Johnny Maddox, "The Crazy Otto."

I felt very comfortable...I felt the fun...I had real fun.

And most important of all, the people who crowded into Ed's venue had a blast, too.

When's the next screening of "The Entertainers" going to take place? Where will it happen?

Wherever it is, I hope I'll be able to make it there...and I hope you can, too.

Hello There from Winona!

Nope...not Winona Ryder.

Winona, Minnesota.

This is one extremely beautiful city, and the reason I'm in town (a city of over 25,000 people) is...the tenth annual Frozen River Film Festival.

Winona State University puts this event on each winter (last year, it took place in January); during five or six days, different venues across town present movies of all kinds.

The festival officially kicks off tomorrow and lasts until 2-22-2015, but tonight...one of Winona's most famous hot spots, Ed's (No Name) Bar, jumps the gun at 7:30 PM (CST) by showing that initial documentary about the World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest and Festival, the 2012 release "The Entertainers."

Right now, Faye Ballard, her mother Erma, and I are staying at the home of two of the FRFF's volunteers and supporters, Steve and Nancy Bachler.

The house isn't too far from the WSU campus...and the school isn't too far away from Ed's, the bar located at 3rd and Franklin Sts.

Faye, Erma, Nancy, Steve, and I are having a real groovy time right now; as I'm typing this out, the FRFF showing of "The Entertainers" is less than three hours away.

Speaking of real groovy time...I had one yesterday while driving from Omaha to Winona (a trip I wouldn't have made if last week's prediction of a winter storm for Nebraska and Iowa to fall on 2-16-2015 had come true).

I was tooling along in a 2014 Chevy Malibu that Enterprise Rent-a-Car loaned out to me, groovin' to the music on Sirius XM Channels 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 49, just glad to get on the road for the first time in 2015.

And then...at the 200-mile mark on Interstate 90 in the Gopher State, it started to snow.

Things stopped looking so groovy for the moment.

Had to pray that I could get to the Bachlers' house safely (and get that Chevy parked and out of harm's way).

Managed to make the right exit (Exit 252 on I-90)...but then, the seven miles on Minnesota State Highway 43 that led to Winona started to take a harrowing turn: After nearly driving off the road, I had to slow down.

It would've been worse if another driver hadn't sped by me.

So I decided to follow said motorist...and got inside Minnesota's Most Beautiful City at 6:54 PM.

Then I spent the next half hour finding Steve's and Nancy's house. (This, even after spending part of Sunday night studying an online map of Winona and planning out how to get from Exit 252 to the area around the Winona State campus!)

At The Weather Channel, they like to say: "It's amazing out there!"

Sometimes, I like to strip out "amazing" and put in "depressing!"

But things got straightened out, and I got to the hosts' house at 7:30 PM...when Nancy, Erma, Steve, and Faye greeted me with open arms (and my choice of beer, wine, coffee, tea, or water).

I had a roaring case of dry mouth, so...I opted for the water.

It came in a large mug. (Thanks so much, Nancy!)

If you're visiting Winona, maybe you'll like the restaurant the Ballards and I have been visiting: Jefferson Pub and Grill (on Center St. between 1st and 2nd Streets). Great sports bar, great food...especially the burgers (such as the "Goody Burger," which features barbecue sauce and an onion ring).

Well, that's it for now...and I hope to see you at the Frozen River Film Festival! 

By the way...to learn more about this event, log onto www.frozenriver.org.

There's a First Time for Everything

And the 2014 version of the shoulda-coulda-woulda NCAA Division 1-A football playoffs offers some proof to that. 

Aw, what the heck...let's just cut to the chase and show you what happened:

FIRST ROUND (seeding in parentheses): Northern Illinois (9) 35, Louisiana-Lafayette (24) 14; Missouri (16) 35, UCLA (17) 7; Arizona (13) 35, Arizona State (20) 21; Kansas State (21) 35, Colorado State (12) 33; Wisconsin (14) 14, Clemson (19) 7; Mississippi State (11) 28, Cincinnati (22) 20; Mississippi (18) 37, Georgia Tech (15) 7; Michigan State (10) 28, Central Florida (23) 7

SECOND ROUND: Florida State (1) 42, Northern Illinois 17; Boise State (8) 24, Missouri 6; TCU (5) 56, Arizona 7; Oregon (4) 17, Kansas State 7; Baylor (6) 21, Wisconsin 19; Alabama (3) 21, Mississippi State 2; Marshall (7) 21, Mississippi 17; Ohio State (2) 14, Michigan State 7

QUARTERFINAL ROUND: Boise State 22, Florida State 21; Oregon 49, TCU 28, Alabama 40, Baylor 7; Marshall 31, Ohio State 28

SEMIFINAL ROUND: Oregon 21, Boise State 7; Alabama 21, Marshall 14

CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: Alabama 49, Oregon 21

For starters, it was the fourth straight year a team that had never won these playoffs before went all the way (something Oregon did in 2011, followed by Notre Dame in 2012 and Baylor one season later; the Bears relinquished their title in this season's quarterfinals). 

It was just the second time a Southeastern Conference club won it all in these playoffs...and, inexplicably, the very first time an SEC champion turned the trick. (Florida's 2009 D-1-A playoff champion was an at-large squad...in a year where the Crimson Tide ruled the most popular league in college football.) 

Not only did Arizona and Marshall post playoff wins for the first time, but Northern Illinois did it, too...after five failures, starting in 1983 and then every campaign since 2010. 

This year's MVP: Alabama QB Blake Sims, who fired three air scores in the title game, where he went 24-for-41 for 318 yards (in addition to running for 67 yards on nine tries against the Ducks; scored a TD, too).

Who knows...maybe the trend of a first-time champion winning this version of a major-college football playoff will continue.

Let's just stay tuned and see.

Just Because They're Finally Staging the College Football Playoff...

Well, that doesn't mean that this football fan's going to stop using his computer to wage his own version of a 24-team shoulda/woulda/coulda NCAA Division 1-A college football playoff.

I wasn't sure what kind of decision the 13-member selection committee was going to come up with when College Football 2014 (regular-season style) was about to come to an end (after all, the first-ever CFP Poll had three Southeastern Conference teams among the top four clubs in Division 1-A). I thought it was just going to be the BCS-Plus-Two.

Me, I can live with what Jeff Long, Tom Osborne, Condoleezza Rice, and Co. came up with. 

I can live with a championship entry from each of four different conferences.

Still, I can't wait until this becomes an eight-team playoff...or a 16-team one. (Maybe the day will come when the NCAA takes over the 1-A playoff process.)

Maybe if Mark Emmert and his lieutenants ran this 1-A playoff, all ten of the leagues in that division- not just the five wealthiest leagues- would get automatic bids. 

If Emmert and Co. ran it the way I do, this year's D-1-A playoff field would look exactly like this:

1. Florida State (13-0; ACC champ)/2. Ohio State (12-1; Big Ten champ)/3. Alabama (12-1; SEC champ)/4. Oregon (12-1; Pac-12 champ)/5. TCU (11-1; Big 12 at-large)/6. Baylor (11-1; Big 12 champ)/7. Marshall (11-1; Conference USA champ)/8. Boise State (11-2; Mountain West champ)

9. Northern Illinois (11-2; MAC champ)/10. Michigan State (10-2; Big Ten at-large)/11. Mississippi State (10-2; SEC at-large)/12. Colorado State (10-2; Mountain West at-large)/13. Arizona (10-3; Pac-12 at-large)/14. Wisconsin (10-3; Big Ten at-large)/15. Georgia Tech (10-3; ACC at-large)/16. Missouri (10-3; SEC at-large)

17. UCLA (9-3; Pac-12 at-large)/18. Mississippi (9-3; SEC at-large)/19. Clemson (9-3; ACC at-large)/20. Arizona State (9-3; Pac-12 at-large)/21. Kansas State (9-3; Big 12 at-large)/22. Cincinnati (9-3; AAC at-large)/23. Central Florida (9-3; AAC champ)/24. Louisiana-Lafayette (8-4; Sun Belt champ)

Actually, the Ragin' Cajuns are Sun Belt champs by proxy this time. Georgia Southern celebrated its first year of 1-A football by not only going 9-3...but also racking up an undefeated (8-0) SBC mark. But because the Eagles (with six Division 1-AA titles between 1985 and 2000) are still transitioning into 1-A football, they won't be officially able to qualify to taste postseason action in that division until next season.

You try asking the CFP committee (which also includes Archie Manning and Oliver Luck, two former NFL quarterbacks whose three sons between them have become famous NFL quarterbacks) how it came to pick Alabama as the group's Number One seed (leading to a date with fourth-seeded Ohio State) and how it came to select Oregon as the second seed (and Florida State the third banana).

They won't tell you.  

But I'll be glad to tell you how THIS 24-team playoff field got determined.

First of all, besides all ten D-1-A circuits receiving an automatic bid apiece, a point system is used, and it's not unlike the system your state's high school athletic association probably uses to determine football playoff seeding. 

A team receives 50 quality points for beating a 1-A club that had a winning record, 45 points for stopping a Division 1-A entry that suffered a losing mark or had a .500 season.

The club wins 40 quality points for defeating a Division 1-AA squad that racked up a winning campaign...and gets 35 for a victory over a losing (or .500) 1-AA team.

Yep...quality points are subtracted for losses, too: 50 for each loss to a winning 1-A team, 55 for every loss to a losing 1-A club (or one that won half its games), and 60 should our playoff entry lose to a successful 1-AA contingent.

And should that D-1-A playoff squad lose to a D-1-AA team that was .500 or worse...that's a loss of 65 quality points. 

In case a team wins all its games, the club receives 55 extra quality points...something that happened for Jimbo Fisher's Seminoles this time around.

This system's got tiebreakers, too. The first one is the number of games won by all the Division 1-A clubs that played the tied teams. (This season, Alabama and Ohio State each earned 520 quality points...yet because the Buckeyes' D-1-A opponents won a combined total of 87 contests, while the 1-A foes of the Crimson Tide racked up 83 wins, Urban Meyer's players got the second seed for 2014.)

Head-to-head competition is the second tiebreaker...and if the tied teams didn't meet during the regular season, conference records are examined. (This tiebreaker kicked in for 2014, since Arizona State and Clemson not only totaled 265 quality points apiece, but saw their Division 1-A foes win 74 games each. No, the Sun Devils and the Tigers didn't taste it up this year...so it came down to the fact that ASU had a 6-2 Pac-12 record, topping Clemson's 6-3 ACC ledger.)

Had the circuit marks been the same for Todd Graham's and Dabo Swinney's teams, point differential would've been looked at...first in head-to-head competition, then in conference play, and next in all games.

If all else fails, the final step is a coin toss.

By the way...I'm going to use Lance Haffner Games' 3-in-1 Football to run this playoff cycle, and the games will be computer-vs.-computer style.

Can't wait to play these...and I'll give you the results as soon as possible.

Until then, may 2015 really rock for you! Thanks for reading this blog!

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!