Harry and the Potters

Now I do not fully approve of the whole Harry Potter phenomenon, (at least not until Harry and Draco get it on in print). But I admit, having been through a British educational system myself, of having wished for magical powers once or twice myself to fend off all the twits, so I do see the appeal.

Harry and the Potters are a duo of brothers who perform pop punk songs of their own composition about life at Hogwarts, each in the persona of Harry Potter ata different stage of his scholastic career. I caught their Sunday matinee show at Northsix in Williamsburg, and honestly, these guys are great. Their show is 75% about how darn cute they look in matching sweaters and ties, and I don't think the full effect of their act translates to the MP3s I've heard, which could mistakenly lead one to the impression that they are sort of a gag.

Well, they are a gag, but a brilliant one. In their way, they are punk purists: returning to the original punk premise of stripped down three-chord rock, delivered in under a minute at top volume. This keeps songs like "Valdemort can't stop the rock" from outlasting their welcome. And while their act is clean enough for the toddler set (some of whom were in the audience, parents in tow) they exude the requisite badly repressed horniness that drives some of the best punk.

The duo started out some years back on a lark and with no obvious talent, but their song writing is getting better as inevitably happens with dedicated touring, another old school trick they've managed to make new by performing at places like libraries and youth centers. They seem quite dedicated to this: the young one ran from the stage after the final song to man the t-shirt-CD booth at the front. They have great rapport with their audience, and they are effortlessly uncool without being hopelessly nerdy.

I just checked their website, and they are back in town in July, playing the Knitting Factory and the New York Public Library with a band called Draco and the Malfoys. Perhaps at long last my dreamed of on-stage consumation will occur!