The Monkeys Meet the Aardvarks

When Satchel was a baby, I became a little obsessed with kids' music. (Cool kids' music, of course.) I had an impressive CD collection (including NY's famous Music for Aardvarks #1 featuring the smash hit "Poopin on My Potty"), we often attended Peanut Butter & Jam at GPAC, and as you all know by now, I helped bring Rock-n-Romp to Memphis.

I got an email from my friend Caleb last week titled: Family Jam (not as hippie as it sounds). He informed me that he would be playing at the Memphis Music for Aardvarks' Family Jam at First Congo on Saturday at 5:00pm. He said, "I'll play a few songs and then we disco." It seemed like the perfect opportunity to finally check out Memphis' version of Music for Aardvarks.

On Saturday afternoon around 3:00pm, I started getting the monkeys pumped up. "Do you guys wanna go hear some music tonight?"

They both ignored me. (Yes, they were playing Star Wars on the Wii.)

I tried again. Louder. "Do you guys wanna go hear some music tonight?"

They looked over.

"Caleb is going to sing tonight with the Aardvarks."

"Caleb who has my little blue light saber?" Jiro asked (referring to the fact that he lost a toothpick sized light saber in Caleb's yard the day before.)

"Uh-huh," I said. "Satch, remember our Aardvarks CD?"

Warren chimed in with the lyrics to our favorite song, "I'm poopin on my potty and I feel just like a king..."

"I DON'T WANT TO GO!" Satchel hollered.

"I do," said Jiro. (All weekend he was in the most agreeable mood. It was lovely! But also, I think he thought Caleb would have his light saber.)

"Sorry, Satchel, you're out voted," I said.

A couple of hours later we found ourselves in the First Congo parking lot. "Are we going to roller derby?" Satchel asked excitedly. (We used to have our league meetings at the Media Co-op in the basement.)

"No, honey, we're going to hear Caleb sing at the Aardvarks show," I reminded him.

"Aw, man!" he complained.

We followed a pregnant lady and her crew to a door on the north side of the building, punched in our secret code, and headed up the stairs. Caleb was standing at the door, looking anxious. "Hey!" I said cheerily as I peered into the room full of starngers with very small children. "Where's Melissa and Harlow?"

"I don't know," he said. "They're running late."

I had seen Melissa's car at the store, so I figured she'd be along soon.

Jiro then tugged on Caleb's pant leg and said, "Did you find my blue light saber?" (I translated this for Caleb.)

He laughed, and said, "No, not yet, but I promise I'll look when it stops raining."

That satisfied Jiro and we all went into the room. There was a big carpet square with families sitting all around it. Everyone had their shoes off and a few small boys were bouncing on balls in the middle of the carpet. I had really expected to recognize some people from Rock-n-Romp, the playground, somewhere...but I didn't. (OK there was one guy I recognized from his family's holiday card that we've gotten every year for the past twenty years.) I rationalized that I didn't know anyone because they were all obviously new parents. This must be the new Mothersville crowd I told myself.

We sat behind the main row of people on the far side of the room. Satchel buried his head in Warren's lap and Jiro sat a good foot away from me, as if he was embarrassed to be seen with me. I tried to get him in my lap and he protested wildly--a first!

Joe Murphy, Mr. Aardvark, started singing the hello song and then another one of the catchy Aardvark tunes. Satchel turned to me and said, "See, I told you this was going to be BORING!"

I don't know if this was Joe's cue, but he soon passed out egg shakers for all of the kids to play with. Suddenly both monkeys were grinning ear to ear and shaking their eggs with gusto.

Caleb took the stage and sang four very catchy tunes. My favorite was a new song called "Mad as...Hey!" in which we all got to yell "Hey!" instead of, I presume, "Hell."

The monkeys really liked this too.

Just as Caleb was finishing his last song, Melissa & Harlow came in and I waved them over. Then, before I knew it, Joe turned off the lights and turned on some disco music. I noticed the disco ball hanging from the ceiling and suddenly remembered the part of Caleb's email that said, "...and then we disco."

I thought he was using a figure of speech!

This was my worst nightmare.

I do not disco in a room full of people I don't know, especially without any alcohol in my system.

However, I seemed the be the only member of Team Oster freaking out. As soon as the lights went off, Satchel and Jiro (and even Warren!) started dancing as though they were the choreographers of Saturday Night Fever.

I was in shock.

Jiro, who slept through every single Rock-n-Romp last year, was disco-ing!! Satchel wasn't content to just disco, he had to break dance too!

"This is FUN!!" Satchel screamed above the music.

I really wished that I had my camera. (But it was also nice not having it so I could fully absorb the scene.)

Melissa leaned in and said, "We've totally got to start working on getting Baby Loves Disco here again."

"Maybe we do," I said as I looked at my three guys dancing the afternoon away.

Joe passed out more instruments and eventually the lights came back on. There were a few more songs--mostly mellow--in an attempt to get everyone settled down, and then it was over! Not even an hour had passed. (But it was an action packed 45 minutes.)

As we were leaving I asked Satchel, "What do you like better, this or Rock-n-Romp?"

"THIS," he said emphatically.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because they turn the lights off!" he said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

At $15 bucks a family for 45 minutes, I definitely think Rock-n-Romp gives you more bang for your buck ($5 per adult, kids free, three bands, three hours, free beer & food). However, it was nice to have a quick, family event early on a Saturday evening.

I'm interested to see who the future guest musicians will be at the Family Jams and if the monkeys will want to go back. I'm also curious to see if we can get a club to host a Memphis version of Baby Loves Disco.

At the very least, I figure at least one of the Rock-n-Romps will get rained out and we'll move to our back-up location, the Hi-Tone, replete with darkness and a disco ball.