For Those about to Soft Rock

A few weeks ago, Shannon gave us a head's up about the Gustafer Yellowgold show at the Barnes and Noble in Germantown. I had never heard of it, so I checked out the website. Described as cross between "Yellow Submarine" and Dr. Suess, I was intrigued.

I thought it might be a little "young" for the monkeys, but decided to check it out anyway. I ordered the first CD/DVD combo and set up a test screening at home. We played the CD in the car first, and it was met with lukewarm enthusiasm. THEN we played the DVD, which is full of homemade drawings and minimal animation for each song. The monkeys loved it! When we played the CD in the car the second time, it totally came alive and we were all singing along.

I mentioned that the guy who created Gustafer Yellowgold was coming to town and asked if the monkeys wanted to go check it out. "YES!" they replied, hardly believing their luck.

As we drove out to the burbs, I patted myself on the back for being 1) a super mom and 2) Gustafer Yellowgold's dream fan. However, once we walked in and saw the very small crowd assembled, I realized that I should have 3) gotten the word out to all of my friends.

Anyway, while waiting to get started Morgan Taylor, the voice of Gustafer and the artist behind the videos, was sitting off to the side of his projector enjoying a sandwich with his young son. Meanwhile his wife was busy unloading merch and attractively displaying it across mini benches. It was precious.

A nice B&N employee did a little introduction and then the show started. Morgan started off by saying, "Who's ready to soft rock?" which was hilarious.

The monkeys had a short list of songs they wanted to hear and Morgan played them all, including "Your Eel."


(Warren does his own rendition of this song called "Your Unagi.")

Between songs, Morgan did some storytelling and cracked a few jokes. We all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. I would love to get him at a Rock-n-Romp, or sit out on the Shell on a Saturday afternoon listening to him play. I talked to his wife a bit, and it turns out they've been touring since January, so who knows, they just might come back some day!

Until then, check out the CDs/DVDs!