Alarming Female

Our school has an “Open Mic” every spring, which is a talent show of sorts, but different from what you often find in high school talent shows. There are no auditions; no competition, no awards. Everyone that wants to perform, may perform. It’s casually eclectic—blue jeans, mohawks, t-shirts and hoodies. Sometimes even the performers dress up.

Everybody wins. It’s so cool.

Last night was Open Mic 2008. My mom and dad were in the audience, seated with me, and my mom turned to me and said, “you didn’t tell me it would be so good. I wasn’t expecting anything like this.” My parents were there because my son was on the program.

For the first time ever in his life, James performed solo. He was terrified, but determined. He sang Radiohead’s Creep and accompanied himself on his new acoustic/electric guitar.

Go ahead and watch it; it’s not painful. Really–he brought down the house. I have a permanent smile pasted on my face–I think he might, too.

He also performed with some friends; they did an air guitar performance of the Foo Fighters The Pretender. This, too, was a huge hit with the audience. My friend Janna’s son Cade was in the second row, pumping the air with his fist and jumping up and down. Afterward he excitedly posed for a pic with James.

James told me later that he knew he needed to kneel down to make the photo look okay, and he told Cade to “look into the camera with an expression that says, I just don’t care.”

Traditionally, at the end of the evening all the performers and most of the audience come up on the stage and sing Imagine, accompanied by anyone who has a guitar. It’s an amazing evening.