I wasn’t supposed to be at this show. Not because it was a kids show and I found it creepy for a forty something single person to be there, but because I was supposed to be in the airport in Chicago waiting for my flight home. Like all of my flights recently, this one was early, landing in Chicago at 1:30. I checked the board and saw one to Madison at 2 pm. Unlike all my other flights, that one was not full, and since I hadn’t checked any bags they were happy to let me switch. I grabbed a cab at the airport and settled into a seat close to the front just as the show started.
I wouldn’t normally expend this much effort to see a children’s show, but my friend Gerald Dowd is one of the Not Ready for Naptime Players. Perhaps the best drummer I know, Gerald has been talking about this band for years but this was their first trip to Madison. I had already told him I wasn’t going to be able to make it so he wasn’t expecting me. Ideally he could have put me on the list so I wouldn’t have had to buy a fifteen dollar ticket at the door (now I understand why people start kids’ bands) and it wouldn’t have cost me a twenty dollar cab ride, but the big smile on his face when he spotted me made it worth it.
If I were a parent I probably would have thought it was worth it too. It’s hard to find music for children that parents can tolerate. While his songs are undeniably silly, they are still listenable, and leagues above Barney or the slightly less annoying Raffi. Roberts seems like a big kid himself and he somehow manages to hold the interest of a room full of kids for an entire hour. He does it with a combination goofy songs and engaging banter. He put Gerald on the spot by asking him what superhero he wanted to be when he was a kid. Everyone seemed mystified by his story of a champion named “Phil” who fought evil with two pieces of wood. I asked him later if maybe he was talking about Phil Collins (though based on his late Eighties output he may actually be evil), but he wasn’t quite sure where his answer had come from.
He looked even more uncomfortable when Roberts had him trade places with bassist Liam Davis (of Frisbie, I was surprised and delighted to see he too wasn’t Ready for Naptime) at the end of the show. While Liam had no problem settling in behind the kit, Gerald instead elected to do the “Stage fright” dance, freezing in place with mock (real?) terror.
Most of the audience seemed familiar with his material and had requests ready when he asked for them. “Henrietta’s Hair” about an exceptionally bad hair day was delightful, while “Pop Fly” covered the familiar territory (at least for me) of that moment of terror when you are startled out of daydreaming in right field to realize that a pop fly is heading toward you. “Training Wheels” examines the conundrum of going from three wheels to four just to get to two. Smart stuff. There are little moments for the grown-ups too. At the end of “Meltdown” he throws in the line “I’d stop the world and meltdown with you” for all the Eighties music lovers in the crowd.
It was definitely an entertaining hour with one of the more appreciative audiences I’ve seen in awhile. And hey, if it helps Gerald and Liam pay the bills, so much the better.
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