The Charm of Sincerity

This week I am traveling with the Get a Life Marching Band.  I’m a dancer with the band.  We are in Anaheim for gigs at NAMM and Disneyland.

NAMM

The National Association of Music Merchants is one of the largest exhibits in the world for music products.  There are vendors for anything sound and music related….guitars, keyboards, sound boards, horns….and on and on.  The larger vendors feature famous musicians to demo their products.  Thursday I saw a Guitar God wailing for a large crowd (I am but a lowly dancer and did not know his name).  Anyway–big stuff.  We joined the Ferdinand L. Petiot band for their 40th Anniversary appearance at NAMM to open the event.  The song “Thriller” had been selected for us and I choreographed a routine for our dancers.   Quincy Jones, who produced Thriller, led us through the halls.  Quincy Jones! Led us in the parade through the convention halls!

Later in the day we played a stage set.  I saw Lenny ‘Fuzzy’ Rankins and his band perform as we waited.  They could not have been more cool….jazz, R&B and charismatic stage presence.  Very hip band.  Inwardly, I groaned and I thought, “We’re following them?!  We are the opposite of cool!”  I anticipated a painful hour with the audience leaving in droves.

But that didn’t happen.  As our director, Steve, told the story of the band in between classic songs like, “Louie, Louie”, “It’s Hip to be Square” and “We’re an American Band” the audience stayed and came right along with us.

We are not hip.  We are band nerds.  And what comes through when we perform is the sheer joy of the music.  The band LOVES to play and they are pretty darn good.  We dancers, twirlers and flag team love to play with them.

As we rode the bus back to our hotel Steve related a few conversations he’d had with some musicians after we finished our set.  NAMM halls are filled with world-class studio musicians  but the professional musicians said they hadn’t seen anything like Get a Life in 30 years of the convention. Steve and the rest of the group reminded these professionals of when they first began playing…school band, perhaps. He took them to another time and reminded them exuberance and fun that music can bring when it’s not a job.    “I daresay it was an emotional experience for them.”

The sincerity of Get a Life, the unabashed corniness..all this was utterly lovable.  The LA suits, rockers and professional musicians couldn’t help but crack a smile as we performed.

Here’s the lesson I relearned: Follow what you love with a passion.  Be a complete geek about it.  Be unabashed in your pursuit.  Sincerity is disarming.

My name is Maggie and I’m with the Band.