A little while ago I posted about a rock band called The High Strung who are playing at libraries this summer as part of their National Rock and Roll Library Tour. Last night I attended their opening show at the Detroit Public Library and it was a really good time. Their music is a lot of fun, but their presence is what makes it a really cool program. They are all fun, and intelligent guys and that comes across during the show as they make all sorts of jokes and comments about libraries and books.

In addition to playing a great set for about one hour they also talk about what it is like to be in a rock band and to go on tour. They answer questions, although at this show not many people seemed to have questions. Perhaps the most interesting thing they are doing is a segment at the end where they will write a song with the audience and then perform it. This is really a lot of fun. First they asked us for a song style and a chord, or chords, that the song should be in. In this case it was a love ballad composed with the F chord. After deciding this they passed out a bunch of random books they found on the shelves in the library and asked the audience to pick out interesting lines or phrases that would compose the lyrics. It was an inventive idea and people found some very bizarre lines. While the song probably won’t make it too far on the next billboard chart, it was pretty good, and really funny.

There is also a fellow who is making a documentary of the tour. I wasn’t fully sure what the purpose was but it seemed to be meant to help promote the concepts of literacy, libraries, and rock and roll. He interviewed a few of us at the show, and in my case asked a lot of questions about libraries, programming, library school, and other such questions. While I am not entirely sure what this documentary will look like it sounds interesting, so if you go to one of the shows this summer keep and eye out for the guy with the camera and feel free to let him interview you.

All in all it was a really cool experience, and the library patrons, who ranged greatly in age, really seemed to love it. If you can get out to one of their library shows this summer I would highly recommend it.