Solar Babies Reunion Tour

Next Wednesday the Solar Babies will reunite for one night only. What are the Solar Babies you ask? Well it's only the name of our band! Well sort of. Every year Daniel and I lead the music for the end of the year All Kansas City Young Life club for all the metro school districts. Over the years we've had a handful of different folks help us out by playing bass, drums, etc. Nothing can beat last year's group though; we asked our friends Jordan and Aaron to help us. Solar Babies happens to be the name of a very obscure movie Jordan is a fan of and also the perfect name for a band, thus we were born.


I have rock star fantasies just like everyone else and once a year All City is my one chance to really indulge this dream. We get to play our favorite top 40 hits for as many as 500 high school kids for a giant sing along. Daniel and the boys have experienced this before because they have actual musical talent and have played in bands before. Jordan is actually quite the musician and is currently a member of Soft Reeds. (Sidenote: I was singing a new song at church one time and really liked it only to see the credits come up on the last slide where Jordan was credited. It's a pretty intimate experience to worship to a song written by your friend.) Despite my lack of any real musical ability, I can still live out my rockstar persona in this venue because no one can really hear me anyway.

Back in college when I was first leading Young Life, all the girl leaders were on a rotation to provide the female voice during songs at club. When my first night was up I hid in the storage closet when club began so that they'd have to start without me and replace me with someone else more willing. After club everyone asked where I had been and I fessed up to my extreme performance anxiety and was excused from any further musical obligation. You see I was in the gifted program during elementary and middle school, and the program's curriculum took the place of my music class. So most everyone else is used to singing in front of other people because they had to do it all through school every time they had a vocal test. I never had to do this and it became one of those things that became scarier the more and more removed from it I became.

So how did I go from keeping company with the broom and mop in the darkness of the storage closet to singing in front of 500 people? Later on in college when working at a Young Life camp I was approached by the camp director to provide the female voice for club each night. I was too flattered and afraid to say no, so I faced my fears and got on stage each night for one month that summer. Fear conquered. And now I LOVE it.

So come check out the Solar Babies reunion tour appearance next week. It's gonna be an awesome show.