I found this on Reckon's blog, and he'd reposted it from Your Daily Awesome.
It's the first song of the debut performance of the Blue Ribbon Glee Club, Chicago's finest punk rock choir. In this video they're performing "Where Is My Mind?" by Pixies at Ronny's bar in Chicago, IL.
What is it about a choir of human voices? They don't have to be particularly well-practiced or on key, they don't have to be singing music I particularly like, they don't even need to sing in a language I understand or have a message I agree with -- a choir of human voices makes my heart swell. I get teary-eyed. I instantly feel more human, more compassionate, and almost always inspired.
There's also something very egalitarian about a choir; if one person warbles out something sharp or flat, there are five or 25 others to round out the sound. It's ancient too, the act of group singing. There's something primal about it, the concept of it runs in our blood. It's communal, by definition -- you can't have choir with just one person (although, sure, there is an "I" in choir). And as punk rock or agnostic or atheist as you may be, there's still something vaguely prayerful about it - "where two or more are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them".
Maybe that's why choirs get to me. Two or more gathered in the name of music, for the sake of art. Amen to that.
