Roll on!

Saturday was a momentous day, at least in the universe of my band the Xylenes, because it was the day of this year's Windy City Rollers draft. Xylenes vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Kelly had been engaged in a many-weeks-long training/tryout program and we were not surprised at all to learn yesterday that she was among the relatively few new skaters drafted onto one of the four Windy City teams. Congratulations Kelly!

The Fury, 2009 edition, featuring Kelly (aka Mel Content) (bottom row right).

I had been pretty oblivious to roller derby until Kelly got involved in it, but there is a very active nation-wide league, with programs in dozens of cities. To the extent people know about it at all, my anecdotal experience suggests that they don't take it very seriously, considering it a show "sport" like professional wrestling, but if that was ever the case, it' s not the case in the WFTDA (Women's Flat Track Derby Association). Last month a bunch of us went to a bout with Kelly to see what it was all about and it was a blast.

As a spectator sport, roller derby provides an experience that's almost impossible to find once you're out of school, and maybe not even then. Unlike just about any other inter-city level sport, derby teams are actually of their namesake cities: the Windy City Rollers teams are made up of women from Chicagoland; when they play the Kansas City team, they are playing women from Kansas City, the Detroit team are from Detroit, etc. The Bears or the White Sox may be the "Chicago Bears" or "Chicago White Sox" but if there's anybody on either team from Chicago it is purely coincidental. So at a bout, when the fans root for "our gals," they really are our gals.

And, for now at least, the sport has not been commercialized to the hilt like most professional sports, or even lots of higher-profile college sports. There was a very organic, community vibe at the bout we went to, which I have never felt in the stands at a professional ball park or hockey arena. It reminded me of my best memories of school sports---it was like being at a really rowdy college hockey game (in a good way).

I don't know how long that state of affairs can persist---roller derby is such a fun spectator sport that I have to think one of these days the bigger world is going to notice it and sweep in with a bunch of money and all that that implies. On one level it would be nice to see the women involved get something for all the effort they put into it, but I would miss the purity that it has now. For now, I intend to go to more bouts because they're a hell of a lot of fun.

The next bout is Saturday, October 25, at the UIC Pavillion. For more information, check out the Windy City Rollers' web site.