Potter a muse for wizard rockers

He heard about this thing called wrock, and that was it.

"I was like, 'Wow, I can make a terrible band that sings about awesome stuff, too,' " smiles Andrew Karasa, singer/guitarist/Harry Potter lifer.

And so he started penning tunes for what would become Hogwarts Express, who really aren't terrible at all.

"We're the best wizard rock band in Vegas," drummer Jason Aragon notes.

With a chuckle, one of his bandmates, keyboardist/guitarist Ryan Marth, then points out that they're the only wizard rock, or wrock, band in Vegas, though more than 700 of them exist nationally and internationally.

The group, rounded out by singer Jane Comegys, Karasa's sister, and bassist Judi Brown, are sitting out back of Karasa's house on a recent Tuesday evening, just before band rehearsal, joined by Comegy's black pug Bean, an excitable, snorting, cocktail-wiener-of-a-dog who leaps into laps at will.

In addition to hailing from some of Vegas' best bands (Brown's in Pan De Sal, Marth fronts The Big Friendly Corporation and Karasa and Aragon play in The Clydesdale) they all have something else in common: a love of all things Harry Potter -- mainly the books. Hence, they were eager to join Karasa, who first began penning Potter-themed tunes a few years back.

"We've all got other bands," Marth says. "This is just all about the fun and doing something different once in a while."

For Karasa, whose songs include missives against Potter star Daniel Radcliffe for appearing naked in the play "Equus," Hogwarts is a not-so-laborious labor of love.

"Our first show, that was some of the most fun I've had playing in front of people because they were hard-core fanatics and they were listening to every word we were saying and clapping and laughing," he says. "It was the best energy."

"You can tell the people who really appreciate what we're singing about it," Comegys adds. "It's about really enjoying the story and the fantasy of it."

And while last week marked the official culmination of the Potter movie franchise, Hogwarts Express isn't going the way of their muse, planning on playing more shows here and there in the future.

Clearly, they're having fun.

To wit: Tonight, after practice, they will attempt to make the vaguely alcoholic Potter-based concoction butter beer.

"It's cool to see people do really creative things around something that they love so much," Brown says of why she was attracted to Hogwarts. "Aside from it being Harry Potter, it's just fun rock music."

Contact reporter Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476.