John Roderick ::: photo by Josh Lovseth

In an industry and city obsessed with passive coolness, joy isn’t a word on the lips of many music writers or musicians, which is why John Roderick’s performance with the School of Rock during City Arts Fest was so refreshing. As the saying goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words” and when it comes to demonstrating the ebullient emotion of the night, I believe it’s true.

But if the photo could zoom out, you would see it wasn’t just Roderick grinning that evening. It was the entire room, the columns of the Showbox seemed to smile. From the rotating stage of talented and nervous young musicians, their parents proudly watching, the opening bands standing side stage cheering along and the notorious unemotive Seattle audience who cheered and grinned like I’ve rarely seen. At the center of it was Roderick, who had the most genuine fun I saw a musician have all year, all while performing my favorite “Long Winters” concert in the half decade I’ve seen the band perform. And not just for the cute factor, as Roderick reminded the oohing-and-ahhing audience, “these kids aren’t cute, these kids are bad ass.” And they were. And it wasn’t my favorite for the usual witty banter (you know we have a “Roderickisms” tag on this site, right?) or that Sean Nelson joined his old band mate for a few songs, including a long-lusted after cover of “The Only Living Boy in New York.” No, it was the unadulterated joy radiating from “The School of Roderick.”

Just look at that smile.

You can see Roderick and his old bandmate Nelson tonight at the Three Imaginary Girls annual holiday show with Eef Barzelay (Clem Snide), Mal de Mer, Heligoats and Temp Score (Nelson and Kyle O’Quin) at Columbia City Theater. Roderick will be there reprising his role as “Indie Rock Santa,” where hopefully he’ll be displaying that same joyful grin.