Last week I had two taiko drumming gigs: Thursday night at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), and Saturday morning in West Boylston, Massachusetts. Both went pretty well, though I had a couple brain cramps - they were probably minor 'fumbles' that nobody really noticed, but when they happen, they remind me in no uncertain terms that I still have plenty of room (maybe a continent's worth) for improvement.
The MIT gig was for a pretty cool Japanese cultural event - there were some dancers, video projections, singers and other musicians in the performing arts, games for the kids to play, and more. The people who were checking out our drumming performance were digging it; the kids were just mesmerized by those big drums and the thunderous sounds we were bashing out of them. {big smile}
The gig in West Boylston was for that community's bicentennial celebration. It was a beautiful, sunny, comfortable morning for our gig. It was my first major outdoor gig, and it was really something to hear people talking about how they could hear our drums from quite a distance (the event's venues, food stalls, merchandise tables, etc. were spread out over a large park, an adjoining baseball field and other spaces). A fun thing at some of our gigs is audience participation - the kids almost always have huge smiles on their faces as they grab our big drumsticks ('bachi') and have a go at hitting the drums. "License to be loud".
The West Boylston kids seemed to be a little intimidated at first, but they eventually made their own brand of taiko noise. And nobody minded how loud they were.
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