forgotten_aria

We had a gig in a lovely church. It had this giant cross hanging from the ceiling over the stage.

( It was a really nice space. )
We spent some time deciding if I would hit the cross while playing one of the pieces and eventually decided the best place for the drum would put the cross hanging directly over my head. People joked about the vibration of the drums making the cross fall, to which I commented that my gig nightmare from last night palled with what people were worried about actually happening.

Then when playing the piece, I realized that my hands very sweaty. There's a part in the song where we swing our hands up very quickly and I was worried with the sweatiness the stick would fly out of my hand and hit the cross, so I worked my hands up the sticks to a dry spot and played with very short sticks for that section.

I was also experimenting with the time-interval camera I had purchased. I had decided to get a inexpensive, used compact camera instead of getting an inverolometer for my DLSR so that I could leave the camera set up and taking pictures without worrying about it. Well good thing I decided that because during AP someone tripped over the tripod and the camera went boom to the floor. Someone set it back up, and it happily took pictures of the ceiling, but sadly when I went to view the images it started to report an lens error. The lens was visibly misaligned. I think a well placed twack make make it all better, but I didn't quite have the courage to do that. I might try it later if all other avenues don't pan out.

Before the gig, I got sliced by a metal brace retrofitted into one of our stands. Interestingly enough it was razor sharp, such that it really didn't hurt at all. It bled, a lot, but I played the whole gig without noticing that I'd done anything to my finger. It will also likely heal very quickly.

All in all it was a very good gig. We were very together, very comfortable and dealt with grace what few errors we did have. The audience was amazing. I think I will remember the cheer from Kashmir for a while. With my back to the audience, I couldn't see them, just hear it go from that moment of silence to the exuberant applause.

So this might not be too coherent, because I'm pretty tired. But we had a taiko gig at 5am. The humity was so high, the nishaku drum sounded like playing on a basket ball. I'm so glad that steve recommend I find a sun block I'm not allegic to (which I think did) because the sun was burtal.

We played the relay for life, and all night walk for cancer. One person commented they thought we'd be louder and I said the humidity killed our volume. I'm not sure I've ever been told that we were too quite before.

I stayed up all night, since that seemed to make the most sense and then went to sleep at 9am. I didn't get much sleep though.

The morning light made for nice pictures. You might not be able to see this picture.

(I'm not locking this taikolog post.)

I'm pretty nervous about the show tomorrow. I don't know why. I've played the songs enough times to know them. I think part of it is I don't have any excuses. I should know these songs solidly, with good form. I've had plenty of practice, but I still don't feel like I really have them. Part of this nervousness is good. if I don't have some, I mess up royally, but some of it makes me worry that it's not causing me to productively clean up some of my problems. I should be in the living room right now, fixing the ways my arms swing or the speed at which I can play a certain line.

On another note, mwerble volenteered me (and her) to play something I hadn't practiced in a long time for only the second time with live drums. The first time left me crying. This time left me shaking and completely strung out on adrenaline. I did much better this time, but my lack of serious preperation really showed. I don't know what the members thought. Oh well. Maybe someday I'll actually get to play that song with enough warning to be ready for it.

I'm a mix of hope and humbleness for the new year. I'm looking forward to our show in May, since they've said they want to try to include as many people as can play each song well enough. I'm also hoping to get my own song learned well enough to hear it live. I might also try to compose a shakuhachi piece and them present it with no pressure to include it ever to Mark. I'm sure they'll have Marco for the May show, and I'm no Marco. It will be interesting to see what the next year brings.