Drum Tao

Today’s show is with Drum Tao. If you don’t know what Taiko drums are, they’re  a type of Japanese drum which tend to range up into the size I would call enormous.

There will be other instruments on stage too such as the Koto, a large zither (think steel guitar for country music fans, or a lay down harp for classical people).

I’ve  also seen a shamisen around  (think Japanese three string banjo type instrument). The shamisen is made of animal skin with a wooden body and neck.

There are also various symbols and small percussion instruments laying around.

I understand that there are also flute players on this show, and I just ran into one playing one of his flutes in the hallway backstage.

There’s lots of dancers in the show, using sticks and long staffs in ways that are much in the style of martial arts. You probably wouldn’t want to get in a fight with anyone on this stage! The show also has a lot of seemingly contemporary pieces in it. It’s not just old school. The mix is refreshing. The Wardrobe is great too.

The thing about Taiko is it’s LOUD, really loud. And those big drums produce a lot of low frequency, so the sound really hits you hard. It would be difficult to not be excited sitting in the house when they start to play. It should be an exhilarating show for tonight’s audience.

Today has been an easy day for me, being on the audio crew, as there are only five mics on the floor and six hanging in the air provided by us (the house crew). The company brought their own lighting and sound boards but they are very small so all of the setup was done rather quickly. They also bought their own wireless  mic kit and we don’t have to worry about operating any of that as they travel with audio and lighting techs.

This is one of the nice things about being a tech, although some days can be a lot of work, others are relatively simple. And we also get to see a lot of different kinds of shows (and other types of events), just not from the angle you’re suppose to view them from most of the time. Last night was good old time Rock and Roll and today we have traditional Japanese music. Another great thing is the people change daily too, so we meet people from all over the world. Most of the people who are on this crew tonight do not speak English, but tech’s have our own language anyway so we seem to be able to communicate and get the job done despite the language barrier. I sometimes wonder if this translates into any other business? In any case it’s great to work alongside people from another culture and observe how they do things