Kodo, Barbican Hall, 9th February 2006
Feb. 9th, 2006 09:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
zoo_music_girlLast night Simon and I went to see Kodo, a taiko drumming group from Japan. Their former member Leonard Eto played with Siouxsie Sioux at the 100 Club and Royal Festival Hall shows at the end of 2004 and was impressive, so we were curious to see what his old group were like.
I'd gone in with some expectation of huge amounts of drumming but it was actually more subtle than that and there were pieces that included lighter percussion instruments, a flute, even a woman singing at one point, but the bits I liked best were the straightforward drumming. One piece sticks in my mind "Monochrome", which was done mostly on wooden drums, which made pleasing "thock" sounds when struck lightly and gently but when all five or six drummers started hitting them fast and insistently, turned into an unholy noise like the buzzing of a gigantic metal wasp. Amazing, and slightly scary.
For me however the music was pretty much secondary to my absolute awe at the performers' skills and strength. Some of the drums required the drummers to lie on the ground in a half crunch to play, a position that is hard enough to hold when you're not drumming at the same time. We were in the front row of the balcony and couldn't really make out individual faces, but even from back there we could see the stomach muscles on these guys.
For most of the show the performers wore black leggings with really quite horrible eighties/clownish black jackets with white squares on, but for some of the more intense pieces they stripped down to various levels of undress, right down to just loincloths for the really big drum and the floor level ones, and you could see every muscle work and their bodies start to glisten with sweat from the effort.
A lot of the performance was quite intense but there were lighter moments too, a trio playing hand held percussion instruments that sounded comical, an effect enhanced by the silly walks the performers did at the same time. There was even a chance for audience participation as a drummer beat out a rhythm for us to copy by clapping while the rest of the group set up for the finale, we did quite well until she got really fast and complicated!
The only thing that spoiled the experience for me a bit was that some of the drumming, especially in the second half, set up reverberations in the air conditioning ducts at the back of the hall, which was a bit of a distraction. I'd make sure to sit further forward if I were going to see something that percussive at the Barbican Hall again.
Highly recommended. There are still seats available for tonight's performance.
Photos from the Birmingham performance, by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kneeshooter.
I'd gone in with some expectation of huge amounts of drumming but it was actually more subtle than that and there were pieces that included lighter percussion instruments, a flute, even a woman singing at one point, but the bits I liked best were the straightforward drumming. One piece sticks in my mind "Monochrome", which was done mostly on wooden drums, which made pleasing "thock" sounds when struck lightly and gently but when all five or six drummers started hitting them fast and insistently, turned into an unholy noise like the buzzing of a gigantic metal wasp. Amazing, and slightly scary.
For me however the music was pretty much secondary to my absolute awe at the performers' skills and strength. Some of the drums required the drummers to lie on the ground in a half crunch to play, a position that is hard enough to hold when you're not drumming at the same time. We were in the front row of the balcony and couldn't really make out individual faces, but even from back there we could see the stomach muscles on these guys.
For most of the show the performers wore black leggings with really quite horrible eighties/clownish black jackets with white squares on, but for some of the more intense pieces they stripped down to various levels of undress, right down to just loincloths for the really big drum and the floor level ones, and you could see every muscle work and their bodies start to glisten with sweat from the effort.
A lot of the performance was quite intense but there were lighter moments too, a trio playing hand held percussion instruments that sounded comical, an effect enhanced by the silly walks the performers did at the same time. There was even a chance for audience participation as a drummer beat out a rhythm for us to copy by clapping while the rest of the group set up for the finale, we did quite well until she got really fast and complicated!
The only thing that spoiled the experience for me a bit was that some of the drumming, especially in the second half, set up reverberations in the air conditioning ducts at the back of the hall, which was a bit of a distraction. I'd make sure to sit further forward if I were going to see something that percussive at the Barbican Hall again.
Highly recommended. There are still seats available for tonight's performance.
Photos from the Birmingham performance, by
kneeshooter.![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
on 2006-02-09 09:16 am (UTC)no subject
on 2006-02-09 09:29 am (UTC)no subject
on 2006-02-09 09:34 am (UTC)no subject
on 2006-02-09 09:36 am (UTC)no subject
on 2006-02-09 09:36 am (UTC)no subject
on 2006-02-09 11:00 am (UTC)I did love Ha! so i guess i should check some Kodo albums out at some point.
no subject
on 2006-02-09 10:21 am (UTC)Unfortunately there's no way we'd be able to make tonight's show, but I'll have to keep this in the back of my mind for whenever they're touring again. :)