Shidara

"Heart of the Immortal Mountain"

Last night a friend and I went to a fantastic show at the Laxson Auditorium in Chico. It was called "Shidara" and it was a performance by a total of 11 Japanese Taiko drummers. I have NEVER been so impressed by a show before. The power that was unleashed that evening was tremendous and absolutley jaw-dropping.

They opened with a piece called "Murasamenone", and for this song about half of the performers were seated in a line with what would be the equivalent of a snare drum placed in from of them. The sound and movement was excellent and mezmorizing. It was a good choice to start out with because it certainly got your attention and if you were not aware of what you were getting into, they did a good job of introducing themselves.

All of the songs they performed were marvelous but there was one in particular that I enjoyed the most. It was a mixture of artistry and comedy and the performer had the whole house laughing with him. Ryuichi Hasegawa performed a song called "Otodama", the bulitin describes it as this:

"There is a spirit and soul in sound. Our senses and emotions, passion and life exist in all sounds. Random sounds have little meaning, but if gathered and arranged, they become music."

The musical ability of Hasegawa was amazing but it was so pleasing to see he REALLY enjoy himself up on stage. It was a truely fun and enjoyable song to see.

The Whole show consisted of 8 songs, and the last song they performed included dance as well. It was called "Hana Matsuri" and was introduced to us as a traditional harvest festival for their village in Japan, and explained all the symbolism in the performance. This song was alotof fun because the performers included the audience in the song and even brought a few member up on stage to dance and clap.

At the end of the evening my hands were red from clapping and my ears were slightly ringing, but there was a huge smile on my face. I loved the show and I would recommend it to anyone who gets the opportunity to see it.