Kodo

On 2/13, Kodo came to town and I think I got one of the last tickets to see them. The tickets were in the very back of the first level in the handicapped section. I guess they let the tickets go if no one needs them, lucky for me. It turns out my tickets were directly behind Anne, a friend from work so that was cool. I took Kim with me for we have a history of trying to play like them at a combined drum/dance concert at Dobson that her husband, Jason, wrote. I was glad I took her for we have so much history that we just had to look at each other and laugh or reminisce.

I saw Kodo my senior year in high school (not going to try and figure out how long ago that was) with my mom in high school. I remembered that it was cool, but not much else (actually, I remember more how we went to the completely wrong place and so ended up being late ;] ). The show is part of their One Earth tour in honor of their 25th year.

I recognized a couple of their pieces from the two CDs I have, but there were a lot of news ones, too. Two of the pieces had singing from one or both of the female players. These were by far my favorite for several reasons – never heard a Kodo piece before with the female singing; their voices were beautiful; and, of course, I pictured them singing to me every morning – if only they were twins….

If you have never seen Kodo before, go see them. If not for the music and visuals, just to be amazed at the physical conditioning that is required to play the way they do. I tried to find videos because the pictures do not do justice, but did not find the one that I was looking for which involves the picture at the top – a player playing on a drum that is at least 6ft wide, the bottom of which is around his shoulders (i.e he has to play with his arms above his head), and he plays them using what amounts to clubs – about 2 foot long sticks that are about 2 inches thick. The piece goes on for at least 10 minutes with no breaks. Simply amazing! If anyone has money, I think they should open a gym that is taiko drumming themed – ear plugs must be included to drown out the bad players!