I don’t normally do reviews of things after I’ve experienced them, but I came home after seeing this percussion group at Orcas Center tonight – which ended with a standing ovation – with a bubbling-over of thoughts to express.
I don’t remember ever observing “music” like this. Before I say my thoughts, watch these videos if you weren’t there. This was the last piece played tonight:
This was one of the most memorable, in my mind (keep watching):
And these are all of the thoughts that were going through my mind during the show:
- Seeing what they do and the kind of mental focus on their own role and at the same time flow with complex patterns working together, are they perhaps engineers, mathematicians, SpaceX employees first, and percussionists in their after-hours?
- What each of us does for a living – does it actually boil down to simple movements put together that we don’t usually see that way, in perhaps a silent or unnoticed percussion of daily life? – lifting things and swinging things (a construction worker), picking things up and putting them down (furniture movers), tapping things lightly and consistently (a writer typing on a keyboard), drawing lines that curve (geologist drawing maps), and so on.
- There’s no doubt why the four of these guys are so fit – this takes an intense amount of mental and physical energy and endurance.
- Each one has his own expression coming out – Rob is calmly flowing, Sean is synthesizing, David is surging, and Peter is beaming.
- High school band students should watch this, especially if they feel dulled by the songs they have to play – I imagine this would open their minds to the idea that there is so much more out there mentally and musically for their talent (like listening to Enya your whole life and then going to an Ani DiFranco concert).
- I bet kids drawn to engineering and math would be fascinated by this.
- I can see many kids on the spectrum being fascinated by this.
- I imagine kids who don’t know how they “fit” into specific school subjects might have their minds opened and curiosity piqued by this.
- Audience members must be thinking everything from “I don’t get this stuff” to “Wow, I’ve never resonated with anything so deeply.” There isn’t a gradual spectrum in between, though, as all the in-between thoughts might be so different from each other.
- This is not artsy fartsy or different for different’s sake; playing this way takes a mind that can somehow keep focused on one’s own task without distraction, yet be so in tune with the other members playing so tightly and sometimes abruptly that there is no room for error.
- Audience members would have no idea if error happened, so that’s probably freeing.
- How do you keep each “song” in your head when there is no real melody to follow? That’s talent. That’s flow. That’s hundreds of hours of practice. That’s muscle memory and instinct.
- Can you imagine practicing this type of percussive music for hundreds, thousands of hours? That takes special people uniquely made for this.
- These guys are like music mechanics, as they move around the room taking turns playing everything there.
- One must be quite ambidextrous to do such rapid and exact percussion.
- Western listeners are so accustomed to basic, predictable rhythms that playing in a quartet like this would require your mind to be completely reworked in order to accomplish the making and melding of beats that the general public doesn’t often or ever hear.
- One could practice their whole life for this kind of livelihood without even realizing it. I know there must be kids out there constantly tapping, banging, and pinging on things in their everyday environment, listening to how things sound, experimenting all the time.
- What must the percussionists’ brains look like while playing these pieces? Imagine what parts are lighting up in all different places, like instant splashes of color and micro-minute fireworks going off constantly.
- What must audience members’ brains look like while watching these pieces? They don’t even know what to expect, so different places are firing than those of the percussionists.
- It would be interesting to watch these four play a fully improvisational piece.
- I think they could make all kinds of movie soundtracks and sound accompaniments for visual time lapses – their songs don’t sound wholly cultural, industrial, melodic, Western, or sentimental, yet these guys are capable of doing all of that.
- What do they listen to when they’re not practicing the melding of percussive sounds?
- What do they do in their free time?
- They don’t look quirky, but what they do for a living is quite strange and fascinating.
- They must have all kinds of little muscles that are highly developed that most of us don’t even know exist.
- How long does it take them to memorize just one “song” when they’re creating it?
- I can’t believe they came to Orcas Island with this many instruments and percussion props.
Watch this video “tour” of their percussion set-up:
To learn more about Third Coast Percussion, go to their website here. Or visit their YouTube channel to watch more videos of them performing. Say hello to them if you’re leaving the island Easter morning on the red-eye ferry.
Thank you, Third Coast Percussion. It was so nice to be back in Orcas Center for another memorable performance!
Also, make sure to look at the walls inside Orcas Center next time you’re there. They are filled with student art – the A*OK show (Art for Orcas Kids). It opened yesterday (April 15th) and lasts through May.
