Taiko drummers in Sydney Town Hall.

A series of three mobile phone videos.

I had seen this on the net, and thought, probably should go. Luckily, Belinda also though the same and organized for us to go and see the show. Charlotte and Chris also attended.

We met before hand for dinner and in keeping with the style of the evening went to a Japanese restaurant. Though I kind of defeated this by having bibbimbab.

I had not been in the Sydney Town hall previously. So it was quite an experience. It has some very pretty decorations, though they need to paint more than just the ante-chamber the correct colors.

Taiko drumming is a type of drumming used in street ceremonies in Japan. This man, Eitetsi Hayashi has taken an amateur art form and turned it into a professional one. The show was excellent. I particularly liked the performances at the start and end which were more aligned with the street theater side of the art form. I must admit to not liking the flute playing. But the rest was good and the had several unusual instruments. I think the award for the most unusual was the ming vase which was used as a chime and a drum at the same time. The award for the most musically interesting was the thing that looked like a tin lid being hit with what looked like a drum stick. It was a but hard to tell with the latter as the artists were hiding behind their props.

The only embarrassing bit was when my phone beeped. I thought i had turned off all the noises. And during the loud drumming the noises could not be heard. But in the helicopter video, the sound from the artist died away and then my video went beep as it reached the end of the video. It never goes beep at the end of the video, only at the start. It was very embarrassing.

This is the artist's site http://www.eitetsu.net/eng/

And my videos...(They are pocket videos - only about 0.25M)

http://yewenyi.blip.tv/file/15400 - Waiting for the show to start.

http://yewenyi.blip.tv/file/15530 - The Drums

http://yewenyi.blip.tv/file/15679 - The Helicopter noise