Busy day!

Today we had 3 events: A school show for about 300 kids, a workshop with said kids right after, and a concert.

We weren't sure what to expect with the school show - we heard it was ages Kindergarten through Middle Schoolers, with some Home Schoolers thrown in. Turns out many of the kids were music students and were good at focusing, which made our show a lot of fun (we got to focus on sharing the love for taiko instead of crowd control.)

The workshop after consisted of 24 kids on stage with the remaining 150-ish watching/following along in their seats. You can see the volunteer bachi (drumsticks) waiting for us to hand them out to the participants. It was a 45-minute workshop and went pretty fast.

The concert was a lot of fun - both in being able to play a full show after so long, and from the energy of the audience! I felt comfortable in my performance personally, and the group made a pretty strong showing as well. Before the show, Franco and I gave each other something to add to our final song's (Oedo Bayashi) solos. I told him he had to face away from the audience/other side of the "pod", and he told me I had to kiai once big and loud. We both pulled our "additions" well. I think it could lead to a creative drill and help all of us push our solos somewhat; not just the tour team, either!

Several members of Odaiko New England came about 2 hours to watch our show, and then hung out with us for dinner at a local brewery. Meg got to see some of her former clan; but I don't think she misses the cold!

We're off to Dartmouth tomorrow - short drive but in potentially in the theater until 10pm. I should go to sleep but I'm going to be tired if I sleep now or in an hour, and I'm wide awake...so far!