April 19 — New Mexico

Farmington
Socorro
Las Cruces
Silver City

New Mexico has been wonderful in many ways. At each site, Shidara has done workshops or school shows, for kids from age 5 to college students. The outreach has enabled Shidara to have significantly more contact with the communities. And the communities themselves, being small, have been much more aware of our presence. At the grocery or the local microbrewery (which is kind of a goal to find at each site), people say "oh, you're the group playing tomorrow!" This morning, boarding the bus at the hotel, Shidara was thrilled to find a picture taken at yesterday's school show on the front page of the paper.

PHOTOS
View from the balcony of the Socorro's Macey Center Theater
Sound check in Socorro
Chabo-san tests the wireless mic
View from the tech booth
Cramped quarters backstage at the Las Cruces Rio Grande

Sweating the little things

Somewhere around Escondido my camera went on a fritz and the screen became a bunch of vibrating lines in 70s colors. And my cell phone reception really sucks, which makes it hard to advance the shows or line up things like times for volunteers to report for work. We've been on the go so consistently since then—never at any site for more than the day of production and performance—that I've had a hard time emailing (or blogging). Plus, my email program doesn't work well remotely, and I have to use the webmail interface, which is annoying and inefficient. Fortunately, most of the big stuff was already in place, so I know we have hotel rooms and transportation.

After Escondido, we played San Luis Obispo, CalPoly's Harman Hall. The group got to sign the wall backstage where KODO's name and drawings peeked out from behind some kind of backing board they had installed along the lower 6 feet of wall. Shidara members climbed a ladder and signed high up on one of the pillars, which probably means their names will be there for a long long time. They. What am I saying?! I got to sign the wall also, along with the other staff.

SLO won the award for the best production room, with lovely fabric-covered couches and chairs, nice lamps, and an integrated theater-wide AV feed. When I was setting up our online banking interface, the customer service rep on the other end of the line overheard the triple fue harmony on Koganenokaze and asked what it was. I had just explained we were a touring performing group, so told her it was the group doing sound check. She was in awe, asked if she could find the music anywhere, said, "it speaks; it tells a story." I gave her the Shidara website address.

At the last few sites, the company is being recognized in public now. The hotel clerk has been hoping to see the show because her brother plays with San Diego Taiko, and ends up volunteering to help at the merchandise table; we'll be shopping at the grocery store, and the clerk and bag boy will say, "oh you're the ones playing tonight, aren't you?"; The man at the Radio Shack where I bought a new cell phone charger for Megan was married to the woman who catered our dinner, etc.

SLO sold out, Wickenburg sold out (the presenter actually had tears in her eyes at the end), and here in Farmington, we have two completely sold out shows in an 800 seat hall, with a third well on its way to selling out. It feels like everyone knows about the concert, and everyone in town is coming....

PHOTOS
Kristy maintains the blog in the background as Sarah contemplates the universe.
Kristy and Megan on the pier
Noel of Las Vegas Kaminari Taiko, visiting his sister in San Diego, helped at the Escondido show.

Oh, and I am embedding a video here from our first site. Understand the group does this with about 6 shime before every single show!



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April 7 — Escondido to San Luis Obispo

A near disaster upon arriving at the Escondido Comfort Inn to find the reservation had not been sent down from the national reservation bank to the location. My fault, I think. I keep confusing Escondido and San Luis Obispo, the details and names blending, even as I read them off the page that has the location printed at the top. It's the shuffling back and forth; one moment arranging meals in Chico, the next answering tech questions in Farmington, next sending the rooming list to Wickenburg, then arranging shipping to Fairbanks and gathering sales figures for Mesa. I forget what city I'm actually in at moments, which is really not conducive to doing my job well. However, 99% of things go right, and I'm learning to shake off the 1% and let it go.

Donuts have become an important part of each 16 hour tech/performance day. Sarah is a veteran of TV and stage production, and knows how to work with the crew and stage managers. Donuts are our offering to them on the first morning, to ensure a happy working relationship for the hours, or even days that follow. Before we arrive (or on the night we arrive), we google the hotel and hall, and the use the "find businesses" function, searching on "donuts." We prefer shops that specialize in donuts, as opposed to grocery store ones. If a businesses has the chutzpah to focus entirely on donuts, you know the donuts will be good.

We've discovered among the staff a strong affinity for Dunkin' Donuts, but those aren't the kind you'd deliver to a tech crew break room. For these guys, the donut boxes should be the generic white or pink fold-them-youself kind, sometimes with a rubber stamp of the shop name. In Chico it was Helen's Donuts. In Esdondido, Savoy Donuts, only half a block from the hotel. I arrived at 5:30AM, which is prime donut time. They're coming off the conveyor, warm. We just ask for an assortment. It's kind of beautiful, when you lift the lid, to see the various, sometimes surprising, sometimes garish glazes and sprinkles in a variety of shapes, from your classic round-donut-with-hole shape, to twists and rosebuds, to elongated flat bar-shaped ones with their mysterious cream fillings.

Next tour, I'll get broadband, so I can use the internet on the bus. Then I can look up the donut shops, groceries, Wells Fargos and possible sights and activities as we're driving. These are quiet hours, most of Shidara sleeping, Martin playing music of the Andes or the Canyons quietly in the background. The landscape from Chico to San Diego is picturesque. Today, we'll drive along the ocean. I'm excited about this, the same water that laps both shores of our group's homelands.

As you scroll down now you'll see I've decided to add some photo captions at the bottom of the blogs.

PHOTOS
The Shidara 2008 US Tour bus
left to right, back: Megan, Kristy, Nobu, me, Fumiyo. front: Chabo, Mana at the Oceanside pier

April 4 — Chico to Escondido

721 adults and 2,439 kids later and we're on the long road back down the I-5 spine of California to Escondido. I didn't have time to write about the Karaoke drama at our hotel night before last. I was trying to figure out how to get Fumiyo from the bus to the Holiday Inn, and ended up waiting for their contracted cab to bring her. A hubbub arose around the front desk: a woman was close to crying, gazing at the seemingly unimpressed turbaned man who runs the Indian restaurant there, saying, "For you, I'm gonna do this..., but only for you!" An angry woman came out of the bar, stating loudly that the place was full of people waiting for the karaoke and if they didn't get the karaoke soon, they were all going to walk. The angry woman went to support the long-suffering DJ, who assured all present that she was going to take this setback in stride and bring her stuff in: karaoke for the people!

Apparently, the DJ had not been paid, and had been waiting for the manager to arrive to pay her before she began. The crowd was there for her—all fans and friends. Now they were filled with a sense of mission, threatening to leave if the DJ didn't get her $200. It was very dire.

In the midst of this, the manager walked in, like a king into his kingdom, besieged by a tiny protesting mob. They parted for the little man—for he was rather small in his suit—and hurled oblique insults at him. He ignored them, and walked slowly through their midst and down the hall, not saying a word. I admired his dignity. It somewhat dampened the ire of the tiny mob, and, frankly, they didn't come out look any better for it.

In the end, there was no karaoke, and the crowd broke up, leaving in twos and threes, discussing bar options for the waning night. I had been impressed with their sense of mission and indignation. However, as usual, it dissipated into complaisance. Fumiyo arrived by Liberty Cab, finally, and we also got on with our business.

April 3 — SAC to Chico, CA

We had a pleasant drive up to Chico, the level fiields of crops and grassland stretching from the roadside out to very distant hills. Most slept, and we checked into the Holiday Inn Express around 2:30pm. We like the Holiday Inn Express. as we like La Quinta and Comfort Inn. Not only do the sausage and egg, waffle breakfasts make us all happy, these hotels always have a large community room where we can gather after the show to eat. Plus, there's free wireless, laundry machines and strange things like the "Pillow Menu" in our current room. I ordered one of each: medium firm synthetic, medium down, firm down and u-shaped. The idea was to have a test session with the group members, and discuss, in both English and Japanese, the attributes of each. But we probably would have had to do that last night. Now were in production at Chico. It's going slowly, and it doesn't look like we'll have time for a run-through.

PHOTOS
Shidara experiences the classic "Car Wash" dance sequence at Joe's Crab Shack.
Nobu's Special Brand "Monster World" shirt
Chabo-san explores the American do-it-yourself mentality at Macy's

Second stop Santa Clarita

Saturday, March 29
It's days later—or so it feels. Two, only, but long ones. The first night was a success on so many levels—a gorgeous hall, a full house, a standing ovation, strong merchandise sales. On the other hand, there were hard lessons and realizations. The crew were weirdly indifferent to the performance, some sat backstage reading as Shidara played their hearts out; the merchandise would not reckon out, and actually took longer to resolve than to load the 6,000 pounds of drums on the truck; my plan for the post-show group meal went seriously astray; and so on.

I pondered all of this the next day because I was disconcerted. Now that they are playing in the major leagues, was the tour going to be this way? Were they being made into a commodity, and would that eventually reduce them to not investing so much in their performances the way countless other artists have? Whereas each event in the last tour only happened because of a highly invested audience, now that anyone could check Shidara's name out of curiosity on a subscription series list, would the experience of their playing shift from transformative to purchased? I pondered this, briefly, and then realized it would never happen. Each concert for Shidara is like the big game towards the finals.They challenge each other, root each other on to do their best, taking the hits and the golden moments as a team. They will always do their best.

The next morning, a bus picked us up in Cerritos for the day drop in Santa Clarita (meaning, since the company is local to the L.A. area, they send a bus out to just pick us up, drop us off and go back to the lot. It's significantly less expensive than having contracted the touring coach a day early). It was a frightening ride, reminding me of the Night Bus in Harry Potter movies. The bus needed shocks, and the driver mumbled under his breath, swerved repeatedly into the other lane and had other driver laying on their horns at us. I was terrified that the next four and a half weeks would be like this.

We arrived in Santa Clarita at around 8:30AM—early, of course, and finally people started arriving. At first glance I was worried: they looked way too relaxed for our bus full of highly intense Japanese artists. However, what I learned as the day unfolded is that Santa Clarita is populated by many people who work in the movie and production industry (our sound guy had just gotten done doing tech for Alanis Morrisette or something like that). They are wacky genius types, a world apart from the respectable union guys employed by the City of Cerritos. The Santa Clarita crew put together an incredibly tight show, improved on the sound, fed us copious amounts of food, and even whipped out a big baltic plywood frame to reinforce the merchandise board. What I learned is that for them, as with the crew at Cerritos, mounting Shidara's show is a job. This is their job, and they've seen the best artists in the world. Hard to impress. This concert ended for me with a sense of validation for Shidara: by the end of the show, the crew were leaning forward in their seats, really watching. Coming from them, it was a great compliment.

On March 30, our Fast Deer touring coach arrived, and was blessedly fabulous. It's beautiful, new, white (like our previous rental fleet) and has drop down dvd screens and a great driver, Martin. He will be our commander and chief for the next four weeks. I began feeling like this would really work out okay.

PHOTOS
Our new tour bus home for the next 5 weeks.
Ichiban Driver: Commander Martin Idior
His co-pilot, Mitsu.

First Night—Cerritos, CA

We were up early this morning, anticipating our first tech, run-through and performance. It was all going smoothly, from the moment we walked through the stage entrance (early, of course) and found that the Cerritos hospitality staff know how to make guests happy. For Shidara, it was a simple, but perfect breakfast of scrambled eggs and white toast.

There's been a very relaxed feel to the start of this tour, unlike the desperate hours before their first concert in the 2006 tour. But sometimes being relaxed isn't exactly the best way to be. At about two o'clock, we were informed, by a similarly surprised and unhappy stage manager Jeff (although he was exasperated and resigned, while we were more alarmed and dismayed), that there was to be a reality TV show video shoot in the concert hall at 6:30pm. Apparently, someone in the uber-offices of the city felt it would be good marketing and public relations to allow "Wife Swap" to come in for a half hour and film their contestants sitting and clapping, walking into and out of the theater, etc. The camera would not be aimed at the stage, Jeff assured us, but we would have to be silent during the shoot, which might last a half hour, which might start at 6:30pm, or they might come in later....

On their Japan tours, there are simply no surprises like this. It's one of those strength/weakness things—the ability to make quick adaptations—and we United States dwellers are (relatively) sort of expect the unexpected. We kind of like it. However, laid back often looks a lot like indifferent. I learned that much of this tour will be swimming back and forth between the cultures. All in all, It was pretty stressful for Shidara, and for those of us who had to mediate the situation.

In the afternoon things turned that flavor of grim that only comes as one is staring at a non-negotiable drop deadline, knowing there simply is not enough time. And yet, they determinedly walk through each detail where lesser groups would compromise or cut corners. At 5PM, they begin a run-through of the second half..., only. They won't have time to run the entire show. The backstage crew is worried, the house manager is telling us they must end at 6PM, it's a union house. 6:30PM is the absolute latest, and then he'll have to yank his crew or get in trouble. Maybe there won't be time to mop the stage....

The people come. The show starts. When I take my place backstage, I remember why we're here. Watching them is like watching something so imperfectly perfect it could only have arisen from nature itself. Yet, more marvelous when you fathom how hard humans must work to even begin to emulate the casual perfection of nature.

I anchor backstage, feeling that with Kristy in the lobby at merchandise, Sarah at the sound board mid-hall, and me standing in the wings, the staff created a spine of support for every aspect of the event. Chabo-san, when she was not performing, watchees the monitor and uses the headset to send messages to the sound and light board. She watches her performers on screen as would a coach in sports, silently acknowledging a strong moment with a small nod or a hand gesture, ("yes!"), grimacing a little if something goes wrong. At one point, as Aya-san does a funny little twirl to the yoko-uchi okedo during Kazanomichi, Chabo whips around and hads to bend over, she's cracking up so hard, trying not to laugh out loud, her hand over her mouth. In Niebuchi, she sent signals to the players, to raise their energy, to have them change their facial expression and mood, and give more... more... a little more, and yes!

PHOTOS
5,414 lbs of drum shipped from Japan, plus the Sacramento hira and stand is our load.
Shiidara members waste no time in unpacking the shipment and preparing to tech.
Shime tightening is just the start of 8-hr or more of intense preparation for a performance that same night.
Backstage at Cerritos as our first tech day arrives.
Shidara's opening number, Murasamenone, from the wings