Escondido School Show & HP Software Kick-off 2010 in Vegas

Last week we went to Escondido for a school show and Las Vegas for the HP Software Kick-off 2010. This was my first school show and the first time I got to travel with TAIKOPROJECT so I was excited.

We drove down to Escondido on Wednesday morning. The performance was at this really nice Center for the Arts. About 1,000 elementary and junior high school students came in from different schools in the area. We played a couple of songs, talked about the history of taiko, and demonstrated the different types of drums and instruments. It was really fun and interesting to see how much the kids enjoyed everything. Near the end of our performance we had some kids come up and try playing. Jenny and I went out into the audience to pick the kids. I felt bad though because there were SO many kids that wanted to come up, but I could only pick a few. It was awesome seeing the kids playing on the drums though and how much fun they were having. After the kids played then we asked if some of the teachers wanted to try. Some of the teachers looked even more excited than the kids. My favorite part was actually after the performance. After most of the students left, there were a group of deaf students that came up. They put their hand on the drum while Maz hit it so they could feel the vibrations. It was really amazing seeing their reaction when Maz hit the drum. Overall, it was a really fun performance and I'm glad that the schools could do events like this for the kids because they all seemed to really enjoy it.

Thursday morning we left for Las Vegas for the HP Software Kick-off 2010. We got to the Venetian and unloaded all of the equipment for the rehearsal. We were at the rehearsal for a couple of hours to figure out how everything would go for the next day. After the rehearsal, we checked in to our rooms. We each got our own room at the Venetian! I think I might've gotten a little spoiled for my first traveling experience. We had the night free so we decided to see the Jabbawockeez. The show was really good and it was a lot more theatrical than I was expecting. After the show we all went back to our rooms since we had a long day and we had to be up early for the performance the next day. For the performance, we opened the program to get everyone awake and pumped up. After we played, Bryan led an audience participation exercise. Each audience member got this small drum so they could play with us. There were about 200 people there so it got to be pretty loud in the theatre. Then we introduced the CEO and he came in playing an okedo. He seemed to have fun playing and the audience was really rooting him on. Then we hung out backstage while their program went on. We came on again at the end of the program to pump everyone up and get excited for the coming year. After the performance, we loaded up, stopped to eat something then headed home. Overall, the performance went well and it was fun hanging out with everyone.

Thanks to everyone involved in the Escondido school show and the HP Software Kick-off 2010 show!