Mugenkyo Taiko Drummers: The Way of the Drum www.taiko.co.uk Exciting, powerful and very loud, the live show we saw at Theatr Mwldan Cardigan presented almost three hours of “thundering taiko drumming pieces” using beautifully crafted Japanese drums.
Performances ranged from the great Odaiko booming drum to the amazing Yatai Bayashi – a smaller drum set at an angle on a frame, the drummer sitting with feet underneath it (imagine doing sit-ups with your feet under a bar for leverage) and holding that half-sitting position all the way through! The two young women performing this feat of incredible muscle power certainly deserved the foot-stamping applause they received from the audience.
It is fascinating to see the way the drummers keep time together, and demonstrate a wide range of styles of performance, a narrator telling the tales behind them. It is a superb show and worth seeing as it tours the UK. The group are actually from Scotland, which seemed a bit odd, but they were trained in Japan and expertly present a fantastic show. If you feel adventurous enough, you can go to a weekend workshop to learn how to play in rural Scotland. Maybe next year …
