Ondekoza:
Demon drummers make joyful noise
By John Crouch, Attorney at Law,
Crouch & Crouch, Arlington, Virginia; (703)
528-6700;
Other Crouch Articles
Last December's percussion concert at Ewell proved that newspapers can be
used as drums. Now a Japanese band called Ondekoza has shown W&M how
a 700-pound VW-sized drum can make a sound like softly rustling leaves,
as well as making a noise so big it feels like a second heartbeat. The band
played at Phi Beta Kappa Hall on March 27 and 28, and will be at Menchville
High School Friday, April 15 at 7:30.
Ondekoza is billed as "Demon Drummers," but this is probably a
mistranslation from something that simply means "mischievous"
or "joyful." One piece began on 20-pound drums to establish a
rhythm, then continued using popguns, ginsus, squash, a miniature train,
bows and arrows, an abacus, table legs and a toy submachine gun. This is
a great show to take kids to, but leave the dog at home.
Another piece took the concept of "dueling banjos" to an unduly
physical and intimate level, until finally the brothers A-Ryohei and Un-Kohei
Inoue let go of each other's shamishens and ran off and grabbed an American
banjo and fiddle to finish the job.
One member ran on a treadmill for the entire 20-minute length of the first
piece, which was about the joy and drama of running. (On their last U.S.
tour the band ran across the whole country.)
The group's only female member played a woodstove-sized drum, traditionally
a male instrument, and did a sort of martial-arts dance with parasols and
fans. During most of the group's numbers, four loinclothed men beat on Volkswagen-sized
drums mounted above their heads, standing on tiptoe to reach the drums'
rims.
The concert's climax was the ritual of the okaido, which means "big
drum." Two drummers stood on a construction-dumpster-sized platform
decorated with white horses and paper lanterns, let the silence and darkness
build, and then hauled off and beat on the 700-lb. okaido from both ends
in unremitting desperation. The ceremony tells the story of two villages
fighting over water rights in a seven-year drought. They decided to use
drummers instead of lawyers to decide their fate. After a drumming contest,
the losers took responsibility and committed suicide.
However, the suicide bit is not apparent from the music, unless one is a
far better interpreter of such things than I. Ondekoza's repertoire ranges
from high-minded exuberance, and the joyfully dogged rhythms of hard work,
to just plain clowning around.
- John Crouch
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