Full Moon and Kinky Reggae at Bagus
Those present yesterday at Shin-Wakaura's Bar Bagus from 3:00 to 4:00 witnessed my debut as a reggae drummer. Though I have listened to all kinds of music for many years--that of Jamaica included--I have pigeonholed myself as a drummer by playing jazz exclusively for most of my formative years. Now then, when Nori-kun of The Redemptions (Wakayama's ONLY roots reggae band) invited me to join the group, little did he know that my lack of experience would be such an obstacle for the seemingly simple task of laying down a solid one-drop groove tune after tune. Anyways, enough self-flaggelation. Here is a short review of the concert, which took place at the full moon festival last night.
Bagus is a quaint, family-run bar/cafe/performing and visual arts center (i.e. a vertiable hippie mecca for the greater Osaka area) which lies in the southern part of Wakayama City. It is underneath an old school 旅館, ryokan (Japanese inn), and the deck/bar is literally 5 to 20 feet from the water (variant with the ebb and flow of the tide). Here we see the view looking out from the audience's perspective, our special MC, You Key Man, on your left unwinding with hands on his head..
As the performance started, my nerves were at an all time high, but seeing as most of the friends I had invited could not find Bagus (due to its cryptic location and my even more cryptic directions), it could have been worse. After a very tense rendition of Marley's "Want More," my right forearm muscles knotted up. It seemed that all the years of practice were washed out with the low tide. Next, we went through our set with lots of energy, but wavering in the musicianship department. Here are a few photos from The Redemptions' show:
Afterwards, the festivities continued well into the evening. It was a great time--hot chai tea with rum, homemade Japanese and Indian food (even some mysterious tacos showed up), a full moon, a large crowd of friendly people, and all of this culminating in the lantern-lit, fully hippified and elegant performance of Haruko:
O-TSUKI SAN 
A wonderful way to end the evening...
Bagus is a quaint, family-run bar/cafe/performing and visual arts center (i.e. a vertiable hippie mecca for the greater Osaka area) which lies in the southern part of Wakayama City. It is underneath an old school 旅館, ryokan (Japanese inn), and the deck/bar is literally 5 to 20 feet from the water (variant with the ebb and flow of the tide). Here we see the view looking out from the audience's perspective, our special MC, You Key Man, on your left unwinding with hands on his head..
As the performance started, my nerves were at an all time high, but seeing as most of the friends I had invited could not find Bagus (due to its cryptic location and my even more cryptic directions), it could have been worse. After a very tense rendition of Marley's "Want More," my right forearm muscles knotted up. It seemed that all the years of practice were washed out with the low tide. Next, we went through our set with lots of energy, but wavering in the musicianship department. Here are a few photos from The Redemptions' show:
Rastafied Drumkit (courtesy of Nori-kun)
Afterwards, the festivities continued well into the evening. It was a great time--hot chai tea with rum, homemade Japanese and Indian food (even some mysterious tacos showed up), a full moon, a large crowd of friendly people, and all of this culminating in the lantern-lit, fully hippified and elegant performance of Haruko:
O-TSUKI SAN 
A wonderful way to end the evening...
posted by Jeffrey at 6:20 PM
1 Comments:
Jeff, you have quite a blog going. Keep up the good work. I like the colors of the drum set.
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