Drumming!

It's no secret that Kyle and Owen have a long and loving history with Marching Bands. If there is any doubt, just look: here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here or, here. And, last night we had the best of all possible worlds for our pleasure....

Heather (who does almost all things good and wonderful for our life) bought 3 tickets to: "DRUMLINE LIVE". We didn't tell the boys until the day or so before, just so we could make it through the week with out going insane from the excitement. And, it's a good thing - there was a lot of excitement.

We had talked about it, and decided that it made more sense for me to take them boys this time (as opposed to the last awesome event she set up for them) - oh wow, it was awesome.

Before the main event started we got to see the Lehigh Street Drumming ensemble go to town on their home made drum kit at 7 PM.  The boys were cool to it at first, but Owen meandered up and pretty soon the drummers had given both boys a set of drum sticks and the whole crew was unselfconsciously wailing away in front of 200 people! The Lehigh guys loved it as did everyone watching.  I had to let my normal sense of reserve go a bit since so many people were enjoying it so much.  After the street drummers stopped a lady came up to me and said "tonight either they are going to go right to sleep or they are going be up all night!"  No...this is really, honestly how they are all the time.  No, really.

Finally it was time to go into see Drumline live.  Turns out, Drumline live is far far far more than just some marching band drumming. It's like seeing traditional African drumming and singing, Motown, HBCU marching bands,  New Orleans Jazz, swing and gospel through the lens of a high octane, dynamic HBCU marching band with dancers and all. Heather had managed to get us 4th row seats - we were about 6 feet from the trumpets as they blasted fortisisissimo and marched.  One of the best things about it was that although the audience at Lehigh was most definitely white, the production was not geared toward a white audience. I got the distinct sense that they played it straight up - and would do that for a white or a black audience (although the level of audience interaction with this white audience was pretty minimal).

To say that K&O were in their glory would not do it justice.  To really give a sense for how much they were in their glory - Kyle stayed on my lap for almost the entire time and did not budge (except to raise the roof for the band and be a witness during the gospel of course!) and Owen stood without moving the entire concert except for the last 20 minutes when his (and this is the true test) stamina finally gave out.  We walked out at 10:30 PM.  

And to top it off - coincidentally - we got to sit next to Calvin - extra wonderful!

When it was over, the band marched out into the lobby and the members were signing autographs.  The musicians were thrilled to have K&O come up to them, chat with them and let try to play their instruments.  That was Owen's high point from the night.

On the way home Owen told me that he was going to dream about those girls dancing. Man oh man, what's going to happen when he is a teenager....  We picked up commemorative drumsticks (real ones mind you) and both boys have been banging on everything in site since.

If you get a chance to go see Drumline live - for sure - go - it's really fantastic.