Raquy in Indy (looooong)
Last night I headed up to Indianapolis with we_are_pliable and Bridget to see Raquy and the Cavemen in concert. If you haven't heard of them, go here and listen-- they do an amazing fusion of classical Middle Eastern musical styles with a rock and roll sensibility.
Raquy was giving a drumming workshop at 6, and the cost for the workshop and show together was ridiculously cheap, so I decided to come early and take the workshop. (we_are_pliable and Bridget didn't do the workshop, but did have dinner plans in the city, which was good braining on their parts.) Although Raquy was quieter and not nearly as goofy as some other drum instructors I've had (like, say, monkey-boy Nevik ;), she had a really relaxed, easy teaching presence, and it was the most musically satisfying drum workshops I've attended. We really just went through the basic hand strokes for the doumbek, so it wasn't anything fancy, but I liked her method for getting a class of people to drum. She taught us the two basic right/dominant-hand strokes, the Dum and the Tek first, and had us practice those on our own for a few minutes. Then we did a call and response warmup where she'd play an 8-beat pattern and we'd answer. She'd play the same pattern 3-4 times in a row, then switch to something else, and gradually build to more and more complex rhythms. It was really cool, because it got musically more and more interesting, and it felt more like we were actually playing (as opposed to doing exercises/drills), yet she never had to stop and break down a rhythm or tell us its name and provenance, or spend time detailing the mechanics. Please note that I am totally a fan of breaking down the mechanics and explaining the names and provenances of rhythms and all that stuff (I am a musicologist after all), but sometimes I think it can be brain-overload and cause newbies like myself to over-think and choke. With Raquy's call-and-response exercise, we walked through increasingly more complex variations of one basic rhythm in a far more intuitive, aural manner, which felt different, and seemed to be pretty successful. That was pretty much how the whole workshop went: after the initial warmup, we added in the Ka, the basic rim strike with the left/non-dominant hand, and did more call-response playing. At this point, she did teach us one rhythm, the Kalamatianos, which is a Greek rhythm in 7/8. We banged at that for a few minutes, then Raquy got out her kemenche and played a Greek tune in that meter while we accompanied with the rhythm on drums. At this point, a somewhat dour older man walked into the room, scowled at us for a while, and finally interrupted us to tell us that he was with some group in the room next door and they "couldn't hear [themselves] think." So we moved from the auditorium back into the sanctuary, where the concert was going to be, where we learned how to do pops, and built up some more funky rhythm combos. At this point, my brain started refusing to make the intuitive leaps needed to coordinate my hands enough to just follow Raquy in the call-response exercises, but it was all good.
I should mention that the workshop and show were at the Old Centrum, a gorgeous old neo-Romanesque church that's now a community center. It was a bit run-down, as such places tend to be, but was nevertheless lovely. The church sanctuary was a big round room with a domed ceiling and gorgeous molding and stained glass. There was a big old pipe organ up behind the dias where the altar would have been, and where the musicians played. It had great sound, too. The workshop (before we got interrupted) was in the auditorium, a little theater with a second-floor gallery that reminded me of the Globe a little bit.
The show was fantastic. Il Troubadore opened the show, and it was really good to see them live again. Watching noiseman433 play cello makes me miss playing so badly, it's almost physical. Robert was sick and had lost his voice, so he couldn't sing at all; they did some of the vocal pieces with him playing his vocal lines on mandolin, I think, and in a few cases, they had to change their set a little. Still, it was great. A lot of the usual Indy bellydance crowd was there, and there were dancers for every piece in Il Troub's set. Wyldfyre opened, and I always love watching her bellydance, because I don't get to see her do that as often as I see her spin fire. Hell, I just love watching her. Gabby also danced, and Taletha (who is just made of muscle and curves and grace, not to mention gorgeous tattoos), and Carenza, who has apparently just moved to Pittsburgh, but drove all the way back to perform in this show. There's another dancer I've seen before but whose name I forget, who also sat in with Il Troub as guest clarinetist, but who also did a lovely solo to "Moon Song," which I think I actually prefer without the vocals... heavy rockin cello FTW!
Raquy and (two of) the Cavemen took the stage. They were amazing... I mean, I knew they were amazing, but live was just... jaw-dropping. I've never been so mesmerized by three drummers in my life. They were all virtuosic, but the energy between them was incredible. At times, all three would have their eyes closed, and be drumming up a climax to a rhythm change or something, and then it would just crash like a wave, and you could see them riding the crest. And they smiled at each other-- I love seeing musicians who seem like they're actually into what their doing, and into playing with each other. One of the Cavemen was new, and he did an unbelievable solo on the riq; I do believe it even outdid Karim Nagy's riq solo at Tribal Revolution last year (though without Karim's patented bobble-headed nuclear weasel effect). Of course, it wasn't all drumming; Raquy played the kemenche for the middle of the set, and the other Caveman played guitar a bit as well. They did "Caravan," which is my favorite song by them, and to which I choreographed a tribal piece for my Level 2 dance class this semester. Wyldfyre spun poi to it, using these glowing white light-up poi balls that were like moonlight, and it was probably the best poi performance I've seen her do, which is saying a lot. Carenza's Caravan's student troupe did a veil number to "Shashkin" and then the remaining three members of Carenza's Caravan (sans Carenza) did a hot drum solo that I haven't heard before.
I know it was a Tuesday and all, but there wasn't much of a crowd, which was unfortunate. I'd guess that half of the people in the audience were the dancers who performed, and their assorted male partners. Still, there were a few other familiar faces-- Chris D. came in about halfway through, stopping up on his way to Richmond. Helger was there too, and I haven't seen him in years (he's a fantastic drummer and used to sit in and drum for Pangaea sometimes when we were still together); he cut off the blond dreadlocks I remember him having, and now has a very normal-looking short hair style, so I didn't even recognize him at first.
I took a few pictures, but my camera sucks in dim lighting. However, there were a few for which the blurriness was kind of cool, so they're under the cut. I also got about a minute of video of Wyldfyre's poi set, but it's really dark, so I'll wait to post it until I have her permission.
Wyldfyre spinning glow poi to "Caravan"-- I like the light squiggles:
And another of Wyldfyre. I like how her bra is the only thing remotely in focus... way to isolate the chest, woman!
Raquy was giving a drumming workshop at 6, and the cost for the workshop and show together was ridiculously cheap, so I decided to come early and take the workshop. (we_are_pliable and Bridget didn't do the workshop, but did have dinner plans in the city, which was good braining on their parts.) Although Raquy was quieter and not nearly as goofy as some other drum instructors I've had (like, say, monkey-boy Nevik ;), she had a really relaxed, easy teaching presence, and it was the most musically satisfying drum workshops I've attended. We really just went through the basic hand strokes for the doumbek, so it wasn't anything fancy, but I liked her method for getting a class of people to drum. She taught us the two basic right/dominant-hand strokes, the Dum and the Tek first, and had us practice those on our own for a few minutes. Then we did a call and response warmup where she'd play an 8-beat pattern and we'd answer. She'd play the same pattern 3-4 times in a row, then switch to something else, and gradually build to more and more complex rhythms. It was really cool, because it got musically more and more interesting, and it felt more like we were actually playing (as opposed to doing exercises/drills), yet she never had to stop and break down a rhythm or tell us its name and provenance, or spend time detailing the mechanics. Please note that I am totally a fan of breaking down the mechanics and explaining the names and provenances of rhythms and all that stuff (I am a musicologist after all), but sometimes I think it can be brain-overload and cause newbies like myself to over-think and choke. With Raquy's call-and-response exercise, we walked through increasingly more complex variations of one basic rhythm in a far more intuitive, aural manner, which felt different, and seemed to be pretty successful. That was pretty much how the whole workshop went: after the initial warmup, we added in the Ka, the basic rim strike with the left/non-dominant hand, and did more call-response playing. At this point, she did teach us one rhythm, the Kalamatianos, which is a Greek rhythm in 7/8. We banged at that for a few minutes, then Raquy got out her kemenche and played a Greek tune in that meter while we accompanied with the rhythm on drums. At this point, a somewhat dour older man walked into the room, scowled at us for a while, and finally interrupted us to tell us that he was with some group in the room next door and they "couldn't hear [themselves] think." So we moved from the auditorium back into the sanctuary, where the concert was going to be, where we learned how to do pops, and built up some more funky rhythm combos. At this point, my brain started refusing to make the intuitive leaps needed to coordinate my hands enough to just follow Raquy in the call-response exercises, but it was all good.
I should mention that the workshop and show were at the Old Centrum, a gorgeous old neo-Romanesque church that's now a community center. It was a bit run-down, as such places tend to be, but was nevertheless lovely. The church sanctuary was a big round room with a domed ceiling and gorgeous molding and stained glass. There was a big old pipe organ up behind the dias where the altar would have been, and where the musicians played. It had great sound, too. The workshop (before we got interrupted) was in the auditorium, a little theater with a second-floor gallery that reminded me of the Globe a little bit.
The show was fantastic. Il Troubadore opened the show, and it was really good to see them live again. Watching noiseman433 play cello makes me miss playing so badly, it's almost physical. Robert was sick and had lost his voice, so he couldn't sing at all; they did some of the vocal pieces with him playing his vocal lines on mandolin, I think, and in a few cases, they had to change their set a little. Still, it was great. A lot of the usual Indy bellydance crowd was there, and there were dancers for every piece in Il Troub's set. Wyldfyre opened, and I always love watching her bellydance, because I don't get to see her do that as often as I see her spin fire. Hell, I just love watching her. Gabby also danced, and Taletha (who is just made of muscle and curves and grace, not to mention gorgeous tattoos), and Carenza, who has apparently just moved to Pittsburgh, but drove all the way back to perform in this show. There's another dancer I've seen before but whose name I forget, who also sat in with Il Troub as guest clarinetist, but who also did a lovely solo to "Moon Song," which I think I actually prefer without the vocals... heavy rockin cello FTW!
Raquy and (two of) the Cavemen took the stage. They were amazing... I mean, I knew they were amazing, but live was just... jaw-dropping. I've never been so mesmerized by three drummers in my life. They were all virtuosic, but the energy between them was incredible. At times, all three would have their eyes closed, and be drumming up a climax to a rhythm change or something, and then it would just crash like a wave, and you could see them riding the crest. And they smiled at each other-- I love seeing musicians who seem like they're actually into what their doing, and into playing with each other. One of the Cavemen was new, and he did an unbelievable solo on the riq; I do believe it even outdid Karim Nagy's riq solo at Tribal Revolution last year (though without Karim's patented bobble-headed nuclear weasel effect). Of course, it wasn't all drumming; Raquy played the kemenche for the middle of the set, and the other Caveman played guitar a bit as well. They did "Caravan," which is my favorite song by them, and to which I choreographed a tribal piece for my Level 2 dance class this semester. Wyldfyre spun poi to it, using these glowing white light-up poi balls that were like moonlight, and it was probably the best poi performance I've seen her do, which is saying a lot. Carenza's Caravan's student troupe did a veil number to "Shashkin" and then the remaining three members of Carenza's Caravan (sans Carenza) did a hot drum solo that I haven't heard before.
I know it was a Tuesday and all, but there wasn't much of a crowd, which was unfortunate. I'd guess that half of the people in the audience were the dancers who performed, and their assorted male partners. Still, there were a few other familiar faces-- Chris D. came in about halfway through, stopping up on his way to Richmond. Helger was there too, and I haven't seen him in years (he's a fantastic drummer and used to sit in and drum for Pangaea sometimes when we were still together); he cut off the blond dreadlocks I remember him having, and now has a very normal-looking short hair style, so I didn't even recognize him at first.
I took a few pictures, but my camera sucks in dim lighting. However, there were a few for which the blurriness was kind of cool, so they're under the cut. I also got about a minute of video of Wyldfyre's poi set, but it's really dark, so I'll wait to post it until I have her permission.
Wyldfyre spinning glow poi to "Caravan"-- I like the light squiggles:
And another of Wyldfyre. I like how her bra is the only thing remotely in focus... way to isolate the chest, woman!