Earl, from Hackensack, New Jersey, has voiced each and every one of our sentiments after witnessing the mind-blowing, out-of-this-world performance put on by STOMP. As a treat for all the hard work we'd invested in carrying all our club's activities out successfully, 15 of us were treated to a STOMP concert held in KLCC's Plenary Hall on the 3rd of December. Due to the undeniable fact that KLCC is situated a considerable distance away from our school, a bus was even rented to chauffeur us to our destination. If that wasn't VIP treatment, I don't know what is!
The show began at 2pm, and I have to say, we made it in the nick of time! Mere minutes after we were seated in our comfortable seats, the show opened with one of its signature pieces, entitled 'Brooms', which captivated the audience for a good 12 minutes. From there, the young, energetic percussionists cum dancers who make up STOMP continued to dazzle audiences by successfully coaxing music out of basketballs, plastic grocery bags, and even lighters! Though the audience was momentarily puzzled by the silent darkness that they were enveloped in before the set featuring lighters began, the avant garde musical piece that was produced by the rhythmic flicking of their lighters, and looked fantastic to boot, left the audience captivated until the very end of their performance.
One particularly interesting piece featured the completely unexpected kitchen sink, which was filled with water and strapped to their bodies. They most successfully proved how even the most common of everyday objects can function perfectly as a versatile instrument, as the mere acts of tapping on the sink with drum sticks, rubbing the sink with their rubber gloved hands, or even by simply releasing the water contained in the sink produced such a vast diversity of sounds that had we not witnessed their performance with our very eyes, we wouldn't have believed that only one 'instrument', the ubiquitous kitchen sink was used.
Yet another note-worthy performance featured rubber tubes of varying lengths being thumped on the floor. When thumped in the right sequence, they produce a melodic progression of notes, reminiscent of the beeping of an old computer. Another piece featured them being strapped into harnesses, and dangled in the air, close to the metal frame where a plethora of crockery, plastic pails, and generally anything that produced a sound were mounted. Armed with their trademark drum sticks, the variety of sounds produced by their rhythmic 'drumming' warranted a most enthusiastic round of applause from the audience.
Humour plays a bigger role in their concert than one would expect it to. Despite the fact that not a single word was uttered on stage, their wordless jokes and perfect comedic timing left had the audience in fits of laughter at various points in the show. At one point, a love triangle was even successfully depicted - without the aid of words! The piece featured two girls rummaging in a box of 'trash' to find a perfect instrument which they could utilise to outshine the other party and capture the heart of the lucky boy they were fighting over. All that drama was successfully depicted using only the power of music and their spot-on facial expressions. Would the wonders never cease?
All too soon, the 100-minute musical journey was over. As we stood up from our seats and reflected upon the stunning performance we had just feasted our eyes on, we came to the conclusion that STOMP offers the best of reminders to us that there's music everywhere, in everything, and we do not need lessons or degrees from fancy musical institutions to find it. Once again, we would like to thank the school for providing us with this fantastic opportunity to witness STOMP's truly inspiring performance, and we hope that the insights we managed to obtain from this concert could be successfully utilised to bring our club to greater heights!
A group photo for the ages!
An lucky snapshot of one of the performers. Isn't she pretty? :)
Farah, Empress, Punietha, and Niraanjana posing with the stage in the background!
No comments:
Post a Comment