Music Is... Panoridmic

I was going to title the post "Music Is... Bashmentiferous" but y'all already know that!

Anyway, I went to Panfest 2005 with all intentions of participating in some way. Rohan did me the pleasure of having me work in the control room. Lucky for me, that meant that in addition to working, I'd have the good fortune of actually seeing the show each and every time. Thank you Rohan!

But in the end, it was a little hectic. Running the slideshow was a breeze after day 1 (even though Rohan changed it on me everyday), but in addition to that, I was also photographer, filmmaker (amateur as I may be), lighting cue man, announcer, and my favourite job, Pan Mascot. It was fun watching the smiles on the stage as I danced the hell out of most of the second half of the show (to the audience sitting in front of me, I apologize if I was a distraction :-) ). Yet, despite having all these jobs, I think the best one slipped by me- being on stage.

Nevertheless I'm OK with it, especially given I stayed away on my own terms. And better yet, I got to stand back, watch, and be proud of the men and women with whom I've had the pleasure of working for the past 2 years. Y'all did an excellent job, and I'm extremely proud of EVERYONE. It's times like these that I remember exactly why I joined UWI PSO in the first place.

What impressed me most had to be the collective positive spirit of the group. I've never been one to believe that once a group of people are forced to stay around each other things MUST get tense, and you all proved it. Even in practicing into the wee hours of the morning, the attitudes were positive, and that's really impressive.

Then came the shows. Friday's show was shaky, but that's expected. Saturday was a lot more relaxed, and Sunday was just hype! The only way you can get people to enjoy your music is to show them that you enjoy it yourself, and that was certainly evident. The dialogues were great, the 'choreography' was nice, the drummers shut us all up (good job guys), and the basses... BASHMENTIFEROUS!

As much as I'd love to actually play in an encore performance, I'm somewhat inclined to agree with Richie's sentiments. We have a lot of work to do on many aspects of pan life, and another concert will exert more stress on a tired band. We'll simply have to be smarter next time.

Until then, I hope we've all realized just how good we are and can be, and will strive to be better. More than ever I'm starting to see ONE BAND, and I hope, with new members coming in and all, that a similar spirit will continue. BIG UP PANORIDIM!!!