Failte - a pipe band concert

So Saturday night was the night of the Failte concert - a concert with Bucksburn and District and St. Laurence O' Toole Pipe bands. To give a little insight, to those of you that don't know, Bucksburn and District are one of the local Aberdeenshire bands, whilst St. Laurence O' Toole (SLOT as we call them) are a top grade pipe band from Dublin, who won the RSPBA World Championships in 2010.
It was something many people were looking forward to, and I must admit, it was nice to have everyone else coming to Aberdeen for a change, rather than always going somewhere else.
In any case, my family and I had a little drink at my flat, then we went out for dinner at Wagamamas, before heading up to the pub across the road from the concert hall. The whole place was very busy, since the AUSA Torcher parade was also on at the same time.
We went in and sat down at half past seven, in this beautiful music hall. Then Bucksburn struck up and the concert started. In each half, Bucksburn, then SLOT played.
Unfortunately, I don't think the room is at all geared up for pipe bands. There was a hideous echo where we were sitting, though I don't think my ringing, sore ears was all due to the building. It took until the second half before I realised that it actually sounded good when Bucksburn were on stage. Sure it was loud, and echo-ey (though from what my dad said the echo was much better at the back where the sound man was -pumping up the volume *sigh*), but the ensemble was there. It sounded good.
But when SLOT was on - man my ears were sore. The huge crack of side drummers absolutely battering away at sharp side drums, unendingly slightly ahead of the rest of the music, the echo filling the room with undefinable sound, so loud that I heard more than a few people complaining that they couldn't even hear the pipes, since the drumming was so off-putting. Why the need to batter it so hard? Surely it's harder to play the complex stuff anyway if your hands are moving so far off the drum with each hit? The drum kit was as bad, as it was actually mic-ed up. When the poor fiddle player was playing, you couldn't hear a thing. By the time it was half-way through their part in the second half, I had my hands covering my ears and was exceptionally close to walking out in the middle of the set. Not what you expect from a group of recent world champions.
And the continuous tuning. It always seemed to me rather unprofessional to tune on stage. But to be honest, the piping was, when we could hear it over the drums, pretty good.
I feel kind of sorry for Bucksburn and for the pipers of SLOT. For most of the people who were unimpressed, (I even heard one person say he would never go to another band concert) it was because of the drumming, and the awful ensemble that went with it. Perhaps on stage it sounded different, as most of the band seemed chuffed when we saw them later, but that's not where it matters - what matters is what the audience hear.
*sigh*

At least the one thing it did do was let me see the building. I can see us having a similar sound issue with the drum kit come the November concert. Hopefully I can convince the guy in charge, and the sound men that too loud is really not good. I hope they don't mic up our side drums. Even more relaxed drummers playing quieter won't help then.

Thank the goddess I'm not an official reviewer. Lets hope their reviewer was sitting in a better seat than me, and heard a better performance, or it would be an unfortunate downer for the bands I think.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Aberdeen music hall

A few photos from the last two weeks

The sun finally arrives in Aberdeen:


The crocuses appeared over the spring holidays - now the daffodils are taking over:



The first leaves are finally bursting open:


Spring has been a long time coming. I'm looking forwards to being able to leave the heavy coat at home.
All these pictures were taken using my iPad, and have not undergone any photoshopping, or instagramming, or editing of any type.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

The end of the "holidays"

In my glass: water
From my iPod: High Hopes, by Pink Floyd
From my bookshelf: anatomy
Outside: sunny
My mood: alright
Today's hairstyle: a nautilus on wet (just washed) hair with my emergent glassworks octopus stick
So, we're into the first week back at uni, and its already Wednesday before I've managed to get around to posting on here. Wow things have been busy.
As you will know from my last post, I was just heading off to spring camp with the OTC last time you heard from me. It was cold. And I mean really cold. There was snow on the ground for the whole exercise, and stag duty at 2.30am was really not fun in -5 degrees. My ankle was painful and I couldn't do a lot of the exercise, since even though I was popping painkillers, paracetamol and ibuprofen don't seem to help much, and my ankle was getting more swollen by the day. I believe there were a couple of injuries, and a couple of people came off sick, one possibly with the very beginnings of hypothermia. I think it was the cold that made most people miserable to be honest. To say it was challenging would be an understatement.
On the upside, I passed my MOD2 exam, so a pay rise is on the horizon. YAY, more money! I need it desperately.
It seems that Basel is off for us this year, sadly. We're hoping to get to go to Edinburgh tattoo, but we don't know yet. I just hope we get to go to something this summer, since I've held off on a summer job in the hope that we are going, and its soon going to be too late for me to get one if we lose the job.
In other news, university is back, as stressful as ever. We had our mid-term physiology exam on Tuesday (our second day back) and I have no idea whether it went well or absolutely awful. I guess we will just have to wait and see. I'm tempted to say it went ok, but anatomy has so far proved to me that I'm not the best judge of my own grades in tests.
Tomorrow we have our final lab for Energy For Life,, then we have a week to write up our report. So far just about every lab has been a disaster - I think the enzymes have degenerated too much. So this report could be FUN....
Oh, and there's the tai chi trip just before my exams. Hopefully it will help me relax a bit and be less stressed out, and I'm sure I can still find time to revise, since everyone will have exams on then too.
In the meantime, I have sailing theory to read up on, and a youth band practice in Glasgow at the weekend (involving getting a train at 5.30am, with band kit, and knowing there's a possibility of having to fix the harness back to fit me, since no doubt someone will have changed it again, with me having been away so long). Plus, I don't know how many people re left that I will even know. I must be one of the longer serving members now, and the band had a whole overhaul in members over the winter. Hopefully this increase in pay at the OTC will free me up a little more for youth and stuff in the future. Mind you, perhaps if I book the October trains now I will get a decent price. Hmm.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad