[PART 2] The 2018 US Ocarina Festival: Concert, Camping, Phuket
To Recap…
We drove up on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, got to see everyone, and rehearsed on Friday before going to an open-mic performance.
Read the whole post here!
This post covers Ocabanda’s concert forward. We worked really hard coming to this point, and I’m truly thankful for all the experiences we got to share together, from a concert, to late night Mario Party, to losing our sanity at a Thai restaurant near Mt, Shasta.
Saturday – The Concert
Early morning rehearsal. We all filed down to our rehearsal room earlier than any other day and we had some big decisions to make. I argued that we should simply cut Festive Overture because, given our lack of deep rehearsal time, it wouldn’t be concert ready in 3 hours. Those three hours would be better spent honing the songs we already know well.
The rest of the band agreed. Festive Overture is not immensely difficult on any singular part, but rather for an ensemble to put together given its insane speed, syncopation, etc. No matter how much individual practice we put in, it would’ve been a miracle to put it together for this concert, so I’m really thankful we pushed it back to a later performance.
We had a great rehearsal on the songs we were actually to perform, and as the MC, I worked on what to say during transitions between songs. We got dressed, then headed to Downtown Seattle to the concert venue.
The first half of the concert was solo acts from Jordan, David, and our sub Henry. Jordan did some really cool duet pieces with Tad, David played two original pieces, played with a video sent from Milt, a fantastic Japanese Ocarinist, and Under the Sea, and Henry had the fastest fingers I’d every seen on the classical pieces he performed. After a short intermission, Ocabanda was up.
Our set had great pacing thanks to Tad and David’s ideas for order. The audience was small, but great, and I was told my MC bits went well (though I thought I could’ve done better). The whole process felt a bit rushed compared to past performances we’d had where we had upwards of 5 days to rehearse, but it was still a fantastic time for everybody!
After the concert, we all the Ocarina players went down to Pike’s Place Market, lined up, and marched an Ocarina song composed by Nicholas, arranged by Jordan. The tourists and residents asked a lot of questions, since most people don’t know what an Ocarina even is, and we played for an Ocarina maker who’s set up shop there for 30 years. She had always wanted to go to the Budrio Ocarina festival, and she was, in her words, happy that the festival came to her.
Ocabanda then went to Roxy’s friend’s apartment’s rooftop for a celebratory barbecue, and we eventually got back to the hotel to rest for the next day’s activities.
Side-note: Vegan meat is surprisingly good
OUR MIXTAPE IS HERE!!!!
This is the same text as the last blog post, I’m lazy. Kill me 🙂
Ocabanda’s first EP is here! Check out our Bandcamp page for unlimited online streaming and a pay-what-you-want (above $5) to download! I’m happy the music we recorded at freaking MAGfest is finally available!
Click here to listen!
Sunday – Panels and Mario Party
Our difficulties over, the next day was a relaxing and intriguing series of panels. David, Jordan, Nicholas, and Henry all presented about various Ocarina-related topics. Nicholas talked about using Ocarinas as a music education tool and about teaching Ocarina (particularly to children). He gave some great examples on his teaching methods, told some amazing success stories about his students, and later on played a lot of the games he plays with his kids with us.
Next up, we had David, who gave a really interesting presentation on the history of Ocarinas and Ocarina ensembles, which had some footage from a big ocarina collector’s shelves including some original Ocarinas by their inventor, Giuseppe Donati.
Jordan gave a workshop on arranging music for Ocarina, where he did a live-arrangement of a song from My Neighbor Totoro at an unimaginably quick pace. It was impressive and definitely inspired people in the room to try arranging.
Next, we had a break with Nicholas’s games before Henry’s presentation on advanced Ocarina technique. He covered extending the range well past the alleged limits, improving finger skills for quick parts, and utilizing alternate fingerings to stay in tune. It was all really helpful information!
After the panels, we went out for dinner at an Italian restaurant with Ocarinist and Grammy winner Nancy Rumbel. She was incredibly kind, a great conversationalist, and though I had never heard of her until then, a wonderful musician. It was a great time with some great great food and great people!
We returned to the hotel room, and we finally had the chance to play Mario Party. I was ready to end my friendships with all Ocabanda members. We played Mario Party 6, and I demolished them. It was gratifying to see all the Mario Party videos I watch paying off.
Tad and I played some Super Smash Brothers after my victory, then we all went to sleep. We were leaving tomorrow, so we needed some rest!
Monday – Return of the Josh… and Camping
Josh had to go back to Portland Friday night, but we had made plans to stop by Portland and take him with us on a camping trip near Eugene. But first, we have to get out of Seattle.
One by one, Ocabanda members packed their bags and parted ways to the airport. David, Roxy, Ella, and I, however, had a road-trip to do. After some goodbyes, the four of us piled into the luggage-packed rental car and drove to Portland.
I switched cars to be with Josh, and we headed south to Eugene, made another chicken nugget break, then turned east to the campsite. David told us there would be a mile hike from parking to the campground and no bathrooms, but luckily, there was a parking spot at the campsite and an outhouse nearby.
This time, we arrived in the evening while there was daylight (though mosquitoes are most active at the twilight hour we came at), so it wasn’t scary at all setting up the tents. However, our hatchet broke, so chopping wood was going to be a major problem. I tried sharpening a relatively axe-shaped rock, to no avail. We then asked the next campsite over if we could borrow his. He agreed and turned out to be a super cool dude.
Then, we had a relaxed, fun time getting our food ready, and enjoying a night by the campfire. We walked around as it was darker, and we wanted to check out the lake we were situated near. We stopped in our tracks when we heard a sort of moaning growl. David thought it was a motor, but most of us thought it was a bear and hastily returned to the camp. That sound kept going every so often the whole night and the following morning, so we theorized it to be a baby bear stuck somewhere (since it didn’t sound like a mature bear).
We had curry for dinner (and breakfast the next morning), hung out around the campfire while watching the stars blink into the sky, and then got into our tents. Josh and I had the dream of gaming in the woods, so we managed to play Super Smash Brothers in our tent at night, and it was wild.
Tuesday – Let’s GET HOME
We rose that morning to go look around the campground, and finally went down to that lake we were too scared to see the night before.
After some exploring, cleaning, and packing, we parted ways once more, and the final drive was exactly how it started: Roxy, David, and I. We headed south for many, many hours and stopped at a couple Starbucks along the way. Near Mt. Shasta, we stopped at a Thai restaurant called Phuket. It probably wasn’t pronounced the way we imagined, but it was our breaking point for sanity on the road.
We left Phuket around 7:45, and after several more hours, our sanity lowering even further, and a couple rest stops, we made it back to my house, but the story doesn’t end there.
Late at night (but 15 minutes after arriving), Roxy told me she had to get something from the car. I thought I unlocked the door for her so she could go in and out without an issue, but either I locked the door or she locked it on her way out, and she was stuck outside. David and I both knocked out while this was happening, and eventually we heard the doorbell ring.
Surprise, it was the police! They asked if we knew her and I said she was staying here. She, in her politeness, didn’t want to disturb us if we were all asleep, so she didn’t ring the bell herself, but my neighbor saw her outside and called the police on her. On one hand, that’s a vigilant neighbor, but on the other, she was doing nothing wrong. However, the police did enable her to come back inside and sleep in a bed rather than a car. And on that strange note, the day ended.
Bonus Round: Wednesday Cinnamon Rolls
David and Roxy, before we went on the trip entirely, asked about some vegan options for Roxy. I mentioned a cinnamon roll place called Cinnaholic in Downtown San Jose. We didn’t have the opportunity to go during Fanime or before the roat-trip, but Wednesday morning, we went.
David and Roxy were all packed and woke me up to get going. We headed to downtown, parked, then went to the store. I knew what I wanted, then David ordered, then Roxy asked what the vegan options were. The employee replied “everything,” and Roxy freaked out. She figured out what she wanted, and we all enjoyed some final cinnamon rolls before Roxy and David returned to Los Angeles and David flew back to Texas.
In short
This was one of the most memorable road-trips I’ve been on with some of the oddest combinations of circumstances happening. I had a great time seeing the band, despite the time with everyone together being too short and the fact that Steven was missing nearly the whole time.
Ocarinas have given me so much, so It’s my responsibility to raise awareness for the instrument! If you told me 3 years ago that this is what I’d be doing, I never would have believed you, but it’s happening and I’m so grateful.
Best of luck,
-Andy
If you’re interested in starting to learn to play Ocarina, I highly recommend Night by Noble. It’s one of the best made plastic Ocarinas I’ve had the pleasure of playing, and despite it being plastic I consider it performance ready. It’s great for learning, since any errors in sound you can’t blame on the instrument.
I have an Amazon Affiliate link with this product, so purchasing through me helps support the blog and gets you started on Ocarina at the same time!
One more time – that link is HERE!
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Pictures taken by people on the trip!
Andy Cormier 