A couple weeks ago they spoke of a festival in Sowa, right across the street from the school that I teach at and about a 5 minute bike ride away from my apartment. They were speaking of performances. I took a big gulp and said I could play guitar if they wanted. Right after uttering those words, I wished I hadn't. They pounced on me, asking for three songs: 1-"If you're happy and you know it clap your hands;" 2 - the Star Spangled Banner; and 3 - one American song of my choice (the only name that really came to mind was Bob Dylan and I picked the shortest song of his that I know - All Along the Watchtower). It was a two day festival and I was playing on Sunday, but they got me to promise I'd go Saturday too. It's hard to say no sometimes.
It was packed Saturday, tons of my students all over the place, couldn't walk 10 feet with out getting yelled at. They had this huge stage set up with all this AV and crap. The Indonesians have a band of their own - really legit - and they played a few songs to a good crowd.
I couldn't eat for the rest of the day I was so nervous. I've never played on a stage or to a crowd before and they're tossing me up there, in front of all of them? I'll get eaten alive. The whole week prior I practiced the crap out of these songs, that I'd pretty much known how to play for a while and aren't very difficult at all. Alone in my apartment, standing up, picturing a blank faced, unsympathetic and confused crowd of Japanese, politely waiting for me to get off the stage - sweating. The practice really was just a nervous reaction and probably had very little effect on the performance. The only way to prepare for playing in front of people is to play in front of people.
Sunday came around and I went to the festival with a few supportive Japanese friends and a hangover. We got there and they had a little tent area set up with speakers and mics - this was going to be my stage - I got to feeling better very quickly. Baby steps. I was on about 15 minutes after I arrived and it was over pretty quick. I played Dylan first, then the Star Spangled Banner. About an hour later I played while we all sang If you're happy and you know it clap your hands and then my Indonesian back up singers showed up, so we sang the Star Spangled Banner again. No footage of this performance, but it was probably the funniest of all of them.
There was some other footage though:
I don't know if they have a direct translation in Japanese for words like "grace," "captivating," "stage presence" , and "Dylanesque" but if they do, they must've been spoken on this day. If not then, friends, sometimes, you don't need a common ground language to send/receive a message and you know, this might've been one of those times. After I was done, they gave me a coke and an envelope with 1000 yen in it, telling me thank you for playing. Best 1000 yen I ever made.
More images from the festival:
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