Pan American:
Man, I finally made it to a show and didn't back out of going, despite being mad expensive and being located way out in Brooklyn. I figured this might be the last time I'd get to see a Panorama Steel Orchestra competition, but that shouldn't have stopped me from backing out. After all, I backed out of seeing the Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra several months ago in San Francisco, even though getting another chance to see them is slim to nil.

So, a little background: the Panorama event is annually held on Labor Day weekend. The Brooklyn Panorama, I think, is second in the world only to the Trinidad Panorama, which is where steel drumming originated. I think the Trinidad Panorama is mostly a Trini event and held during Carnaval in February. The Brooklyn event is centered around the West Indian American Labor Day Carnival, and so has more of a diaspora feel to it. The main figures and the majority might be Trinidadian, but it's a Brooklyn West Indian community event.

Another reason why I didn't think I'd end up going is because I couldn't ride there since the Port Authority bastards close the GW Bridge catwalk from midnight to six in the morning. So I had to ride to the bridge, take a bus across and then take two subways to get to the Brooklyn Museum of Art where Panorama was being held. Mind you, I had to repeat this for the return.

Even after I got there I had qualms about dishing out the $30 to get in, but as I was loitering indecisive by the ticket booth, even though I knew I'd end up paying it, someone came up selling tickets for $25 (he got it in advance), and then I didn't hesitate and went in.

Panorama was so cool, I can't begin to tell you. I was in a little 15-piece ensemble in college, but that was nothing compared to this. Panorama regulations were that bands had to be between 45 and 100 members, and most of the bands that I saw were closer to the 100 than the 45. With 13 bands total, there were pans everywhere, and for easy mobility, most of them were mounted on wheeled racks (nice racks!). In the college band I was in, we had 3 leads (tenors), 3 seconds, 2 cellos, and one set of 6-bass. These orchestras had pans that I didn't know what they were, but I assume they were pans that I'd heard about and never seen, including quads, double-tenors, double seconds, 4-cellos, guitars, engine rooms (rhythm sections) that made our college band look like we didn't have one, and, of course, the awesome 9-basses.

When I first got there, the first of 13 orchestras, Pan Tonic, were off the stage running through their piece, and that was spectacular because the crowd was milling right up around them. The sound was enormous, there was no director or conductor, and there were no lights. It was like the song was counted off and right away 100 people were instantly in a collective groove. The pan player right in front of me had no idea what was happening on the other side of the band, but they were all spot on. That was a cool thing about Panorama, because between orchestras playing their sets on stage, some orchestras setting up for their turns would run through their pieces and that gave people a close-up look at what was going on.

Out of 13 orchestras, I only saw five (four on stage), and three of those bands played the same song, called "War 2004". That song was apparently a favorite this year as two other bands played it after I left. It's OK for orchestras to play the same song because of different arrangements and nuances, but also because Panorama pieces are maximum 10 minutes long, and quite honestly, when you have the bombast of a hundred piece, essentially percussion, ensemble, there's really not a chance of one thing getting so stuck into your head that you're thinking, "oh, it's that song again?!". You just get caught up in the infectious groove of the engine rooms and boogie around the grounds.

It did suck that I had to leave so early, around 11:20, to make sure I caught the last bus back across the GW Bridge. Taking the subway to Brooklyn in the afternoon wasn't so bad because the 'A' train is an express train through most of Manhattan. But at night, it turns into a local train and it goes excrutiatingly slow, stopping every 10 blocks. My stop was 175th St., and by 135th St. you start seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. You count only 4 more stops to go, but then they had to stick a stop on 163rd St. between the 155th and 168th St. stops, and I always forget about that one. That extra stop always makes my skin crawl. Insult to injury I tell ya.

I missed the 12:40 A.M. bus by four minutes, and took the very last bus across the bridge at 1:10.

One of the awesome mounted 9-basses of Adlib Steel Orchestra. Five mounted and four on the floor, baby. Each bass pan has 3 notes. This is during their rehearsal run in the parking lot before they went on.


Pan Tonic during their rehearsal run before taking the stage. That's a cellist on the right. In the back is part of the melody section (we called it the "front line"), comprised of tenors (leads), double tenors and seconds. And that dude is drinking a Sprite.


Back view of the engine room of Pan Phonic in the parking lot. Aside from the drumkit, which isn't seen here, the engine room percussion includes congas, various cowbells and bells, you can see a guy with a shaker on the platform, and in the foreground here is the most notable component of the engine room, a row of brake drum (from cars) players. They make a terrific loud clanging and are used more to keep time (16th notes) than for rhythms.


Set of 6-basses in their mounts. Behind it is a set of 9-basses in a different configuration.