Making Noise

Last night I marched in a Noise Parade for what felt like an impossible distance carrying a garbage can fashioned into a drum. Noisician Coalition has been become a great release for me; there's nothing quite like banging on a metal trash can until it starts to loose it's shape, while making music, to let you release frustration. We all dress in black, white and red, but with no real uniform code.

The building process had been a little frustrating for me. There were so many things going in in my mind that the noise of other peoples instruments as I tried to concentrate on my own was overwhelming at some points. I'm glad that part is over for now, because playing is what I've been waiting to do. Marching with everyone in a parade, next to each other, turning noise into music; that's what I've been wanting to do.

We started in the Bywater, warming up a little anxiously. We were leading the parade, with only the flag bearer and the police escort ahead of us. The large rolling metal contraption called simply "the box" was being pushed by one person and drummed on by two others. It lets out a deep bass sound that sets the tone for what we are playing.

My drum has two sides, one high, one low, but every surface makes a sound when pounded on with sticks or mallets (I carry both). I listened to the sound of the The Box as well as to what everyone else is doing and I find my place. I close my eyes, counting in my head and when people start to get sloppy I get a little louder hoping to pull people on track. When things get too repetitive for too long, I switch it up a bit and see if something new catches with other people. When I loose focus I stop playing to find it again, jumping back in where I belong.

We marched on forever, stopping on occasion to let people catch up with us. When we were still, I'd close my eye's and play, letting my drumming match the bass rythm, lending a higher sound to it and reinforcing that it was the center of the noise. Despite it all, despite all the noise, my mind drifted back and forth between the people in my life and the noise I was making.

On Frenchman street I pounded away on my drum finding a good rythm with the girl standing next to me. She is tall and pretty; dressed extravagantly as we all are. The people smile and cheer as we play, some people dancing past us as we come to a stop in the middle of the street. We fell together and then parted in our drumming, then back together again and for that moment there weren't any issue's in my life, there weren't any problems, people I missed, things that needed to be done. There was nothing except my friends and I making noise.