A real bang-up job
Before the start of Tuesday evening’s performance of “Blast!,” an announcer provided the usual reminder that the use of recording devices and cameras was strictly prohibited during the show. Missing from his announcement, however, was the warning to turn off cellphones and other electronic devices. Did he forget? Has the cellphone taboo been temporarily lifted?
It’s just as well: No measly digital ring tone could hope to compete with the assault of drums and brass that gives “Blast!” its title.
A hit show that has conquered Broadway (winning a special Tony award in 2001) and toured nationally, “Blast!” returns to the area this week for a six-day engagement in Segerstrom Hall at the Orange County Performing Artscenter. How you feel about marching bands and color guards will largely determine your reaction to this high-energy extravaganza. Suffice it to say, if you’re the type of person who gets psyched at college pep rallies, this show has your name written all over its athletic jersey.
Comprising 14 musical numbers, “Blast!” is a plotless, character-less spectacle in the familiar mold of “Stomp.” The show takes well-known classical works like Ravel’s “Bolero” and Copland’s “Appalachian Spring,” as well as more contemporary pieces, and arranges them in a gaudy more-is-more fashion for brass band and percussion. The musicians stampede through the pieces like a herd of deaf elephants, cranking up the volume whenever possible as they move from one formation to another.
Though the emphasis is on big sound, the show’s chief strengths are visual. The musicians perform an impressive range of calisthenics with their instruments -- stretching, flipping, twirling and more. This is surely one of the fittest and best-looking marching bands in history, filled with young, mostly firm-bodied performers in tight T-shirts. They’re aided by a corps of dancers that provides able distraction whenever the music starts to drag.
The most memorable sequence is a snare-drum faceoff that pits two virtuoso percussionists (David Cox and Lance Kindl) against each other in a battle of wills. The musicians find imaginative uses for their drumsticks and their onstage chemistry is comic perfection, like the Marx Brothers meets the Japanese drum ensemble Kodo. Together they create a cumulative, propulsive rhythm that is so infectious you don’t know whether to applaud or form a conga line.
Directed by James Mason, “Blast!” is really a glorified halftime show, and at two hours, it’s somewhat too long for what it has to offer.
Still, there are moments in “Blast!” that are bound to stick with you. My favorite involved a percussionist being strapped into a full-body, Hannibal Lecter harness and then spun around like a Ferris wheel as he banged away on his drum set. Like most things in this show, it’s random and completely devoid of meaning. But it sure looks and sounds cool.
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‘Blast!’
Where: Segerstrom Hall at the Orange County Performing Artscenter, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa
When: 7:30 p.m. today through Saturday, 2 p.m. Saturday, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday
Ends: Sunday
Price: $20-$60
Contact: (714) 556-2787, www.ocpac.org
Running time: 2 hours
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