I feel as though I now have had my fill of the Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo for the year. I was able to go from someone feeling somewhat teased and wanting more on Tuesday afternoon to someone feeling completely satisfied today by seeing the full Tattoo show on Tuesday night.
Fortunately, I was able to acquire tickets for half-price by waiting until an hour and a half before the show to buy tickets. It seems that quite a number of senior citizens were taking advantage of the same deal. Actually, once we (Jeannette and I) got into the stadium it became clear that the Tattoo is particularly popular among the grey-haired set. As far as I could tell, almost everyone in attendance seemed to be a member of the grey-haired set. To be fair, there were a few current military types as well as a few families in attendance. Mid-twenties to early-thirties types were particularly rare.
For the most part the show consisted of military themed acts, though there were a few wild card performances scattered throughout the show. These non-military acts really made the experience feel more like some kind of pseudo-circus or variety show rather than a tattoo.
Military or military-style bands from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Belgium performing individually and together made for a fair chunk of the show. Not that I should necessarily venture into the realm of criticism, I will go as far as to say that I thought that the band that performed the least appropriate music and in the least appropriate way was the Royal Band of the Belgian Navy (their use of an electric bass guitar was particularly off-putting, as was the fact that much of their performance took place while they stood in the shape of a heart). The massed band components of the show were pretty neat, particularly the finale when several hundred musicians were playing together.
The wild-card performances were really all over the place. There was a gymnastics/dance group from Estonia that performed a few weird pieces throughout the show. In one instance they performed a number in which 'pirates' were unable to capture treasure because of spirits protecting the treasure (at least that is what I took from the performance). There was also a bicycle team from the Netherlands who rode unicycles. There was a French gymnastics team composed of Parisian firefighters. There was a (excellent) humorous tumbling/trampoline routine performed by policemen from Hamburg. While these acts were pretty entertaining, they tended to feel a little less tattoo-like than some of the drill teams and bands did.
An aspect of the experience that is not explicitly related to show proper but that was particularly amusing was the audience survey that was placed on a limited number of seats in the stadium. Not only did this survey provide us with a sense of the order of acts in the show (which was nice because we didn't have a program), but it also provided us with snappy descriptions of each of the acts. For instance, the RCMP Ceremonial Troop's act was described as "RCMP, bands in red and white uniforms and girls playing spoons." Of course, the best part is that I don't remember girls playing spoons. They describe a performance by a groups from Newfoundland called Ashelin as "Five young girls sing on stools with video of Haiti on screen." And just for kicks, the description of the Juliana Bicycle team's second appearance in the show: "Gymnasts on world's smallest and tallest unicycles."
While I generally found the experience to be overwhelmingly positive, I was a little disappointed that a big deal was made about the fact that cameras were not going permitted in the Metro Centre. Almost as soon as the show started we were informed that many of the performers would be available for photo opportunities after the show, and it was implied that photography of the show was allowed as long as flashes were not used. While it is unlikely that any photos that I might have taken from the upper bowl of the stadium would have turned out well, I am a little disappointed that I didn't at least have the chance to try taking them.
One last thing, if there are 2000 performers (a number suggested on the Tattoo website) and I paid $20 for my ticket then I paid 1 cent per performer, a per performer rate that I don't imagine I will ever get the chance to match again (unless I attend the Tattoo again).
No comments:
Post a Comment