On Tuesday, April 8, Indoor Percussion performed their show, “Cloudburst,” at Friends and Family Night. The show had a peaceful tone in the beginning, like a slight drizzle of rain. Then, the ensemble suddenly transitioned to AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck,” with the guitar solo played by senior Ezra Aboy. At this point, the audience was beyond amazed and was feeling the beat with the crashing of the cymbals. As the thunderstorm ceased, the musicians portrayed grace, beauty, and cheerfulness when the sun came out. When the final note ended, the audience went crazy. Standing ovations and cheering were an understatement of what the hardworking Indoor Percussion deserved. Their show was described as “exciting,” “energetic,” and “bold” by both the audience and the performers.
“It was really entertaining. During the run, I felt really inspired, and in the end, I was amazed. I was thinking about it and for a second, I really wanted to join them,” said sophomore Jasmine Angel.
After their performance, the seniors were bittersweet. Friends and Family Night is the time to display what they’ve been putting in their time and hard work for the past season; for some, this was the last time they could do it.
“That was such a good run. I honestly feel really sad knowing that this is going to be the last time I’m doing this, but I’m really happy,” said senior and marimba player Natalie Calapan.
Though “Cloudburst” was about rain, it’s also symbolic in many ways. For senior and cymbal player Trystan Skeets, it represented a bit of his childhood.
“It brings me back to my youth. Nowadays, when we get rain, it’s an inconvenience. But this show goes into the more joyful side of rain, and when you were a little kid, the rain was something exciting; it was something you wanted to see, and it was a good thing. So, when I’m performing, I can’t help but think of that part of the rain. That’s why I really liked the show so much this year,” said Skeets.
Since January, Indoor Percussion has had rehearsals three days a week and for multiple hours, including extra rehearsals and competitions to prepare for. This hard work has not gone unnoticed by their esteemed director, Joshua Hall. When they were performing, Hall felt proud of his team.
“They’ve worked so hard that they can do anything they want. They’ve shown that,” said Hall.
As this was the final run before they performed at the SCPA Finals at CSUSB, Indoor had mixed feelings of anxiety and excitement. However, Hall believed they were “prepared and absolutely earned this.” With this much hype, by the end of the night, they were ready to crush finals the following Saturday. Coming in at fourth place with a score of over 88, Indoor Percussion gave it their all, and at this pace, no one knows how far they will go next year.
