In case you hadn’t heard, Low Ding Zone had its last business meeting in December, and decided that after eight wonderful years, it was time to ride off into the sunset.
We’ve had a great time making unusual (and sometimes just plain weird) music, and an even greater time entertaining our audiences, and we thank you all for coming along for the journey with us.
We’ve learned a bunch of things over our existence:
- Bass bells weigh just as much as ever. We might be having an easier time now, though, because of cartilage compression.
- Making music is always an adventure. Personality has always been a bit part of that for LDZ, because one of our prime qualifications for membership has been “ham quotient”. We’ve thoroughly enjoyed endorsing chirocampanological mayhem because of that.
- Stage names are part and parcel of the persona. “Towering Belle”, “Bottom Dweller”, “Bassonator”, and “Vi-Bassious” have been a few manifestations of such.
- Just ‘cuz people say you can’t do it doesn’t actually mean that you can’t. There will always be naysayers… but remember, E3 is a gurlie bell because we ignored (some of) them. We’re still working on ignoring the others, by the way…
- “Politically inappropriate” is not equivalent to “concert worthy”. Witness the Funeral Tango, the piece you can play for that person you “just had to send off”.
- Professionalism is not the same as “stick in the mud” (or “sharp stick in the eye”, for that matter). We started with “move it or lose it, buddy!”, and continued that tradition without fail.
- We’ll miss all of you. Maybe someone will assemble another bass-only handbell ensemble in the future, though – and our repertoire could be a possible jumping-off point for them. We’ll see!
Best wishes to all of you. We’ve had a great time being Low Ding Zone!