DaiDonDen: Seshami Street Boys

Using a spatula instead of a pick

The Seshami Street Boys are a shamisen (a traditional Japanese instrument) duo. I went to see them for the first time this year, though they have come to the DaiDonDen for 7 years they said. I expected them to be very good, which they were, but they were also very funny.

Another replacement for a pick

Apparently, playing shamisen is very expensive. The pick that they use costs 50,000 yen for a practice pick, and 10,000 yen for a pick you would use for a performance. For special occasions, the cost can be much higher and they said the ones they used during DaiDonDen costs 250,000 yen!

The strangest pick they used

So, if you break your pick, which sometimes happens, it is expensive. They said they had thus tried to find other things to use instead of the traditional picks, and then started playing songs using spatulas, dolls, plastic drawing tools, and other strange things.

This looked very difficult

They also did some acrobatic style things while playing. The most impressive part was when the two of them played a difficult song using only one shamisen. One of them took the left hand part, and the other played the right hand part.

If you gave a large tip, you got a CD too!