Rabbit & Pork

Ratings:

1. Venue: 7/10 - strange; a sports centre; slightly odd feeling when I first walked through the doors as both the stage and vendors shared the same hall; on one side we had the largest collection of Roland electronic kits, whilst on the other, a good selection of h/w vendors displayed and sold (at good discount) their wares. However, to my surprise, this setup actually worked well fostering a friendly atmosphere.
2. Seating Position: 8/10 - again, I worked my way to near-front seats.
3. Hosts: 8/10 - excellent duo of Mark Richardson (drummer of Feeder) and some guy (sorry, I don’t know your name) who I believe is from the radio (and I’m sure I recognise him from what was the Musicians Channel).
4. Stage & Audio setup: 8/10 - considering the venue, the audio quality was excellent (and extremely loud; thank goodness for ear-plugs) - in most cases, each drum kit could be heard clearly. As everyone had to watch, it meant no disturbances from the vendor portion of the show whilst the gig was on. One negative point was the positioning of the kits (and players) on the stage. Unfortunately, they were all setup in advance, therefore some players were positioned at the back of the stage. I like to see players performing their magic; I tend to learn just as much from viewing as I do listening.
5. Vendors: 8/10 - great selection of h/w vendors; in fact, I felt I could be more hands-on than I did at Drummer Live partly due to the fact there wasn’t a continuous loud din in the background. I treated myself to a shiny new Sabian 16inch AAXplosion Crash (at good discount).
6. Craig Blundell: 7/10 - highly enjoyable and talented; great audience participation; got us all to attempt 2/3 pattern with our hands as well as splitting the audience into four where each group tapped one of 1/4, 1/8, 1/12, 1/16 beats in unison; there’s a massive amount of co-ordination practice that can be achieved with permutations of these patterns; performed to an amusing medley of tv theme tunes including Knight Rider (the Hoff is everywhere!).
7. Marco Minnemann: 7/10 - his kit was described as “the spaceship”; not surprising considering the mix of accoustic and electronic drums on display. However, shortly after starting his gig the demo gods interfered and shutdown the electronics. From that point, it was improvised all the way. Shame, really, as his style is unique and I’d like to catch him again at some point.
8. Will Calhoun: 9/10 - wow, what can I say; this guy was explosive; massive chops; energetic. Halfway through he did something I’d never seen before at a show like this. He came out from behind his kit and stood at an electronic device (hand drum of some sort) and proceeded to tap out an intricate bass line. This was recorded and looped. To the loop, he tapped out another rhythm in a different electronic voice. The process was repeated to build up a complete backing track. Then to this track he pulled out an uber-recorder (no idea what the instrucment was!) and started laying down a Hendrix-like solo. With all this recorded and looping, he returned to the kit and blasted out some amazing complentary rhythms. Superb.
9. Rodney Holmes: 9/10 - one word; smooth; another word; fluid. I don’t remember anyone ever “rolling” around the kit as much as he did. Obviously, he was enjoying the opportunity to improvise as he over-ran his time slot - don’t think anyone really cared! Gets a bonus point for mentioning iPod - although it was mentioned in the same sentence as “dropped into his red wine bottle” - how big was the bottle?; To finish off he played to a track he had never played before; you couldn’t tell! One hell of a drummer.
10. Jason Bittner: 8/10 - token Metal man; \../ you rock!; incredible double-bass work; played to a couple of Shadows Fall tracks; explained that Metal has always been his passion but was trained in all disciplines at Berkeley; demonstrated how to “metalfy” (his word) other styles by playing straight bars of the style followed by a metal renditon i.e. lots of double-bass, crash cymbals. Metal-swing is the way to go!
11. David Garibaldi: 9/10 - if you can’t groove, you can’t join a band! that was the message from Mr. Garibaldi; effortless playing to backing tracks followed by an improvised solo; could be considered simple playing but as we all know it’s better to make the complicated seem simple rather than the simple seem complex; unusually at an event like this he gave us a story of his life in drumming (very useful, as I didn’t know much of his background); then gave an intimate lesson on how to build up a groove; referred to drummers of James Brown as inspiration for his own grooves; upon completion of the lesson it was definitely a case of him making the complicated seem simple; very interesting and unique insight; groove over chops!
12. Prize draw: 2/10 - again, no luck here; I would give the obligatory 0/10, but this time I came close and the prizes were pretty decent; I would of love to have won the snare signed by David Garibaldi.

Up next - Gregg Bissonnette.