PASIC
Right after the peak of my consecutive academic death
weeks, I got some crazy, nasty death cough from Nathaniel and it lasted
me for two, horrible weeks. Thankfully, it finally calmed down just in
time for me to go to PASIC (Percussive Arts Society International
Convention) in Columbus, Ohio. This is my third year as a member, but I
had never gotten around to making plans to go to the convention until
this year. I absolutely regret waiting until now.
The drive up there was fun...at times. When I wasn't getting car-sick in the 15-seater van, it was 12+ hours of Brittany, CJ, Brian, and me in the back making horrendous and offensive jokes, singing the "titty song", and basically making sure everyone stayed awake. I assure you the gross jokes didn't stop there.
We stayed at this little hotel that had a kickin' round bar, where we spend pretty much every night after conventionizing. It was a nice place to relax, talk drums (like we didn't do that all day anyway), and teach Pablo some "advanced" English.
The actual convention was amazing. There were a good 4 or 5 clinics happening every hour from 9 AM 'til 10 PM (with a two or three hour break around 6). I found myself mostly at drum-set clinics with Jason, Jesse, and Kevin. I ended up spending most of my time with them and CJ. Some of the people we saw were...
Gustavo Meli - Extremely ambidextrious. Was able to do a cascara and a 3/2 clave with ONE FOOT.
Virgil Donati - God. Don't get me started on this guy.
John Blackwell - Drummer for Prince. Does awesome stick tricks all around the set and an even better imitation of Prince.
Bernard Purdie - "I may not be able to play as well as some of these guys...but I certainly look the best doing it."
Steve Smith/Ganesh Kumar - Showed how to put Indian beats into Western drum-set.
Akira Jimbo - The one-man band. Used a bunch of MIDI triggers to play "Stairway to Heaven," "Mission Impossible Theme," "007 Theme," "Bridge Over Troubled Water," and "Ode to Joy" all WHILE playing some kick-ass set at the same time.
Jason Bittner - Drummer of Shadows Fall. Super-duper fast feet.
Jimmy Degrasso - Badass drummer of Megadeth. Also had extremely fast feet.
Terreon Gully - My new favorite drummer. Versitile as hell, but can play drum'n'bass rhythms like he invented it.
Steve Gadd - Was inducted to the PAS Hall of Fame. Innovator of linear drum-set playing.
Some non-drum-set clinics:
She-e Wu - The best/beautifulest marimba player...perhaps ever.
Ganesh Kumar - Played some crazy fast Indian rhythms with his hands AND his mouth.
Phantom Regiment - Played a few excersizes/show music and displayed the Moeller technique.
We also saw a couple of high school/college indoor drumline comeptitions. North Texas was there. Enough said. My favorite performance had to have been that of Stefon Harris and his group, Blackout (Terreon Gully was the drummer). These guys were absolutely phenomenal. Every single member is extremely smooth and talented at what they do, and their chemistry is like nothing I've ever seen or heard.
When we weren't at a clinic or concert, we were shopping. There was a huge room that was filled with hundreds of booths from nearly every single drum/percussion dealer around, big (Zildjian, IP, Sabian, Pearl, Dynasty, Remo, etc...) and small (Silverfox, Cooperman, Vader...), and most of them sporting some kind of discount for the convention. It felt like heaven in there...a room filled with expensive and FUN toys that anyone was allowed to play around with. As you can guess, it was loud as hell in there, too. They were handing out ear-plugs at the entrance.
I would have liked to catch up on some sleep there, but I think I expected too much out of myself. Despite having to wake up at 7 every morning, I still ended up staying awake with Brittany and CJ or with Pablo until 3 AM on all but one night. I really enjoyed talking to Pablo. He was telling me how nervous he was about having a good career and standing out and everything, even though everybody who has ever seen him play knows he'll be one rich MFer in due time. It kind of comforted me in a way, knowing that even the guys I look up to so much are as much of a mess as I am. He also had a couple of really good gay and circumsicion jokes...I have no idea if he learned them here in America or not, but they were some of the sickest/funniest things I've heard. Maybe it was just his foriegn-accented delivery that did it for me.
Steve Smith (drummer of Journey) and Steve Gadd (drummer for Paul Simon and millions of others) both had concerts with jazz/big bands in a Buddy Rich tribute that closed the convention. Steve Smith played "Mr. Hi-Hat," which blew most of the thousands of other professional/student drummers in attendance away.
The ride home took even longer than the ride up, but felt even shorter. I really didn't want to come back home yet. I still wanted to play with the toys and watch other people be really, really bad-ass at things. Its such a cool feeling being in one concentrated area with a few thousand other people who love drumming just as much as I do, and who could all piss their pants at the same time as me while seeing some of the clinics. I guess all of the bonding with Doc and the 14 other guys/girls from the UGA studio wasn't all that bad, either.
Austin, Texas. 2006. I'll be there.
Quote(s) of the Entry:
"What's the difference between after-birth and sand? You can't gargle sand."
- C.J. Rolison IV.
"Very good, gay. Very good!"
- Pablo
The drive up there was fun...at times. When I wasn't getting car-sick in the 15-seater van, it was 12+ hours of Brittany, CJ, Brian, and me in the back making horrendous and offensive jokes, singing the "titty song", and basically making sure everyone stayed awake. I assure you the gross jokes didn't stop there.
We stayed at this little hotel that had a kickin' round bar, where we spend pretty much every night after conventionizing. It was a nice place to relax, talk drums (like we didn't do that all day anyway), and teach Pablo some "advanced" English.
The actual convention was amazing. There were a good 4 or 5 clinics happening every hour from 9 AM 'til 10 PM (with a two or three hour break around 6). I found myself mostly at drum-set clinics with Jason, Jesse, and Kevin. I ended up spending most of my time with them and CJ. Some of the people we saw were...
Gustavo Meli - Extremely ambidextrious. Was able to do a cascara and a 3/2 clave with ONE FOOT.
Virgil Donati - God. Don't get me started on this guy.
John Blackwell - Drummer for Prince. Does awesome stick tricks all around the set and an even better imitation of Prince.
Bernard Purdie - "I may not be able to play as well as some of these guys...but I certainly look the best doing it."
Steve Smith/Ganesh Kumar - Showed how to put Indian beats into Western drum-set.
Akira Jimbo - The one-man band. Used a bunch of MIDI triggers to play "Stairway to Heaven," "Mission Impossible Theme," "007 Theme," "Bridge Over Troubled Water," and "Ode to Joy" all WHILE playing some kick-ass set at the same time.
Jason Bittner - Drummer of Shadows Fall. Super-duper fast feet.
Jimmy Degrasso - Badass drummer of Megadeth. Also had extremely fast feet.
Terreon Gully - My new favorite drummer. Versitile as hell, but can play drum'n'bass rhythms like he invented it.
Steve Gadd - Was inducted to the PAS Hall of Fame. Innovator of linear drum-set playing.
Some non-drum-set clinics:
She-e Wu - The best/beautifulest marimba player...perhaps ever.
Ganesh Kumar - Played some crazy fast Indian rhythms with his hands AND his mouth.
Phantom Regiment - Played a few excersizes/show music and displayed the Moeller technique.
We also saw a couple of high school/college indoor drumline comeptitions. North Texas was there. Enough said. My favorite performance had to have been that of Stefon Harris and his group, Blackout (Terreon Gully was the drummer). These guys were absolutely phenomenal. Every single member is extremely smooth and talented at what they do, and their chemistry is like nothing I've ever seen or heard.
When we weren't at a clinic or concert, we were shopping. There was a huge room that was filled with hundreds of booths from nearly every single drum/percussion dealer around, big (Zildjian, IP, Sabian, Pearl, Dynasty, Remo, etc...) and small (Silverfox, Cooperman, Vader...), and most of them sporting some kind of discount for the convention. It felt like heaven in there...a room filled with expensive and FUN toys that anyone was allowed to play around with. As you can guess, it was loud as hell in there, too. They were handing out ear-plugs at the entrance.
I would have liked to catch up on some sleep there, but I think I expected too much out of myself. Despite having to wake up at 7 every morning, I still ended up staying awake with Brittany and CJ or with Pablo until 3 AM on all but one night. I really enjoyed talking to Pablo. He was telling me how nervous he was about having a good career and standing out and everything, even though everybody who has ever seen him play knows he'll be one rich MFer in due time. It kind of comforted me in a way, knowing that even the guys I look up to so much are as much of a mess as I am. He also had a couple of really good gay and circumsicion jokes...I have no idea if he learned them here in America or not, but they were some of the sickest/funniest things I've heard. Maybe it was just his foriegn-accented delivery that did it for me.
Steve Smith (drummer of Journey) and Steve Gadd (drummer for Paul Simon and millions of others) both had concerts with jazz/big bands in a Buddy Rich tribute that closed the convention. Steve Smith played "Mr. Hi-Hat," which blew most of the thousands of other professional/student drummers in attendance away.
The ride home took even longer than the ride up, but felt even shorter. I really didn't want to come back home yet. I still wanted to play with the toys and watch other people be really, really bad-ass at things. Its such a cool feeling being in one concentrated area with a few thousand other people who love drumming just as much as I do, and who could all piss their pants at the same time as me while seeing some of the clinics. I guess all of the bonding with Doc and the 14 other guys/girls from the UGA studio wasn't all that bad, either.
Austin, Texas. 2006. I'll be there.
Quote(s) of the Entry:
"What's the difference between after-birth and sand? You can't gargle sand."
- C.J. Rolison IV.
"Very good, gay. Very good!"
- Pablo