RUSH
This takes me back to my Prog band Tallis in the 70's. We opened for Rush. Back
then half the audience had come to see us. We both had a great night. My bass
player was a friend of Geddy and Geddy came to one of our gigs and sat in for 3
tunes. He even sang on them. Geddy is a super nice guy that was very supportive
of bands doing their own material.
What did you think of their new drummer?
ReplyDeleteThe best of the best not only play accurately but create a pocket that pushes or pulls the beat in front or behind a metronome but in a consistent way giving every tune a stylistic stamp. Neil did that. Anika lays down her groove dead on the beat very near a metronome. That said it probably works better than another drummer who might push the groove or pull it back opposite to Neil. Still again if Anika could be part of a whole new record with all new songs I would not be surprised if we were all blown out of the water as she would relax and both Geddy and Alex would express their playing to fit.
ReplyDeleteLet me digress a bit to make some points on timing. I write with my guitar not amped and without a timing element like a metronome or a Drum Machine. But once done I chose sounds and play to a Drum Machine. That changes my timing even doing that. It can take a week or so before I can make it jell and fall into a pocket where my phrasing is pushing or pulling in the right places. For me I am the only one singing so that adds another dimension to my timing as the guitar has to lift the vocals not compete with them.
Years ago I saw a band from Africa with Drums, Guitar and Bass and a singer who played Congas. I remember having mind warp analyzing the guitar and bass players technique and thinking it was very poor for about 5 minutes. when I stopped I found out I had gone from a bit of toe tapping to nearly flat out dancing. I was humbled by that band and realized groove was at minimum 50% of what makes Rock great. SRV is the #1 master of groove. A lot of guys can nail his notes but ... :-)