A few months ago I went with a friend to a local stadium where high school marching bands from around the country were competeing. I was right on the field and up close to the bands and was generally impressed by all of them. I can appreciate the time and effort that went into perfecting their performances.
One part of the competition had a smaller group of each band perform facing the audience without having to do any marching or movements at all. Several of the bands brought in these huge drums for certain parts of their performance. These dang things moved some air! Each band did some song that was heavy on percussion and at some point used these large drums. Guys were literally beating these things as hard as they could with small bats! The style was very tribal, almost agressive and war-like, but very crowd pleasing.
The effect of these drums and the songs they did was overwhelming. The songs were definitely a “drum” type of song using all the various drums, but highlighting these large ones. The songs were great!
Can anyone recommend songs that are primarily these types of drum songs and feature these impressive large drums?
I think you would enjoy Stomp Out Loud - it doesn’t actually use any real drums (it’s all junk items like oil drums and buckets), but a couple of the big numbers have a real ‘tribal’ feel to them. It’s also worth watching purely for the skill of the players.
Also, the Blue Man Group DVD of The Complex Rock Tour Live is very much a feast of percussion and features a massive drum mounted on shock absorbers; it is played with an enormous stick the size of a sledgehammer (it is also played in much the same way as one might use such an implement).
The live version of “Yulunga (Spirit Dance)” by Dead Can Dance has some nice tribal sounding percussion and there is a nice percussive section in the live version of “Oman”, as well. I also like the studio version of “Nierika” for that feel, as well.
An oft-posted-about and personal favorite, Huron ‘Beltane’ Firedance by Loreena McKennitt, on her Parallel Dreams album.
There’s also a phenominal drumming solo that closes out the live version of Good Things by the BoDeans that can be found on their 2 disk offering Joe Dirt Car.
:smack: How could I forget Enya’s *Storms in Africa (parts I and II) * on her Watermark album, as well as on her “best of” disk, Paint The Sky With Stars and her Only Time collection.
