Kim was right - it was a great show and a excellent day overall.
I've never been to a drum festival before (despite being a lousy amateur drummer myself) so I had no idea what to expect. It was a fun experience, not too unlike the scifi conventions I work, though with tons more free stuff and giveaways. My mom and I got there in time to catch most all of the performances, and we also had pretty good seats, though I would've been happier to be on Stewart's side of the stage - oh well, it was a 50/50 chance. But they had a nice video screen overhead for closeups during the show.
We both really enjoyed Jason McGerr, of Death Cab For Cutie, who did an excellent presentation on technique by starting with just a snare drum on stage and literally having his kit built piece by piece around him. He also demonstrated the difference between playing a song to "show off" and playing it "to keep his job in the band". Interestingly enough, I kind of thought some of the other very (overly?) showy performers that day could have used paying attention to that lesson themselves. There was quite a bit of testosterone oozing off the stage from some of these power-players, if you know what I mean, when I would have rather heard a lot more groove and musicality.
Glenn Kotche of Wilco had an absolutely bizarre kit that was cool for all the different sounds he could make, but his style was a little "out there" for my tastes. Thomas Lang is insane behind the kit, but honestly I wasn't really enjoying his set until the great Luis Conte came out and the two of them started playing off and around each other. That was beyond cool. And I knew I was in a crowd of drummers when - for once - everyone in the room could actually clap in time with the music!
Of course, *we* at least were there and waiting to see Gizmo, and the band did not disappoint us fans one bit. I loved the Italian songs that started the set, great energy. As Conroy mentioned, Darkness was a huge treat, a very different arrangement from the GitM version--mom was absolutely grooving on this one, along with Don't Box Me In. Sadly I don't think most of the crowd "got" Weild the Spade, which is a shame because not getting the chance to see Oysterhead before, I was thrilled to hear it. There was another instrumental song after that which I didn't recognize, and then a great, extended version of Koteja.
Couldn't believe it when the set was over already - it just flew by! But then they announced an encore, and since part of the audience had cleared out by then we scooted up for a closer view during Miss Gradenko, which just rocked. My boyfriend (who arrived in time for Gizmo) ran all the way up to the stage and was going on and on afterwards about how crazy it was to get to see Stewart play from just a few feet away.
It was around 8:30 when we finally headed out home...of course, we got lost trying to get out of Newark and nearly ended up in the Lincoln Tunnel, but eventually we made it back to Philly in one piece and so glad we made the trip up to see the show.
Big thanks to Stewart for bringing Gizmo to the States so some of us could at least finally get a taste of the band! I'd really love to hear an album from the group at some point, and of course more live shows, too!
