With a random reunion at the Marshall St. Starbucks, I've found myself the guest of fellow JD Class of '94 alum and olde buddy Mike Feng at two concerts as part of CNY Crossroads. There's a certain logic to expecting professionalism and excellent performances from the Christian folk/rock community, as lip-sync'ing is, somehow, a smote-worthy offense. I'm reminded of an Amy Grant performance at some Billboard Music Awards show way back when during her "Heart in Motion" phase and watching the drummer ACT like he was hitting his left crash cymbal while clearly MISSING the target despite audio to the contrary. Let's face it. If the drummer's fakin', the band's plugged into ground and that's about it.
And I've got two words for Ashlee Simpson. Skid Row.
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 Click for the video. |
I went to the most recent show (April 28, 2007) specifically to see Zoro, easily one of the funkiest groove drummers around (I refer you to the list of accolades on his own site. Baby, it'd bad). While backstage, I also met Joy Williams and Ben Glover, the "other" performers for the evening of which I'd known nothing prior. Completely laid back and casual, genuinely happy to be in Syracuse performing from Nashville. After Zoro's first (of two short) drumset spots, Joy and Ben came out and completely leveled the place (that's music jargon if you're not a member of the discourse community). Ben is the consummate guitar accompanist and background vocalist, and we killed a good hour after the show engrossed in nanotech (when people ask what else I do besides drumming, well, you can imagine where the conversation goes). As for Joy, words do little justice to the quality of the singing voice she carries around (that's my musical AND professional opinion, BTW). I took the opportunity of a false start to record one of the two cover tunes of the night (In Your Eyes, by Peter Gabriel), the video for which I provide above.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Street
www.starbucks.com
ww.jamesvilledewitt.org
www.pecinc.com/pecsite
www.cnycrossroads.com
www.amygrant.com
www.billboard.com/bbcom/index.jsp
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MziHkbJRMdU
www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5zu2mUEe8Q
www.zorothedrummer.com
www.zorothedrummer.com/about.htm
www.joywilliams.net/index.html
www.christianitytoday.com/music/artists/benglover.html
www.syracuse.com
www.nashville.net
www.petergabriel.com