Product: Modern Drummer Festival Weekend 2003 (2003)
Rating: 4.0
Waiting for the Modern Drummer Festival Weekend 2004
Very good picture and sound quality and a good performance overall performed by an elite team of drummers and percussionists...The highlights of the show might be the performances by Steve Smith, Mike Portnoy and Antonio Sanchez..The performances by Hip Pickles, Nathaniel Townsley, Mike Orris Jr. (winner of the Undiscovered Drummer Contest, under 18 category), The Drumbassadors (Ren Creemers and Wim DeVries), and Louis Santiago Jr(the winner of the Undiscovered Drummer Contest)were also very good.Steve Smith is....well Steve Smith as usual...His performance with the Vital nformation is worth seeing, tough if you own his DVD "Drumset Technique/History of the U.S. Beat", you might feel like you have seen it before...Mike Portnoy and Dream Theater's instrumedley was terrific, not only in terms of drumming, but in terms of composition and arrangement as well. It is a must see for every Dream Theater and music fan if you have not seen it yet..The performance with the "Yellow Matter Custard" is fun, do not accept any exceptional drumming tough other than Portnoy playing a simple kit.Antonio Sanchez demonstrates one of the most complex drumming independence I have ever seen, tough you might get a little nervous after a while as you may need to struggle to understand what he's really doing.. The guy is good...We can not expect to see Dennis Chambers, Weckl or other drumming gods at this festival every time. But I beleive that a drummer performing for Modern Drummer Festival must at least be inspiring or different if not excellent or top-notch... In that sense, performances by Nick D'Virgilio, Shawn Pelton & House Of Diablo, Airto Moreira and Matt Wilson were uninteresting, and I would have preferred to watch something else instead..