BeatIt came, BeatIt saw and BeatIt was totally amazed by it all!
On saturday September 17 in Warsaw the eleventh edtition of Meinl Drum Festival took place. 700 people came to see the best drummers from Poland, and many other countries. All these artists showed their huge talent and wide range of music styles. We hope that this event was an enormous thing for polish drumming scene, and will stay in many drummers’ memory forever!
The opening speech was short, and to the point. But everybody was waiting for the festival to begin! Right after 3 p.m the magic began to happen. The man best known from bands such as Monuments or Skyharbor, coming from U.S, Anup Sastry– showed the audience the meaning of “strong start”, with his power of the hit, non stop fun with polirhythms, creativity with rolls and foot work, it was one hell of a show! He also destroyed his bass drum head, but good friend Matt Halpern lend him a helping hand, or rather bass drum, and Anup could peacefully finish his show.
The next artist was polish national treasure- Robert Luty, who performed with his friends- Grzegorz Jabłoński on keys and Piotr Żaczek on bass. They all showed us, how the band should sound, it was perfect! Robert was showing his enormous groove and dynamic skills, precision, but also very solid and strong hit! He was giving his kit a really hard times during this festival. Suddenly he switched to very small kit, and started to improvise on it. It was a really good example of showmanship, and also a very cool surprise!
After Robert’s performance came time to change the mood. Totally. One big kit rolled to the stage, it was really complicated, with many toms and cymbals. It belonged to “machine gun” from Czech Republic- Miloś Meier. It was pure metal madness! Killing tempos, super fast rolls, neve ending double bass drumming and constatn headbanging, which made him look like The Animal from Muppet Show! Personally, I used to admire shows like this, but I don’t at this moment. But besides everything else- I will have the eternal respect for guys such as Miloś, they are really hardworking and stubborn, in positive way of course!
Then I was witness of pure German perfection. Jost Nickel started slowly, not rushing, or anything. But when he got into his groove it was crazy! Some great funky music mixed with unlimited creativity coming from Jost’s hands and legs. It was fantastic. You should see what he cand do with playing on the rim, insanely creative and unusual! That was one of my favourite shows! You can say, that Germans are doing their job well.
After a break came the time for the unoficial “headliner” of the festival. Matt Halpern sat behind his kit in the spotlights, and started his thing. His performance was mixed with some sort of clinic. He was talking about things, which are important in playing, he told us a lot about showmanship and emotions, and how to let these emotions go, to feel everything right. He played some Periphery songs, and smashed his drums and cymbals quite hard. He knew what he was talking about, he just let his feelings go!
The three last drummer were Daray, Adam Marszałek oraz Tomek Torres. They prepared very unique performance. Firstly every one of them played a short solo, and then the magic began! They started switching behind their kits, so every one of them played each kit, there was even dancing choreography connected with playing on eachother’s sticks, and even little bit of drinking game in it! Everyone in the audience of Roma Theater was laughing loud, so did our three musketeers. It was really rad and happy time!
At the end there was a big signing session. Every attendant could get a signature of their favourite drummer, take a photo or exchange word or two. For me as a drummer this festival was great. Top level of organisation, really big names on the list, breath taking performances, during which I saw and heard thing, that I have never think of before- hats down! When I look at all these drummers, who are going big right now, I think, that if everyone work that hard, we could climb on top, or if not, just be better than we are now! It’s really important to attend festivals like this one, because you can get inspired and motivated!
Meinl Cymbals has already announced the date of the 12th edition of the festival- it will take place on July 1 2017 in Guttenstetten. See you there!
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