Harry Lime, put a sock in it.

You know what the fellow said – in Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace – and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.

As a drummer, though, I’ll just say…wow.

Our marching band used to pick on the football team! They would stay out at halftime to see what winners looked like!

Wow!

BTW – if you like Neil Peart, Look for Mike Portnoy from Dream Theatre on youtube. The guy’s awesome. Here’s a pic/description one of his drum kits: http://www.mikeportnoy.com/drums/mirage/

I tried to find the whole show but to no avail. Oh and yes, those are people in the middle that they’re jumping over.

Now I know where Neil Peart has been lately: he was abducted and cloned by the Swiss!

Heh!

I used to think Neil Peart was about the best drummer ever.

Then I saw Dragonforce perform live.

Seriously, check them out – it’s the only time I’ve ever seen a drum kit held together with scaffolding (it almost formed a cage that the drummer sat in … hmmm, I wonder if that was deliberate).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJi0yM0GsAU

Phil, thanks for prompting me to go find this thing.

This reminds me of when Radiohead performed their song 15 Steps at the Grammy’s last year. They were backed up by the USC(?) marching band. Though not all marchy and technically sophisticated like this clip, the performance was still incredible.

BTW. I was also in the high school marching band. We were just a little less cool than that.

Oh and. . . they were damn cool. As drum corps goes those guys turn it up to 11.

I would suggest going to the track to see some F1 motor car action. I’d recommend some time on an aircraft carrier or on the tarmac at an airport with heavy lifters around, but it’s getting increasingly difficult to get the opportunities to be in such places. Then there’s the Kennedy Space Center but I don’t know if you’re allowed close enough to appreciate how loud those large rockets are.

These guys (and gals, though for girls military service is not mandatory) serves their one year service practicing for and participating in military tattoos and shows all around the world. I think they’re awesome, especially considering it’s different people each year.

I was in the drum section in the CU Marching band in the 1970s, Mr. Spacewriter played tuba and taught high-school band for a few years. We got into watching Drum Corps at the annual Drums along the Rockies competition held each year at the old Mile High Stadium.

If you want to see some corp-style entertainment that’ll blow you away, go see BLAST: The Show, a traveling corps show based on the Star of Indiana Drum Corps. Their website is www dot blasttheshow dot com… right now they’re traveling in Japan, but you can watch some samples on their site. We’ve seen ‘em twice and were amazed each time we did.