That's 'cause they LIKE you guys.

Totally interesting thread. At times I feel like I'm there.

Nice drums Chris!

Thanks for sharing your experience with us.

Too busy posting to stop by the Roxy? 

 

YEAH BABY!

I just got in from the World Party show at the Belly Up in Solana Beach, California with our man, Chris Whitten on drums.

WOW! What a great show. I met Chris before the show and we chatted a bit and he grabs a 10" Evans G2 Coated, signs it and sticks it in my paw. Shhhwwinnng. (Funny thing, I play Evans Coated G2s and my 10" got a big scratch on it, so I really needed one – Is it cool to play autographed-by-stars drum heads?) I also met his stunning better-half. Both were some of the nicest and charming folks Ive ever met.

There was a good crowd and the band seemed to be having a blast. I had heard that the LA show had some media big-wigs so the boys were more "behaved". But they seemed to all cut lose in funky-town San Diego and put on an awesome show. That energy enlivened the crowd. It was amazing.

Chris is a killer drummer. That man is a human metronome with feel. Many of his beats were simple but ohhhhh so tasty. He played about every groove out there – disco, funk, country, rock, and blues and just nailed it all. (And it was good to see even pros drop sticks – twice).

His fills were open and airy and you felt the ONE all the way through. Yadda yadda…what did you expect from a pro? But what was really cool... here is a guy at the top of his game after playing with the likes of Paul McCartney and Dire Straits and touring the world. One might think that a drummer could become jaded or burned out. Not CW. He looked like an ecstatic high-school-er in a battle-of-the-bands. Mr. Whitten was having blast.

It was a great night watching, listening and learning from THE master at work. If you have a chance to see World Party, do it!

Thanks for the great evening CW. Rock on, bud.

Aka
Scott

See more photos:
http://www.bowmanarchery.us/cw/

Very nice kit Chris.  I love it.

Hope to say hi next friday at the H.O.B. you might be pretty jammed up for time and all.  No biggie.

I think we are going to be trying to party in the "foundations" room- which is the she she bar where the corporate wanna-be's buy in to take their customers.  My friend has a membership there (and I wish I did myself).  I'll have my DC shirt on  (maybe)  But we have only general admission to see the show. 

Hope to see you then! 
W.H.

lovin' it

Scott, fantastic write-up and photos, THANKS!

Those N&C drums look gorgeous! I'll bet they sound great from out front.

CW, how's set-up and tear-down going? It's gotta be tiresome, but I hope it's going smoothly.

How's it going on the bus... how are you passing the long hours on the highway?

Chris was concerned about how the drums sounded in the audience and asked me to check it out. SO here goes.

I hung out at various spots in the audience to get a good listen to the drums. The snare sounded great – full bodied and cutting. The kick was booming with some attack and mixed well. The cymbals and HH were fine, clean and clear.

But the toms? Well…they did not sound good to me. I am not sure if it was the micing or the lack of resonant heads but they were dead from all points in the room (except one). I would describe it as "barkie" or "croaking". There was a lot of attack (mostly) and a thud (and not a very deep thud). What was more concerning is that on single-stroke tom runs (yep, he did a few)  I could not discern much note variation between the sizes. Chris could have just stayed on any tom and got the job done for that matter.

However, when I crawled up by the mixing board at the side of the stage (pushy photographer that I am) I could THEN hear a very nice tone (albeit a short one) from the toms. I was about 15 feet from the kit and below them so the bottoms were well exposed to me. At this point I was out of the PA Blast and Monitor push.

There was a ton of sounds generated on that stage from a variety of instruments and there is only so much sonic space. Try as they did, those toms got their little butts kicked in that maelstrom in their current config. 


Personally, I think the toms could use resonant heads to give them a nice (longer) fundamental tone and "ooooommmmmmhhhhh" after the attack and perhaps better focused micing on EACH tom to gather that individual sonic magic. This would give them at least a fighting chance.

There ya have it.

sb

Hey Chris

Thanks for the great thread.  Like felix said, this is one of the best threads I've read.  Thanks for bringing it all home to everyone. 

Your drums look absolutely gorgeous. 

I look forward to your future reports  

All I can say is I'm doing two jobs and pretty knackered all the time.