I'm in St. Louis rehearsing with Stik Yard, Martin Smith and his band Delirious at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis.

Stik Yard is a percussion group (ala Blast/Stomp) that a buddy of mine has put together. We are in rehearsals and will be performing with Martin Smith and Delirious tomorrow evening for the opening of the Joyce Meyer Womens Convention.

I showed up for the first time last night, driving into St. Louis from Nashville ... with gear and family in tow. The rehearsal went well as we spent a better part of the night getting all of the racks and equipment put together. I'll be showing more pictures and video later ... when there's time to take some shots. Here's a quick photo from my phone.


All the racks are hand-made ... and even some of the drums! Notice the large drum in the photo? More on that later as well.

I'm very sore today. I didn't spend enough time warming up, plus we rehearsed full volume for a long time ... and there's some choreography ... and I'm 43. 

Rehearsals are going well ... although the days are long. We spent most of evening blocking the stage last night. Lots of gear to move and get into place ... then immediate strike when we are done. There are more stage hands than musicians it seems.

Wednesday started at 6pm and ended at midnight. Today we start at 11am for a full dress rehearsal with lights, video, pyro and Delirious. Performance is at 7pm tonight at the Edward Jones Dome (football stadium).

I shot some video footage but I'm finding it difficult to get the time to upload it, let along grab a clip from the tape.

I may have a break around 3pm to post some video. 

25000 ?!!  WoW!!!!

That had to be a rush.  Good job.  Did you sign any autographs? 

No specific tunings other than the four Bass drums which were played horizontally. There was no improvisation; the piece was through-composed.

Okay ... a few of you have asked about seeing some footage ... so here it is.

A couple of things with this clip. What you are seeing was shot for the crowd, shown on the big screens. Also there is a Kabuki screen/drop which the video was shot on. There's a young drummer playing a field snare that is standing in front of the Kabuki before it drops. The drummers are all playing a solo behind the Kabuki, which you can hear, but you can't see us.    Once the Kabuki drops, there's a set change while we are playing.


Mark Miller and I are far Stage Right, the opposite side of where all the cameras were, so you don't see us. You can see Mark (#28), who switches to a field snare, center stage behind Martin Smith (singer) once the Kabuki drops and the whole band starts playing. You can see me towards the end of the clip, but if you blink ... you'll miss it. Besides the mix of the choir being WAY too hot, the vocal pitch problems, and questionable director's choice of shots , it's cool. I think they are going to go and pitch correct some things, hopefully bring the choir mix WAY down, and fix some typos in the credits, it will be a nice promo for Mark and Stik Yard.

Hey ... it's live and loose ... and we had fun. 

Yes ... but the white guy wearing camo.