Artist: The Aristocrats Venue: Gramercy Theatre (New York, NY) Opener: Travis Larson Band Date: 8/3/2019 Label:
Since I don’t always find myself getting to Progressive Music shows, I was really happy to be able to be on point for the recent appearance by a collective that I would say falls into the realm of Supergroup in terms of each members background. I am talking about none other than The Aristocrats, a group that formed in 2011 and features Guthrie Govan on guitar, Bryan Beller on bass and the inimitable Marco Minnemann on the drums. They would hit the ever popular Gramercy Theatre for an evening of mind-altering Progressive melodies and be joined by The Travis Larson Band. Going in I had no idea about the sound of either group, so I was very much looking forward to the musical education that I was in store for. Here is how the night progressed.
Hey there, and I am back with the final chapter of the three-part series from Dream Theater called “The Spirit Carries On”. It posted yesterday but I was a tad busy and not online to put it up until now. Anyway, the rest of this can be enjoyed below.
About The Clip: Dream Theater continues their search for a new drummer. In this episode see Aquiles Priester and Peter Wildoer auditions and the grand moment you have been waiting for. Dream Theater’s new drummer is…..
PiercingMetal Thoughts: So there you have it. The brand new drummer of Dream Theater is Mike Mangini. As I said way back (a few days ago) with Chapter One, I was pretty sure it was going to be him anyway. Despite being a fan of many of the others that auditioned, I feel that Mangini has the level of excitement that DT needs to pick up the pieces and move on from in the best fashion. Good luck Mike, I look forward to seeing you in concert and also seeing what kind of monster kit that you introduce to the bands shows. What did you think of this little video mini-series? Do you enjoy when bands do this sort of thing and bring us right into the process with them? I have to admit that I rather liked it and would be interested in sharing such series in the future as we are made aware of them. Please let me know what you think down in the comments area below.
I’m just going to let the official overview of the second part of the series do it’s talking but since the band revealed the full “7” musicians trying out I will add that in right later on. Let’s get onto the scoop about part two shall we?
About The Clip: The search continues as Dream Theater auditions more of the worlds best drummers. In this episode see Derek Roddy, Marco Minnemann, Thomas Lang and Virgil Donati behind the kit. Please note that during Derek Roddy’s audition we experienced some technical difficulties. We only picked up sound from the camera mics. We apologize profusely!
PiercingMetal Thoughts: So of course you already know who is in this clip but here are the bands that all of them have some experience in. They are Aquiles Priester (Angra, Paul Di’anno), Peter Wildoer (Darkane), Marco Minnemann (Kreator, Necrophagist, Ephel Duath, Joe Satriani), Virgil Donati (Planet X, Seven The Hardway), Derek Roddy (Hate Eternal, Nile, Today Is The Day), Mike Mangini (Steve Vai, Extreme, Annihilator), Thomas Lang (John Wetton, Robert Fripp, Glenn Hughes). Of the group, Derek was the youngest at 36 while Donati the oldest at 52. Age has nothing to do with the level of skill and presentation of course but that’s just my three cents. Now my humble opinion on this grouping is that Minnemann was the one who was the most stand out in terms of the kind of music that DT is playing. The others either made a quick mistake here and there or did some interpretation of the material that would not lock into the proper place in the minds of longtime fans. As I’ve noted already I was backing Mangini but after seeing this installment I am thinking that Marco might actually beat him to the punch. The others are terrific too but I am not of the mind that DT wants to go too far left of center from what they with Mike Portnoy. What do you think? You can add your own opinion to these blog posts down below.
As we shared back in September of last year, Dream Theater’s founding drummer Mike Portnoy had quit the band and now they share a video series from an exhausting search that featured “7” of the world’s greatest drummers. The official low down on the clip is below and then you can sit back, relax and watch the interesting proceedings.
About The Clip: September 2010: Progressive titans Dream Theater were ready to work on their new album when the unthinkable happened. Their drummer and close friend, Mike Portnoy, left the band. Floored, the band invited 7 of the worlds greatest drummers to try out and documented all of the auditions. Enjoy the first episode of the three part series.
PiercingMetal Thoughts: I really don’t want to add too much editorial opinion to this series since it’s a new sort of thing to be sharing with the readers of the PiercingMetal Musings Blog. I do like that I get the means to do this sort of thing a little easier than the hard coding of the HTML review pages but I digress. As far as this short film goes, I did think that this was cool and that right out of the gate that Mike Mangini showed off some SUPERB chops. He also was the only drummer in the feature which makes me wonder how much higher in the running he actually is. I loved the big kit that he used and will be pulling for him over most of the others. No offense to them all. What did you think? Let us know down below.
