Neal Morse "Creation" live, Bill Bachman drum camera

BillBachman · #1 09-11-2010, 04:34 PM

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

This is Neal Morse in concert from September 2008 in Downey, CA. It's the drum camera with a shotgun mic picking up my monitor mix and lots of hi hat and almost no ride since I'm in the way. My patent work on the remote speedy hat wasn't done yet so I'm playing a normal hi hat stand to my left so my usual vocabulary was restricted from the crossing and I had one traffic jam near the beginning. For those of you who know the tune well, I did trim a couple parts to get it under 15 minutes. That's prog!

Pollyanna · #2 09-11-2010, 04:58 PM

Bill, you amaze me. This is so unlike what I've seen from you before. At times it was almost like watching a metal drummer with groove ;) At other times you reminded me of a more aggressive Keith Carlock. Sometimes Phil Collins.

I prefer your more laid back tracks (probably unlike nearly everyone else here haha) because I don't like heaps of heavy cymbal but no denying the quality of your playing - straight from the top shelf!

BillBachman · #3 09-13-2010, 12:09 AM

Wow, thanks Polly! It's interested that you mentioned Phil Collins, he was my first drum idol when I was in middle school and is by default my biggest influence. Next came Neal Peart.

I have 6 more tunes from this concert that will gradually go up.

keep it simple · #4 09-13-2010, 03:19 PM

Nice tight edgy prog playing there Bill. Great to see you work, a very cool stage aspect. What size drums are you using there Bill? Seem to be the same as my setup.

Pollyanna · #5 09-13-2010, 03:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BillBachman

Wow, thanks Polly! It's interested that you mentioned Phil Collins, he was my first drum idol when I was in middle school and is by default my biggest influence. Next came Neal Peart.

Ah, since I've never paid attention to Neil Peart, that must be the influence I'm not picking up on. Phil's a good drum idol to have, I was totally blown away when Unorthodox Behaviour came out. I was pretty blown away from your playing in this vid too ... one hell if an arrangement to remember, let alone executing it precisely, with groove and with added flair.

Deltadrummer · #6 09-13-2010, 05:57 PM

Really nice. I enjoy Neal's stuff, more familiar with SB but I have a few of his solo albums. I didn't know you played with him. I hear Dream Theater is looking for a drummer. :D

frank0072 · #7 09-13-2010, 06:07 PM

Awsome drumming! I thought Mike Portnoy played everything in the US. Collin Leijenaar, from my hometown Ede, is the drummer for the European tours: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvOp5amPby4

Naigewron · #8 09-13-2010, 06:20 PM

Excellent playing, mate!

Quote:

Originally Posted by frank0072

Awsome drumming! I thought Mike Portnoy played everything in the US. Collin Leijenaar, from my hometown Ede, is the drummer for the European tours: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvOp5amPby4

Mike hasn't toured with Neal for a number of years now, I believe.

BillBachman · #9 09-13-2010, 07:16 PM

Thanks guys!

Mike toured with him in 2003 (I believe) on his Testimony tour. Neal later had a European band started by Colin L. After a few tours there he got some American gigs and put together an American band which you see in the video, though the guitar player is never seen or heard in the video since I didn't have him in my monitor mix. We've been inactive for a while since Neal has been in Europe with the other band opening for Dream Theater and doing the Transatlantic thing. Lord willing we'll get to play again over here, one never knows...

The 3 up and 2 down set up is not normal for me, normally my hi hat is front and center. It was actually really hard to play with the hi hat in the normal spot, lots of things I'd normally play wouldn't work crossed and I even got caught up in the crossing early on. (It's certainly do-able, just harder and limiting compared to not having to cross.) My patent work on the remote speedy hat wasn't finished at the time so I kept it under wraps, plus Portnoy was played the encore at an earlier gig so I went with the 3 up 2 down set up.

And yes, the arrangements are really hard to keep straight, "Creation" is actually one of the easier ones. I had about 3 hours of Neal's prog locked in my head at that point, it's a workout for the brain. That's the only thing that makes the gig scary: not taking a wrong turn!

Terry Branam · #10 09-13-2010, 07:33 PM

Hey Bill,

Sounds great, my man!! Love seeing you carve off these complex arrangements like it's nothing.

Really like your snare drum sound as well.

Looking forward to seeing more.

Terry

BillBachman · #11 09-15-2010, 04:57 PM

Thanks Terry! That snare is my piece of crap Slingerland that is the best snare in the world. I bought it used in `93 or so and it still has the same heads on it--the batter already had the coating worn off in the center when I bought it.

To me a snare is a rattling noise maker, with a little love from a tuning key pretty much any one snare is as good as another!