House of Drumming.com

...can, in my humble opinion, be found in this live rendition of Ha Ha Hotel back in 1995:



This concert aired on national television here in Sweden when I'd barely been playing for a year, and it changed my entire notion of music and drumming fundamentally. Now that a quality version has been uploaded to Youtube, I felt I had to share.

I recorded this to VHS when it aired and wore the tape out watching it. Dave's playing is so deep and full of nuance here, and it' still awesome to me now when I revisit it 17 years later. The main thing with this concert, though, is the combination of player's and songs; so great material, and the perfect trio. Jeff Andrews' bass solo on You Never Know literally made me cry back in the day; something that's pretty rare for me when it comes to instrumental music. This concert is the standard I've subconsciously measured Mike and Dave by everytime I've seen or heard them since this.



Brilliant soloing by Dave on that one as well.

The entire show can be found here:



I love everything about this show, down to the lights, camera work, editing, everything. I have a few boots of this trio from 1994, which to me is like a different band in some ways, but they got it together so nicely after some more touring. Then again, I have boots from the very same tour (1995) that aren't as spectacular to me, so... Maybe it's that "first love" kind of thing.

Anyway, enjoy. If you didn't catch it through the subtext earlier, I really like this show.

that was killin, thanks! Weckll used to be such an insperation for me-just incredible stuff...I think the whole Freddie Gruber thing ruined alot of drummers for me.....not dogging it---obviousley great players....it's just that the way they approached the instrument before the Gruber thing was way way way more appealing to me personally than the way they approach it now

I hear you loud and clear, even though I'm happy to say that I've learned to appreciate the "new" Dave as well!

Thanks for posting this. Never seen it before. Awesome players.

That's around the time they recorded 'Between The Lines' which is actually my favorite Stern/Weckl collaboration.

Good stuff!

drummerjeff wrote:that was killin, thanks! Weckll used to be such an insperation for me-just incredible stuff...I think the whole Freddie Gruber thing ruined alot of drummers for me.....not dogging it---obviousley great players....it's just that the way they approached the instrument before the Gruber thing was way way way more appealing to me personally than the way they approach it now

Dave Weckl
Vinnie Colaiuta
Greg Bissonette
Danny Gottlieb
Peter Erskine
Anton Fig
Neil Peart
Steve Smith
Adam Nussbaum
Kenny Aronoff
Richie Garcia
Clayton Cameron
Rod Morgenstein
Jim Keltner
John Guerin
Mike Baird
John Hernandez
etc....

Ruined 'em all...now they all suck.

Sorry, couldn't resist...I seem to run across this a lot and don't really understand it. Why would unlocking the door to the physics and physiology of drumming to allow one's mind to be free to create be such a bad thing? I am of the opinion that all these guys have better control and greatly improved sound. And, the best by-product is they'll all be playing their asses off forever (as long as they don't lapse into bad habits that might cause physical problems). I love how Dave and Ersko and so many others continue to evolve...I don't think that would have happened to such an extent had they not learned what they learned. I caught Dave with Oz Noy a couple weeks ago...OMG he grooved harder and soloed with more passion than I have ever heard him before.

Im sorry i have a strong distaste for mike stern's guitar playing. Why sooo much chorus? I hate chorus. It is my most disliked guitar effect. give me univibe delay distortion, compression anything just not chorus!

Rhythmatist wrote:I seem to run across this a lot and don't really understand it.

Same. See it alot, I have no idea what Gruber even taught. Anyone expand on what he taught and why it was so bad?

Rhythmatist wrote:

drummerjeff wrote:that was killin, thanks! Weckll used to be such an insperation for me-just incredible stuff...I think the whole Freddie Gruber thing ruined alot of drummers for me.....not dogging it---obviousley great players....it's just that the way they approached the instrument before the Gruber thing was way way way more appealing to me personally than the way they approach it now

Dave Weckl
Vinnie Colaiuta
Greg Bissonette
Danny Gottlieb
Peter Erskine
Anton Fig
Neil Peart
Steve Smith
Adam Nussbaum
Kenny Aronoff
Richie Garcia
Clayton Cameron
Rod Morgenstein
Jim Keltner
John Guerin
Mike Baird
John Hernandez
etc....

Ruined 'em all...now they all suck.

Sorry, couldn't resist...I seem to run across this a lot and don't really understand it. Why would unlocking the door to the physics and physiology of drumming to allow one's mind to be free to create be such a bad thing? I am of the opinion that all these guys have better control and greatly improved sound. And, the best by-product is they'll all be playing their asses off forever (as long as they don't lapse into bad habits that might cause physical problems). I love how Dave and Ersko and so many others continue to evolve...I don't think that would have happened to such an extent had they not learned what they learned. I caught Dave with Oz Noy a couple weeks ago...OMG he grooved harder and soloed with more passion than I have ever heard him before.

ha.....never said "suck"...said "ruined for me"... I just don't like the new approach artistically. I saw a Weckl video of him describing the new Gruber approach saying something like "I used to work so hard to play" and then went on to say how he studied with Gruber and now is way more relaxed and uses less effort to play his ideas..... and it really comes through in his playing... he sounds really relaxed when he plays... that's just not exciting to me... when a drummer is putting alot of work into playing- you can hear it. If the drummer is just super relaxed--you can hear that too. It does work for me with some drummers, but mostly I like drummers who are putting their all into it.
I get the whole mechanics of the approach, but I don't understand the goal of making things as easy as possible...things take effort-- and you can hear it.
I still remember the first time I saw Tony Williams play and how it totally blew my mind...when he would do a fill it was like "I'm doing this fill in your face bitch" and he hammered into you....if your just "hey, I can move my hands in this fasion ----sooo relaxed... this fill requires soo little effort to pull off" it comes through in your playing.

again ....not dogging the players-they are legends, just saying for me, it doesn't strike the same chord

ha.....never said "suck"...said "ruined for me"... I just don't like the new approach artistically. I saw a Weckl video of him describing the new Gruber approach saying something like "I used to work so hard to play" and then went on to say how he studied with Gruber and now is way more relaxed and uses less effort to play his ideas..... and it really comes through in his playing... he sounds really relaxed when he plays... that's just not exciting to me... when a drummer is putting alot of work into playing- you can hear it. If the drummer is just super relaxed--you can hear that too. It does work for me with some drummers, but mostly I like drummers who are putting their all into it.
I get the whole mechanics of the approach, but I don't understand the goal of making things as easy as possible...things take effort-- and you can hear it.
I still remember the first time I saw Tony Williams play and how it totally blew my mind...when he would do a fill it was like "I'm do this fill in your face bitch" and he hammered into you....if your just "hey, I can move my hands in this fasion ----sooo relaxed... this fill requires soo little effort to pull off" it comes through in your playing.

again ....not dogging the players-they are legends, just saying for me, it doesn't strike the same chord

hear ya loud and clear. feel the same way. out of all the drummers listed up there vinnie is in his own league. vinnie might of hung out with freddie for just a few hours and went cool i'll try that. he didn't change all the angles on his kit. he might have held the stick a tad differently. vinnie already had god like technique to begin with. for some drummers studying with freddy might have helped them out in the long run. they play for a living and need good technique to get them through the decades of playing year round. i don''t dig the post gruber years at all. weck might have found his own way without freddy. i like the way dave played on these videos. the between the lines album is stellar. dave had so many syncopated ideas and fluid combos. once freddy came into the picture seems like he lost a step in the creative department. less ideas. his playing became more fluid though. guess he's been there done that. it's all musical what ever he plays. lots of cats on this forum love the pre freddy days. i wish neil never came across freddy. neil loved freddy and his view point. just don't dig the direction he took. he's playing a four piece kit basically. neil had the ultimate prog rock drummer kit. it looked aggressive on stage. once you go double pedal and get rid of that other bass drum all hope is lost.