A short post about drummers

It’s been a horrid few years if you love your rock drummers, so it was a great to see The War on Drugs and their stickman Charlie Hall at the top of his game in London this week. In recent months, we have lost Charlie Watts, Neil Peart, Ginger Baker and now this month, tragically we hear of the death at the age of 50 of the brilliant Taylor Hawkins. Drumming looks easy, compared to the “musicality’ of the lead-guitarist, or virtuosity of the keyboard player, but the compelling mix of purpose and power is the key. You also don’t need to have the technical pyrotechnics and seventy-piece kit like Neil “the Professor” Peart. Charlie Hall, like his name sakes Watts, keeps it simple and he keeps thunderous time. He stays out of the limelight during a War on Drugs show. Only for thirty seconds does the lighting engineer even focus on him, and that’s when he is playing a simple hi-hat double-handed during in a moody interlude in Under The Pressure. As it builds and builds, he looks a man in his element, and when he suddenly bounces back off the tom and floor tom, to bring the band back together as one, it is one of the best sights and sounds in live rock music. I have caught it before on Wave Your Arms, but not before this close and personal. After a time of much mourning for drummers, see below and see what joy!