On Friday, August 31, 2012 three of the industry’s most respected drummers shared one stage At Drumscene 2012 at the Australian city of Perth. Dom Famularo, Dave Weckl, and  are currently three of the top drummers in the music scene. They helped make a successful inspiring event for the upcoming music generation. The event was organized by Australia’s number one magazine “Drumscene” and thanks to Musictek, the official publisher, and Frank Corniola with his crew, Toonari Post had a close view into the event and exclusive talks with the all performing artists.

At nearly 7:30 pm the anticipating crowd settled down for this one of its kind event, where they later welcomed the 59-year-old drummer, Dom Famularo, who comes from New York city’s Long Island. His opening act was an appealing joke about how Long Island is called that just because its long. A few laughs later Dom spoke to the audience that had a majority of drummers about his life and career and how he became a professional drummer at the age of 12. Bringing up the days when the great Buddy Rich still lived, he told the audience about the first time he saw Buddy Rich at a jazz club and commented on the reasons for why Buddy was, and still is, one of the most unique drummers ever known.

Image Credit: Sam Pettit

Famularo said that he only got good by watching drummers like him and “stealing” their techniques. It’s another smart way of improving and learning more techniques, he said. It was not long after that when Dom started playing his set on the drums. Then he started by saying hello to the drums and how he missed not playing it since yesterday. Showing an outstanding performance that absolutely made the drums speak for themselves, Dom has proved to the audience that he really did steal all those techniques from many other great drummers. It was possible to see the many drummers that lived before Dom combined into one and playing for him on the drums.

Without any further ado, Dom left the stage with a great applause from the audience, welcoming the next drummer on the set: Thomas Lang. Lang is an Austrian drummer born in 1967 . Thomas is much loved by the younger generation of drummers due to his incredible speed when playing on the drums. He is known for his multi-pedal techniques and powerful accented strokes. Lang began his set playing along with a back track that he had recorded with one of his bands that heavily featured the genre of Rock music.

It was a few minutes until Thomas started talking to the audience, speaking about his career, current projects, and equipment. Thomas is known for using Meinl manfactured cymbals with a DW drum kit and using his signature drum sticks to play with. Lang demonstrates all sorts of sounds on his kit by playing a variety of drum solos that were indeed impressive, considering his controls over the drum pedals. There were 7 of them that almost sounded as if he played them all at once.

Image Credit: Sam Pettit

After Thomas was done with his set, Toonari Post had an exclusive interview with him at the back stage. We asked Thomas about his opinion of electronic and computerized drumming and how it may reduce the number of actual drummers that exist. He confidently commented, “they are not, it is impossible,” briefly explaining that computerized music is commonly used in producing music and that its a pathetic situation, considering the fact that music needs an emotional factor for it to be complete. He also mentioned that it affects the younger generation, and how they soon will not be able to differentiate between what is good and what is bad.

After a short break, they saved the best for last. The stage was all set for the long awaited Dave Weckl. Born in 1960, he is well-known for being one of the highest quality jazz drummers, along with Steve Gad and Vinnie Colaiuta. Dave Weckl is best described as a very technical and most creative drummer, one who does not just play a beat in time but makes absolute music with his instrument. Dave welcomed his audience and talked a bit about the technical aspects of drumming to his audience, pointing out the ways of music and how one should deal with the instrument.

He started his first set with a back up track that he had recorded with his band, a great blend of Latin jazz that was demonstrated on the drums with perfection that most definitely secured his title of being one of the best at Latin jazz style drumming. Dave then moved on to playing some drum solos right after advising the audience who shared the same interest in the instrument, to occasionally drop the sticks and experiment on the instrument with your hands and feet to feel it and let it speak for you. It was indeed an indescribable performance set by Dave Weckl.

Image Credit: Sam Pettit

Just before the end, the three renowned drummers had set up a surprise for the audience. Dave called upon Dom Famularo and Thomas Lang to have a trio drum performance that is best described as the ultimate drum scene. The three drummers went on for ten minutes in perfect sync and a gradual flow of dynamics that gave the audience something to remember.

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About the author

Abarai Mido
Music Engineer

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