Last Night: The Drummer's Pet Peeve
At One Eyed Jacks, Two Gallants addressed the line that draws drummers crazy.
Drummers keep time because it's their role, not their job. Ask a drummer and he or she will tell you - keeping time is everybody's job. When Two Gallants played One Eyed Jacks last night, drummer Tyson Vogel didn't keep time. Adam Stephens guitar and vocal kept the songs steady, but Vogel's drums assumed the role of the lead guitar, accenting and punctuating lines and thoughts. He pushed the energy, then stopped with Stephens to let a lyric be heard before crashing back into the drums.
His approach prevents their folk and country blues from losing the improvised feel that underlies the best of it. Everything last night sounded like it could handle another few verses if Stephens had them in him, and their free-swinging, surging approach kept the songs lively in a way that a strummed guitar and regular drumbeat wouldn't have. What Vogel does is what John Bonham did on early Led Zeppelin records, and their shared lack of piety for traditional forms also carries power.
