BMW Tour

**CDelle** · September 14th, 2005, 09:45 PM

I had the great opportunity this past week to check out the BMW tour here in Sacramento at CSUS. I think the experience can best be described as "un-f#$%ing-believable".

My buddy called me up a couple weeks ago and told me about the show. I honestly didn't know what to expect but I was excited to see Bozzio live (I wasn't very familiar with Minnemann or Wackerman). When we got to the auditorium and I walked through the doors I was completely floored, staring at the behemoth that is Bozzio's kit. If you haven't seen it's newest iteration, it looks like some sort of spider. Very fluid, almost organic, with curved stands going over and behind the drum throne to hold up his various cymbals. In the middle of the performance there was an intermission and the audience was invited on-stage to get a close up look at each of the thee kits. I stayed in my seat and let everyone else mob the stage (I was in the second row so I was already getting a good view of the kits), though I really regret not bringing a camera and going up there myself to snap some photos.

The performance started with Minnemann alone coming on stage. He made a quick introduction and seconds later he was blazing away on his kit. I was completely blown away at the intensity and control that came out of this scrawny looking guy. I was completely unprepared for the assault he unleashed. After a bit of soloing he stopped and spoke to the crowd a bit. He said that he learned playing by playing to Monty Python's Life of Brian (I believe that's the one). Then all of a sudden the chapters menu for the movie is displayed behind him on a projector screen and he says he's going to play to one of the skits!! The movie starts playing and Marco matches up, nearly perfectly, to the voices and commotion on-screen. It was so strange to watch... I've seen nothing like that before and it was quite impressive.

After that, Marco left the stage and Wackerman and Bozzio come out to do a duet solo. They played together for a while and then all three of them started going at it. I wish I could better describe what I saw/heard but the things they were doing were so completely beyond my musical comprehension that all I could do was sit there and smile, continually being blown away. It was amazing watching the three of them play together, continually looking at each other trying to figure out where the other person was going and then playing accordingly.

Anyway, I left the show completely blown away. I hear they were filming the performance for a DVD, so keep an eye out for that. Definitely something you don't want to miss. Did anyone else here get a chance to see this tour?