Iv been reading a lot of these posts and quite frankly, all the travis critics can go take a hike. A different expression would have been preffered but hey its a multi age forum. The guys is a great drummer. Deal with it. Every drummer is different. Travis isn't Buddy Rich or Steve Gadd. If he played Buddy Rich or Gadd-esque licks in songs superbly well you guys would just say he's un-original. Originality is what he's best at and he plays what fits the song. Thats what a good drummer does. If he got asked to play on a Paul Simon track I'm sure we would all be blown away.
And as for the videos, does any of the featured clips say "Here is Travis playing to the best of his ability on a drum pad' or 'Here is Travis playing the best solo he can possibly do, not a simple-ish solo that he knows will get 10,000 cheers from the crowd"? I didnt see anything along those lines so why are you assuming this. I previously was mis-interpreted as saying that eventually drummers will grow out of Travis's playing when the here the greats play.
I have been to see blink twice and it was mainly to see Travis in action. He hits the drums hard, he hits them fast and he's a great showman. Why is this a problem? People like to see cool things when they watch a band (bands he's played in anyway) i.e. standing up to hit toms etc.
Drumming is supposed to be fun. If I got the choice to go on stage and play Steve Gadd's 'Crazy Army' or go rock out for 90mins in a punk rock band I know what i'd choose. But then I'd be dissected by all the guys who are drumming's equivilent to guys who go to online gaming clubs on a saturday night.
This is in no way a dig at Steve Gadd but what would be the better show:
Blink 182 with Travis on drums or Blink 182 with Steve Gadd on drums? Travis hands down.