Two Drummers, One Band

I was watching the Grammy Awards tonight. I guess we can add Arcade Fire to the list of bands with two drummers. Here again, I just don't see the need for a second drummer the way they were doing it. At least there's another drummer getting a paycheck out of the deal ;-)
 
Foo Fighters played a gig somewhere and Taylor and Dave did a few songs on drums. I know they did Colour and The Shape and My Hero on the set. Then another when they have a three man drum solo too. If that counts?
 
I never got the two drummers thing - until I saw the Joe Bonamassa video referenced in the OP.

Now I Do get it. Those guys together are conjuring some major Power that you don't hear and feel with one drummer.
 
Foo Fighters played a gig somewhere and Taylor and Dave did a few songs on drums. I know they did Colour and The Shape and My Hero on the set. Then another when they have a three man drum solo too. If that counts?

Here's one with Dave and Taylor on drums PLUS Earl Hudson: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--WcwqJ5qsw THREE DRUMMERS! :D

Also, gotta love this. Not normally a two drum group, but like the Foos, there are two drummers in Godsmack, so things like this can happen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3coibVV74Bo
 
How about 3 guitar players in a band..I've done this before and will actually get a chance to do the 2 drummer for a couple band practices..my bass players son is going to fill in for me on a gig I cant make. I'm going to let him use my practice set and I'll play my Rolands to help him with learning the songs...kinda looking forward to it as an experiment but would not want to do it for real..
 
Fantomas does do two drummers well.

Youtube ANYTHING with the Melvins for the "bride screamed murder" album or anything with them in last few years.

"melvins two drummers." produces a lot of results. The way they mirror each other, and compliment each other is excelelnt. I have seen them 3 times with this set up. 11 times total. It is great.

"a history of bad men," "evil new war god" are some personaly favorites.

Coady willis and Dale crover work well together. They don't play the smae thing all the time. One will do part of the fill, while the opther finishes. They will do complimentary beats off each other.

Also try , "revolve," "honey bucket," " hooch," or "queen" for some classics with two drummers. Anything in the last 5 years, they have had two drummers.
Also, they play every gig with two drummers as of late.

Also ttry "civilized worm," "amazon/AMAZON" or even "the horn bearer" for some amazing two drummer parts.

They use Tama bubinga in gold sparkle and paiste cymbals lately. Dale uses a 16 floor for a high tom, 18 and 20 inch toms for floors, 26 inch bass, 14x8 snare. Coady uses smaller drums to give the full range of toms being hit.
Dale uses a 24 inch paiste 2002 crash to his left by hi hat.

He doesn't mind talking drums before shows! Too big for my taste, but works for the melvins.
 
Last edited:
MAybe if you check out D&M Music (two drummers playing together but separate)
you might appreciate some of what they do. More like a contemporary drumbassadors
youtube.com/teamguru
youtube.com/yobeed
 
Bogie Bowels was Bonamassa's drummer at the time and He has a much better sound than Anton Fig does...BB is a far better drummer than Anton Fig , he just isn't famous yet...
 
Not sure if anybodys said this, but Melvins use two drummers. It doesnt really do a whole lot other than make Honey Bucket really powerful.

Edit: Just saw someone did.
 
Besides the sheer power of the Kim Mitchell/Max Webster/Rush offering in my earlier post, the fabulous Doobie Brothers anyone?

Uh YA!!!! Doobs have been one of my favorite bands since forever. It's always a blast to watch them. I believe the 2 drummers complement each other, even if in the slightest way… Besides adding power to the sound. 2 drummser have been in the family from beginning and I don’t believe that will ever change (even with death). Their catalog is in my practice mix and some songs are quite complicated.

In general, I don’t see a need for 2. I lean more towards the added percussionist as adding value to the performance. i.e. Pink Floyd, Santana
 
Then there is the 2014 version of King Crimson with three drummers, all on the front line. Overkill, arguably. Incredible, most certainly!
 
Two drummers sells more drums. So if more bands do two drummers the price of drums and cymbals will go down, due to more mass production.

You would think companies like Ludwig, Pearl, Gretch, Yamaha, DW and Zildjian would be sponsoring more bands with more drummers to sell more drum stuff.

You can have one drummer play before the beat and another play after the beat.

I guess it is also a fail-safe in case you drop a stick, the other drummer would be there.
 
I think two drummers makes more sense than two bassists or two guitar. I mean fundamentally the drum set was a way to imitate multiple players, using pedals and such(really it's only an imitation). So, there are so many different ways to arrange the elements of the set, eg one emphasizing snare another emphasizing bass drum. This isn't the only way to do it, for example there is a wide variety of two person bass drum arrangements. Not to mention the tonal variation in cymbals that multiple drummers bring to the party. Furthermore, drums are often recorded on multi tracks, so even bands that only one drummer produce recordings that are essentially arranged for multiple drummers.

However, with bass there are just so many dynamics issues, and there is really only one octave between a bass and guitar so the bass is already a kind of double for guitar, but there is so little room between bass and guitar that it is difficult to put another instrument.

Having, two guitars again introduces so many more dynamics issues. I know bands do it all the time, but when you have trouble working the bass into the mix adding another guitar doesn't help. When it works(the best) the second guitarist usually has other functions like singing. I've played in a number of small guitar combos with several guitars, it's like hearing cats, getting them to comp for each other during solos, or getting there equpipment to jive.

I've also played percussion and drums with a number of other drummers, my mileage varries some get it others don't. I think the major rub is when a drummer who is committed to idea that he can play all the drum parts realizes that multiple drummers sound better, it's a harsh realization.
 
This weekend, I got to play with a rockabilly group that opened for with Sheila Charles (Ray Charles' daughter) and the son of Gregg Allman, and they used two drummers to just play slow shuffle beats; it was so bizarre to me...

We were watching from our dressing room and joking that maybe each of them only plays half of the phrase...

In the craft services room, we met with another group (Pat Travers) and his guys were making the same jokes, wondering why there were two drummers...

Is this fairly common in rock? I don't see how it adds value, but maybe I'm missing the point...
 
Not the same kind of thing, but the new King Crimson is using three drummers. And it sounds pretty cool. But with Pat Mastellotto, Bill Rieflin, and Gavin Harrison playing, I would expect some pretty way out things in that band.
 
I've seen the Dead a few dozen times in my years and I've always thought their double drumming ruined the vibe, but I am an outcast among Deadheads.

Apparently Bill Kreutzmann agrees with you.

I'm not really up on the Dead, but as i understand it, when they did their reunion gigs a few years back (or at least one particular round of reunion gigs), Micky Hart was not part of the festivities.

A friend of mine - not naming names - is a member of a rather prominent band that opened that series of shows. He was talking backstage with Kreutzmann and asked what it was like playing without Hart.

I forget the exact wording of the reply, but it was along the lines of 'Like swimming without leg irons.'
 
Back
Top