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OK, I know it's OTT (literally!), but saw Motley Crue yesterday -- amazing gig!! - and Tommy Lee did a little drum feature that saw him and his kit travel upside down over the heads of the audience the entire length of the arena on a kind of roller coaster track! It looked incredible. He made it look easy, but I suspect that it's not, mainly due to the effects of gravity working against him. He had a great kit which appeared to be Perspex, with lights inside which lit up when the relevant drum was hit. Interesting set up, with what looked like a floor tom positioned in front of the snare and about four toms on the other side of the kit. Very BIG, meaty sound! Impressive.

A 'BIG, meaty sound' from perspex drums? Impressive, if it really was an acoustic kit.

But supposing the skins had triggers and the sounds were actually coming from an 'electronic drums' generator, or samples (so you were really hearing Phil Collin's kit!)? Even if the drums were apparently mic'd, the mics could have been dummies.

Or even . . . . . could he have been miming to a pre-recorded track? Sorry if I'm spoiling the illusion, but somehow the idea of getting real sounds out of a plastic kit moving upside down over an audience sounds like a step too far, even for the most adventurous sound designer!

No way was he miming!!!

I can't really imagine him going out on a world tour with a kit that wasn't up to it. After all, he could have any kit he wanted. It certainly LOOKED like Perspex from where I was (about ten feet from the stage), but I could be wrong. As for drum triggers, no way for me to tell. It sounded live to me and I have no reason to believe otherwise. Still time to catch 'em in Birmingham and London and judge for yourself!

Who'd have thought it, on the final night of the tour, Tommy's rollercoaster drum kit breaks down11

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7HOuw8t-lY


I suppose it HAD to happen!

It does, however, afford us a good close look at the drums in question. Yes, they DO appear to be Perspex and yes, with the exception of the bass drum, it looks like they could have had pads placed over the tops of the heads, meaning that yes they were triggering sounds. Anyway, looked and sounded great however it was done. No complaints from me!

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!!

(P.S. the clip does include some pretty colourfullanguage!!!!)

As soon as the fault happened, the safest person in the arena was Tommy Lee.

The techs who climbed all all over the rollercoaster put their own lives at risk as well as those of the audience below.

Not a UK venue obviously.