Once Butthole Surfers stopped having two drummers, they started to suck.
Coincidence??

I was at that NoMeansNo show (Tucson, Feb 1994) with Dave N. and it was indeed great.

Thee Oh Sees and the Melvins were both incredible live with two drummers.

Here's The Fall from 1983 doing it right (especially on 2X4):

Swans' Filth and the Fall's Hex Enduction Hour are sort of the pinnacles of this for me. (Ok, technically Filth is a drummer plus a percussionist, although the percussionist had some extra toms and a snare, I believe. ) The Finnish band Circle also used two drummers to great effect, sort of w/this double-motorik approach, on the album Prospekt. Nice Strong Arm's Reality Bath LP and the Butthole Surfers' mid-'80s records are also made much more interesting by the tag-team drum thing.

I'm less into Boz Scaggs, the Allmans, or Skynyrd's deployment of such, but I've also never really listened that hard. A second drummer didn't necessarily add much to Melvins. And I've never cared about Tortoise or whatever King Crimson was doing after the '70s.

That said, a resounding not crap. It sounds extremely cool when one drummer holds the beat while a second tumbles around it.

lotharsandwich wrote: Mon May 24, 2021 6:01 pm https://youtu.be/vnI2XWxyWDU


OSEES - Live At Red Rocks, May 15 2021

This seems enjoyable.

Came here to post this.

Yes.

It seemed to work well for King Crimson back in the brief Jamie Muir era. I think Jamie's wild energy and experimental nature had a lot to do with it.

MC5

brendan canty wrote:that was all with matt cameron, he's just so great. there's a lot at stake when you're the drummer.... but when there are 2 drummers it doesn't really matter. one of you is superfluous and if it's me and matt cameron, it's probably me.

https://nearesttruth.com/episodes/ep-17 ... -to-shine/

penningtron wrote: Wed May 12, 2021 6:59 am There was a short-lived band from the midwest called Tornavalanche that was great at it. the Dischord band Black Eyes were pretty good too. (both were pretty heavily influenced by the dual drummer Fugazi stuff, which was great but why bother for just a part/song here and there)

But more often I think it sounds cluttery and unnecessary.

No idea how I am aware of Tornavalanche, but I loved their album and am sorry to learn (from your post) that they don't exist any more!

The audio is poor, but there is some good drummer footage on 'Tube.

*looks for footage*

Well! There's new footage from this year, so I guess they reformed! Good news!

There's the footage I was thinking of anyway...

When used for power or confusion, it is not crap. These guys made it work:

My friends play in an instrumental (post?) metal band called Native Daughters. They have two drummers who play together very well. (skip ahead a few minutes if you want to hear the loud part).

losthighway wrote: Sun Sep 05, 2021 2:40 pm My friends play in an instrumental (post?) metal band called Native Daughters. They have two drummers who play together very well. (skip ahead a few minutes if you want to hear the loud part).

Between your description of the band and that song title, I'm feeling big Lick My Love Pump energy.