In 2011, five drummers from Florida’s Lake Howell High School fronted one of the best school talent show performances we’ve ever seen here at The Music Man: three minutes of non-stop beats, fluffed with Rick Rolling and cackle-worthy comedic skits, all topped with impeccable grooves.
The kilted boys — Nigel, Dylan, Matt, Elias, and Jordan — take to the stage with five snare drums, and from their first side-stick rhythm, viewers know they’re in for something exceptional. Their side-stick extravaganza comes ornamented with visual quirks, from tapping the sides of their drums to flipping their sticks to play at the base end, producing the sounds of galloping horses to a dead-quiet crowd.
But by the time they hit the main grooves, their velocious beats sound like machine-gun fire as the audience hoots and hollers to the drummers’ rhythmic anarchy. Somehow, their intricate and oddly captivating routine was crafted in less than a week!
Comedic skits lace and crown the performance. One by one, the drummers progress into a snare roll, but the last guy misses his cue and gets a literal kick up the backside to get him back on track. Subtle dance moves like looking side to side and lifting a leg progress into all five drummers running circles around their line of instruments, all whilst maintaining the beat flawlessly.
With so much non-melodic noise swarming the stage, the boys break the near-cacophony for drum solos as exceptional as their group effort. One boy flips seamlessly between the two tails of his drumsticks whilst playing a marching band beat, as the other four strike hard poses before rejoining for a shockingly awesome second round of sidestick choreography.
The diversity of the group’s beats is completely crowd-rallying, but when the drummers quit their instruments to sing the chorus of Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up,” they tap into every audience member’s sense of humor. One guy even interrupts the proceeding rhythms, shouting, “Awh I lost the game!” to a roar of laughter. 2011 was a simpler time.
The central drummer soon gets his time to shine – catching drumsticks in mid-air and playing like a stuntman whilst crouching beside the kit, balancing one end of the drumstick on his face and keeping it tapping in time by playing another stick above. Snippets of call and response are finished with the drummers reaching over to tap each other’s instruments. Finishing this awesome set, the boys make full use of their kilts and moon their audience (thank God they’re not real Scots, and wore underwear beneath!)
We can’t get enough of this clip at The Music Man, and it’s no surprise these boys ended up winning the entire talent show, winning 29.6M+ views on YouTube in the process!
