Who likes drum solos?

Alex Van Halen always has sick drum solos. His are the only ones I've been interested in live though. But that was during their last tour, when they played for like 2 and a half hours.
 
I don't mind them if they're tasteful. Like was said earlier, if the drummer can do a good solo, I'm for it. On the first Summer Slaughter tour, Necrophagist had Marco Minnemann doing live drums for them. Though he played on the newest Ephel Duath record, and is touring with Kreator, Minnemann isn't a very metal drummer, he's a lot more jazzy than anything. I think the solo neared ten minutes, but I never once got bored watching it. Though he did sort of spoil me to all future drum solos.
 
Whenever I hear the words "drum solo" it brings back memories of one of my most pissed off concert moments. I was SOOOO stoked to see Gamma Ray at PP3. They didn't really have a long time slot at all. So Daniel decides to do a drum solo the length of three full songs. I understand if you are headlining and doing 2+ hours but that was unnecessary.
 
I don't mind them if they're tasteful. Like was said earlier, if the drummer can do a good solo, I'm for it. On the first Summer Slaughter tour, Necrophagist had Marco Minnemann doing live drums for them. Though he played on the newest Ephel Duath record, and is touring with Kreator, Minnemann isn't a very metal drummer, he's a lot more jazzy than anything. I think the solo neared ten minutes, but I never once got bored watching it. Though he did sort of spoil me to all future drum solos.

Marco is on the level with Johnny Mac and Bobby. Even if you want to rank which one is better, its still a very high level of play.
 
Whenever I hear the words "drum solo" it brings back memories of one of my most pissed off concert moments. I was SOOOO stoked to see Gamma Ray at PP3. They didn't really have a long time slot at all. So Daniel decides to do a drum solo the length of three full songs. I understand if you are headlining and doing 2+ hours but that was unnecessary.


Same here! 'You came all the way from Germany to waste our time on a frickin' drum solo???!!!'
 
Actually, I like drum solos that manage to have a kind of melody or theme to them. The seemingly random poundings and crashings that many pass off as drum solos definitely send me out for a beer, pretzel, whatever. Johnny Mac gets it.

This is why I like, say, Neil Peart's drum solos -- going back to the old days ("Pieces of Eight," anyone?), he's always tried to make it more of a song-with-a-melody, rather than just a drum solo.

Solos that only involve a lot of speedy playing, etc., are pretty lame, IMHO...after all, if speed's your "thing" as a drummer, you might as well just, y'know, play along with a regular song. :lol:


One thing I -do- like is when a band busts out a messload of drums and everyone starts playing. I remember Angra doing this, Brazilian-style, at PP and it ruled. :kickass:
 
I'm with the "it's ok at a 2-hour concert" crowd. If you're an opening act, and playing for 30-45 minutes, taking 5-minutes of it for a drum solo is stupid. Especially since 95% of the time it sucks.
 
Drum solos - one of my long standing annoyances. 99% of them fall into the exact same routine:

Pound pound.
Stand up.
Wave arms to make audience scream.
Sit down.
Pound pound.
Repeat ad infinitum.

Steve's Instrument Solo Rule: I think any solo shouldn't last more than two minutes, and should lead right into a song. Drum solos should be half that amount of time. (Freak Kitchen exception - any solo played with a mechanical sexual aid gets double the standard time limit)

And, Savage P, Gamma Ray's solo certainly stands out to me as well.

Steve in Philly