When Carter Beauford plays Two Step, he never disappoints. Even playing by himself in his Under the Table and Drumming DVD, he does some amazing sextuplet work. But, nothing I’ve seen or heard before can really compare to this (image is a YouTube link):

Wow. Just wow. Carter up-ended his entire bag of tricks and literally strew them across the stage: HUGE Billy Cobham rolls, blanketing timpani crossovers, blistering single stroke rolls, walls of pounding double bass sound, off-beat splash cymbal accents, cannon-fire snare, high-hat, bass drum interplay, timbale madness and of course, highly syncopated funk back beats. I don’t think Robert Randolph knew what he got himself into.

The comments attached to this video also surprised me. I mean, I fully admit to my own unhealthy obsession (that guy you hear clapping his hands, bopping around and talking to Carter like he’s not 100s of feet away…yeah, I’d be like that guy), however I didn’t know that Carter garnered so much respect amongst what appears to be the general drumming community. I always figured the band’s sometimes preachy, pseudo-soft, “world beat” sound would overshadow Carter’s incredible talent, but then I see people comparing him to some of the greats like Dennis Chambers, Neal Peart and Buddy Rich and realize that even outside the large Dave Matthews Band fanbase, Carter has amassed a following. I’ve even read forum posts where self-proclaimed Dave Mathews Band-haters dicussed buying tickets to a concert just to see the drumming. Carter really does shred the boundaries of pop/rock drumming and transforms it into something uniquely his own. Musically, no one else can quite do what he does…he’s just one of the best.