Innovative music rocks pavilion

The cold weather Wednesday night did not prevent students from filling the pavilion to watch Recycled Percussion perform.

The hour long performance was filled with non-stop drumming, banging, clanking and pavilion-shaking bass that made the crowd cheer and dance along throughout the performance.

Before the show, freshman Nate French said that he was excited even though he had never seen the group perform before. He said he had seen the fliers up around campus and was very interested.

"I am prepared to be completely amazed and awestruck," French said.

Recycled Percussion is a group consisting of three drummers and a disk jockey from New Hampshire that use old scrap metal as musical instruments. According to the group, they classify their music as "junk rock." The instruments consist of trash cans, five-gallon buckets, hollowed out fire extinguishers, sinks and even a jackhammer set up and held together with duct tape.

"People play the drums, but you never see them like this. Anything that you find in a junk yard, they'll turn into instruments," Rick Greig, associate dean for student involvement, said.

The group went nonstop with their music during the entire show, and just when the audience thought it was going to stop, they kept going. The crowd screamed and cheered throughout the high-energy performance. The DJ spun along on the turn tables as the drummers banged away on the various man-made percussion instruments.

"It was awesome," freshman Sonya Moralez said. "I am glad I came out here."

The group had the crowd involved throughout their performance, and incorporated the audience by letting them join in on the music-making through clapping during one song.

"You (the students) are paying for it from your student fees, so you might as well take advantage of it," Greig said.

During another part of the performance, one of the drummers performed "body percussion," as he turned his own body into a drum set by tapping away at his chest in a one-man act. The group even involved the use of the stage as their instruments by "beat boxing" and break dancing.