WaterCoolerGossip

Glenn Kotche (best known as the drummer for Wilco) opened for Teddy Thompson at Avalon on Friday.

You have to feel for Glenn Kotche. Watching him unleash polyrhythms on a bizarre drum kit on Friday night, it was easy to tell that the man feels limited playing nuanced but simple backbeats for Wilco. Clearly dude has an inner Terry Bozzio fighting to get out, a badass rock monster dying to experiment with strange sound effects and odd time signatures. And I think most Wilco fans will agree a turn towards prog-rock would be a bad look for them. Everybody wins with Glenn Kotche's solo career. Except the crowds watching him for more than 20 minutes.

See, drum solos would be boring as hell without the visual and physical aspects. Guitarists, pianists and everyone else get to essentially create new songs in their solos. Watching somebody shred is fucking cool, but the technical prowess is just as impressive as the new licks and melodies created in the process. Drum solos are ok to listen to, but watching a drummer light up his or her kit is an entirely different kind of experiment. Drum solos don't need melody, and drummers that want to write songs are much better off expanding to other instruments than sticking to drums if they want to appeal to non-drumming crowds.

And therein lies the problem with Glenn Kotche solo set. The man has chops, and that was evident as he opened up the show with a four-limb assault on his weird set-up. And as he moved on in his set, his coordination (along with some pre-looped tracks) allowed him to perform songs by Steve Reich and Joao Gilberto, as well as original compositions. They were definitely songs with recognizable themes and melodies, and the inclusion of cowbells and crotales on his kit allowed for some limited melody. But when he brought in field recordings from his time Brazil at the end of a song, Kotche was reaching for a level of meaning one can't really get from a drum solo. The innovative "Monkey Chant," Kotche's piece de résistance, was truly innovative sonically. In between fast and intricate sticking, he created unexpected sounds by hitting a fruit basket and by stretching springs attached to his snare drum. He used different types of sticks to coax new sounds from his drums. It was entertaining and interesting, but "Monkey Chant" didn't gain anything when he explained that the song was a telling of a monkey battle from a Hindu epic, and that every theme and sound corresponded to a different character in the story. I felt like I was in a strategy session for an exclusive Starbucks CD. You just wowed everyone with kick-ass drum solo, Glenn. Like Tommy Lee, Buddy Rich and pretty much every other drummer ever, you don't need to prove anything else.

The show wasn't boring by any means, but I liked it for no other reason than drum solos rock.