Recycled Percussion
"Recycled Percussion", which began as an act for a high school talent show in 1995, is now a headlining act at The Tropicana. So don’t give up your dreams too quickly, kids. Sure they had a third place finish on "America’s Got Talent" along the way and according to their website, years of touring college campuses and doing corporate gigs. But at the heart of it all, it’s still unfortunately an act for a talent show.
Before entering the theatre you get a drumstick and a choice of whatever piece of junk you want to pick up (this is their term, "junk", and includes beat up pots, pans and other metal items). Hmmm, this seems promising but as the theatre fills up with kids and drunks acting like kids, what you get is 70 minutes of the audience banging on their own junk (double entendre anyone?), which at times is much louder than the actual performance.
As the show starts we see the four percussionists descend, suspended in air drumming away on the biggest piece of junk of all with their name across it. This is the most exciting thing that happens all night.
While Justin Spencer (Group’s Founder and Creative Force/World’s Fastest Drummer), Ryan Vezina (Percussion Specialist/Body Percussion Talent), Todd Griffin (DJ and Media Director/Percussionist), and Matt Bowan (Guitarist/Percussionist) have all the looks of a boy band, their cuteness and likeability wears thin quickly.
It seems as though this act would be better as a specialty act in a larger show instead of these boys trying to fill all 70 minutes (which in Vegas is normally 90 minutes but as it seemed like 120 minutes, I guess they’ve got it covered). While I get that Tropicana management might have thought that this was a great way to bring in a hipper, younger crowd for their newly redesigned property, one look around on the night I was there revealed large groups of band kids in Vegas for a competition (hardly going to spend their allowance on the slots after the show) with what appeared to be their chaperones at the 7 p.m. show.
The thing is, that had Recycled Percussion not been so hell bent on telling everyone that they are "the most interactive show in Las Vegas" (in the publicity and in the show) one might forgive their blown up egos on the titles they’ve given themselves (see above paragraph).
They are truly talented as drummers but where this production fails is in the production end of it. They have good ideas such as color coding your junk and having one of the band be your color’s leader through the night but so little happens with this concept that it seems as though it should have stayed in the concept stage instead of its repeated forced entry into the actual performance which has no payoff for the audience. Yes, they have the compulsory bring the audience members up on stage section, yes you can bang your junk all night but that hardly makes it "the most interactive show in Las Vegas."
While they have managed to procure the rights to some of the most beloved rock and other songs by the original artists, the prophetic One Hit Wonders section at the end of the show seems more than a little ironic. And was it just my hearing or did I detect a little "Lord of The Dance," Britney "assistance" in the tracks? Who would know, from the amplification and the people sitting around you making so much noise?
To even begin to compare this show with other percussion masterpieces such as "Stomp" or Blue Man Group would be an insult to both. These are four kids who managed to take the concept of beating on junk to the level of headlining in Vegas. Good for them, bad for the audience.
If you’d like to save yourself some money, time and hearing, just give anyone’s four-year-old a pot and spoon, let them bang it for 70 minutes with the radio on, and then sit on the floor with them and bang along. The experience will be amazingly similar to Recycled Percussion!
"Recycled Percussion" enjoys an extended run at The Tropicana Las Vegas, 3801 Las Vegas Boulevard S., Las Vegas. For info or tickets visit www.troplv.com
