Stu

I’m not a drummer myself and I personally thought the competition was going to be a toss-up between Sampson and McGrath. When I saw Team Michael at Denny’s afterward, I wanted to come by and congratulate him on a great performance, but I thought it’d be better to leave him to his friends and family.

Anyway, thanks for reading and keep the comments coming.

I attended the Drum Off with some friends. I can honestly say that all of us knew the evening clearly belonged to McGrath. This dude was in a league all of his own! The other drummers started out ok, but I quickly felt bored with them as they seemed to just randomly play around until they were tapped on the shoulder.

From the first beat to the last, McGrath was unstoppable energy. He obviously had an orchestrated, planned out solo. Just when we thought there was nothing left for him to wow us with, McGrath continued to shock and wow us over and over. He also played a wide variety of styles which the other finalists didn’t do.

And to say that McGrath invited applause? Um, what about Ramon? He clearly begged for the audience to applaud for him many times. But, that’s ok. These guys were there to win. I like to feel I have a relationship with performers. I felt McGrath was just trying to connect with the audience, rather than seek applause.

I don’t know who the judges and Brian Glass think they’re fooling, but they didn’t fool any of us in the audience. No other finalist received the applause and standing ovation that McGrath received. Like I said, McGrath was in a category all his own. He was the obvious winner. My friends and I walked away in disgust with the results.