Palmetto Pans play passionate percussion

Four guys, two with long hair, decked out in seemingly 70s rocker garb including Raybans and naval jacket took the stage, pick up their instruments, a guitar a base and two sets of drums, and begin playing to a packed house. Within seconds though, the other 11 band members stream in, in two lines from the back of stadium style hall. All decked out in sleeker hipster wear, dark wash jeans, snappy sport coats, jean jackets and shades you might find at the Sunglass Hut. They too take their places on the crowded stage, bobbing and swaying enthusiastically to the driving music. Then there is a sudden explosion of Caribbean flavor and flair. Starting with the theme from Super Mario Brothers and quickly moving into a very recognizable arrangement of Jimmy Buffett's "Cheeseburger in Paradise."

Thursday evening The Palmetto Pans transformed the USC School of Music's recital hall, only recognizable form the looming pipe organ behind the student steel drum band, into a grooving, high-energy concert you might find in a popular island dance hall.

Directed by Luis Rivera, a second-year music performance master student, the band, devoted to playing the music from Trinidad and Tobago, played an hour-long set that constantly filled the room with constantly, and fantastically, loud and rhythms and melodies that gave the crowd no choice but to clap and dance along. In fact, Rivera himself warned at the beginning of one exceptional ten-minutes jam session that they musicians "would not stop until everyone is up and moving."

The steel drums, which Rivera educated the enthralled audience on throughout the show, were invented after World War II, when the two islands found themselves with a surplus of oil drums. The Palmetto Pans, which shared over twenty pans made of 55-gallon oil drums, played a mix of songs from classic steel drum fair to others with Afro-Cuban style or Reggae. The songs that really got the crowd moving though were the mostly 80s covers including Soft Cell's "Tainted Love," Modern English's "I Melt With You," and the ever-so Reggae "Red Red Wine" by UB-40.

"We get to expose this kind of music to a wide base of people outside of the school," said Rivera. "A steel band allows us island music, Caribbean, Reggae and often tunes that we all recognize form the radio."

But even on the well-known hits though the concert sounded like a blast of Carnival not only on stage, but also in the crowd. The audience, about half students and half upstanding citizens with graying hair, was constantly up and moving in the aisles. Surprisingly, the older the audience member, the more likely it was they were grooving to the sometimes smooth, sometimes upbeat songs. One man in an ever-so apropos Hawaiian button-up shirt, who goes by the adopted Jamaican name Bushmon, started the evening with free-style dancing on the stage and very soon started a Congo line in the aisles.

Drew Johnson, a third-year percussion performance student, who is one of the three lead pans along with Rivera and fourth-year percussion performance student Reid Praxton, started playing guitar with The Palmetto Pans his freshman year and soon turned to the steel drums.

"I'm in it for the musical experience with friends," Johnson said. "And it's a pretty laid back atmosphere too."

One of the more interesting original pieces was "Backbone," arranged by music school jazz professor Bert Ligon. The smoother grooving piece features impressive solos by Johnson as well as electric guitarist Andy Bell, a second-year music student.

After nearly all the songs had been played and Rivera had done his best to lovingly introduce the audience members to each special instrument the group had been pounding on, the stage lights dimmed to black for just a moment. When they came up, before band even touched one drum the audience knew they would be singing along to Michael Jackson as each member wore a single bedazzled glitter glove.

The Palmetto Pans will next perform at Green Quad's Earth Day celebration "Do it in the Dark" from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.

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