Though we’ve all seen at least a few street performers in our time, we don’t spend much time thinking about their lives.
To make a name or a living for yourself, you need to go out in the streets every day and perform your craft for whoever will listen.
To do that successfully, you need to be a talented musician with a lot of resilience. Still, you’ll also need something that makes you stand out from the crowd, something that makes people want to stop and listen.
Fortunately, the performer we’re talking about today has all of the above in spades.
The video was loaded to YouTube in September 2015.
It was filmed in Paris, France, specifically at the Place de la République. The performer in the video is Dario Rossi, a street drummer who has been performing for many years.
For the most part, drum performers need to bring their own kit around with them wherever they intend to perform. Still, this can be unwieldy and something of a pain. As it turns out, Rossi has found a solution to this problem.
Instead of using a full kit, he uses a special kit made up of pots, pans and buckets that he put together himself.
As the video begins, Rossi starts drumming mostly on the upturned pans and a bent baking sheet he’s using as a cymbal.
Although it’s technically possible to drum on anything and get a useful sound out of it, Rossi has clearly mastered this more than most. Each of the metal pans that are turned upside down works quite well as a snare, while his baking sheet adds the perfect cymbal sound.
Two of the other woks he’s using are perfect hi-hats and the upturned bucket is a bass drum. Perhaps the funniest part of the video is when he picks up a piece of scrap metal and slams it down for an accent!
The rhythms that he plays are infectious, and before long there’s a big crowd gathered to watch him.
The overall effect is unusual compared to most street performers as what he’s playing sounds like a techno song!
What’s also unusual is that Rossi’s performance isn’t a short one—it’s nearly a half hour long! Even so, he keeps changing up his approach and adding in all kinds of new sounds despite the fact that he’s using such simple instruments.
Partway through, he even gets up on his feet and does one long roll that incorporates all of the instruments he has laid out. Even though the performance is so long, many of the crowd stick around for the entire thing.
When it’s finally over, he does one last long roll on the baking sheet… and everyone gives him a huge round of applause.
Since the clip went online, it has been viewed more than 14 million times!
Although there are plenty of street performers and buskers out there who don’t necessarily capture our attention, this one is something entirely different.
Most performers don’t have this kind of technical skill, stamina or inventiveness–especially not for more than 30 minutes straight! Needless to say, Rossi is a true original.
Special thanks to Dario Rossi for such an awesome performance! Be sure to watch the whole thing in the video below:
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