House of Drumming.com

Some classic Smith playing with fire and chops all over.

Normally the sound of Steve's kit's dont intrigue me but these suckers sound good...awesome kick sound. His Vital Info tunes are pretty damn stellar

1983 Smith on drums playing some out there stuff for the Journey fans. Nice soundboard.

brushes.

1992 SS.

Smith killed this track...that bell pattern is so tasty

Saw the 1981 Houston gig (Escape Tour) on AXIS TV...
SO much better on TV than computer screen from Youtube.
Smith was insane in every way. His relaxed control, his
patterns, and that epic solo still blows me away 40 years
later. His ideas were so ahead of the times. Then the
drum sound he got (they got)...HUGE...just filled the
entire stadium. Then to go from Journey to Vital Information...
WHAT?...back in the day I thought he was just a great rock drummer.
Who knew this cat had a whole other life in him! Amazing
talent. Young (pre-Freddie) Smith was BEASTMODE.

And to think prior to that he was playing some really crazy rock-jazz shit with Ronnie Montrose, and before that with Ponty creating a new power fusion jazz-rock language.

Pocketplayer wrote:Saw the 1981 Houston gig (Escape Tour) on AXIS TV...
SO much better on TV than computer screen from Youtube.
Smith was insane in every way. His relaxed control, his
patterns, and that epic solo still blows me away 40 years
later. His ideas were so ahead of the times. Then the
drum sound he got (they got)...HUGE...just filled the
entire stadium. Then to go from Journey to Vital Information...
WHAT?...back in the day I thought he was just a great rock drummer.
Who knew this cat had a whole other life in him! Amazing
talent. Young (pre-Freddie) Smith was BEASTMODE.

Pocket, you and I agree. I remember seeing that concert on MTV at age 11, and it changed my life. Last year when Steve and I were working on his Modern Drummer Legends book, he and I picked out the stuff to be transcribed. I picked this solo, and he questioned me. I told him, there is NO WAY we are not going to include this solo, sorry buddy, I'm pulling rank, it STAYS! As part of the book, Steve and I listened to each song and section that would be transcribed, and watching that solo a couple times together here at the house was REALLY FUN. My 11 year old self didn't know that I would be sitting with Steve and laughing in hysterics at that solo 40 years later. It's still a killer solo!!! "Most" of what we said is on pg 184 of his Legends book. The transcription (thanks to Terry Branham) is spot on too!!!

MSG