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Web Exclusive Interview
Jason Bittner What Drives The Beat Clinic Tour Diary Cont'd

Day 3: Middletown, NY, Alto Music
    I had been anticipating our visit to Alto Music for a while due to the reputation the store has earned for its clinics, and this night proved no different: Alto has got it GOING ON! Great stage area, a backstage area (backstage, for a clinic?), a nice staff, and just an all-around great vibe. After hitting the gym for a quick workout, we took the stage by seven and rocked it until around nine.

If you're wondering what we've been playing, well, a few Shad tunes, a little off-the-cuff ‘Moby Dick' jam that leads into the drum solo, a bunch of lesson stuff, more SF tunes, some Q&A, and a discussion of how the bass and drums play with (and off) each other in our style of music. It's a lot of info in a short time. By night's end we'd signed a bunch of autographs, sold a bunch of DVDs (Rob and Paul like that), and settled in for a late dinner at the Outback with our friend Marcel from Tama. Another victory!

Day 4: Manhattan, NY, Guitar Center
    Well, with every victory must come a defeat, and I'm pretty sure we felt defeated the moment we walked into this clinic. NYC is always a hassle—traffic, congestion, no parking, no advertising? Wait, did he just say no advertising? I don't consider one poster somewhere buried behind a PA section to be advertising. But as I've said, the show must go on, and for the twenty-five or so people who showed, we kicked butt!

So let's get on to the better parts of the night. My sister came out after she got out of school (little Ms. Fashion), my old drum tech Joe showed up to hang with us, my buddy Tony from The Collective videoed for us, hardcore legend Harley Flanagan from The Cro-Mags stopped by to say hi, my friend Matt Zebrowski of The Alex Skolnick Trio (who is a great jazz drummer and a fellow Meinl endorser) came out, and so did Paul Siegel from Hudson Music (thanks, Paul). Now here comes the coup de grace: After the clinic we went uptown to visit Mike Portnoy in the studio as he finished tracking the second-to-last song for the new Dream Theater album. And I'm going to be in his DVD, sitting on the studio floor! It was awesome. Thanks, Mike, and BTW, what we heard so far was amazing. Hail the prog metal kings!




Day 5: Allentown, PA, Dave Phillips Music Sound
    Well, we're living here in Allentown. Pennsylvania has always been a good spot for the band, and that was evident in the turnout for the clinic. We knew from the moment we walked into the store that it was going to be a special night. We loaded in around noon, ran to Dunkin' Donuts, set up, checked, and then found a Gold's Gym to get a quick workout in after lunch.

Once we arrived back at the store, the seating area was already packed, and the only room left was standing—very nice! On this night I decided to get the courage to play a few additional songs by my other band, Burning Human. I hadn't done this in the earlier clinics since my play-along tracks are clickless and I didn't want to mess up due to the tempo changes in the songs. Fortunately, the drum gods were looking down on me and I pulled it off! Once again we signed a lot of autographs and moved a good amount of DVDs. Thanks so much to Dave Phillips and his staff for making us feel so welcome, especially after last night.