Neil Peart Junior

My nephew, Jackson, has been heavily into drumming since the beginning of the year and is really getting good. He sets up his little stool in front of the TV and overturns his Tupperware containers and buckets to create his own drum kit. He loves Rush, thanks in part to his father's affinity for the band, and he will sit for hours watching concerts on DVD and try to follow along with Neil Peart. Xavier told me that Jax would use this one bucket as the cymbal but they had to hide it because it was unbelievably loud. Jackson asked for it and my brother told him, "No, buddy, it's too loud." "But Dad," Jackson protested, "I wanna rock 'n' roll!" "Damn it, now I can't say no. Okay, ya want me to put on Rush?" "No. I wanna watch the guy with the feather." The guy with the feather? Um, yeah, Jackson wanted to watch Stevie Ray Vaughan live at Montreux 1985. This three year old has some damn fine taste in music!

So here is the video I shot of Jax in his undies playing along to Rush. (It's dark as hell in the room, but I'm not a freakin' cinematographer and this video is basically being posted so that I can look back on it.) My favourite moment is when he holds up the one drumstick in between playing. "What's he doin'?" I asked my brother. "Showmanship." Well, alright, alright, alright!