PiercingMetal Musings

Legendary Rock drummer Carmine Appice made an appearance at J&R Music World in lower Manhattan the other day and folks who attended were treated to a quick performance on the drums and a brief Q&A session.  After this was done Carmine would sign copies of his “Carmine Appice’s Guitar Zeus: Conquering Heroes” CD for those fans who wanted him to personalize it.

Carmine Appice J&R Music World Event Sign

For the event Carmine would be slamming it down on a sweet double bass drum kit manufactured by DDrum.  It had a blend between crashes and china models.  We snapped a few shots of the kit before he arrived so the drummers that might be reading the article can enjoy its layout from an almost catalog perspective.

Carmine Appice's DDrum Kit - Front

Carmine Appice's DDrum Kit - Side

Carmine Appice arrives @ J&R Music World

As Carmine arrived at the small stage that J&R keeps for these events, he did so to the sound of “Guitar Zeus” playing over the stores stereo system.  If you look carefully at the above photo you will see a very familiar face behind Carmine, well, that is if you really know your drummers and your history of Punk Rock that is.

Marky Ramone

Yes, your eyes do not deceive you and this is none other than Marky Ramone from the legendary Ramones.  We spoke for a moment and Marky had the idea of having his photo taken in front of the “popular” sign.  You might be wondering if he was going to play as well and while that would have been super cool, it would not be the case.

Carmine Appice addresses The Fans

Carmine climbed aboard the sleek drum set and spoke to the crowd for a couple of minutes before getting down to business.  He thanked everyone for coming and said he was going to play a few songs from the album and then take some questions if anyone had any.  He wanted this to be a little bit of a performance meets drum clinic if he could.  He also mentioned that he had never been in this store before today which was a bit of a surprise.  He mentioned how he used to go to the long shuttered Tower Records that used to be based a little further uptown.

Carmine Appice Performance Shot

The drummer would get down to business now, and begin playing to tracks from “Guitar Zeus: Conquering Heroes” and begin with the rocking number “Days Are Nights”.  This track features Ted Nugent on guitar and should appease Uncle Ted fans worldwide.

Carmine Appice Performance Shot

Continuing on, Carmine paused between tunes and chuckled aloud and said to the audience that he was finding it hard to concentrate with a drummer like Mark Ramone standing only a couple of feet in front of him.  It was definitely cool for Appice to send this shout out to his friend and it made the legendary Punk drummer smile a bit as well.  The next song Carmine would play from the album was called “Stash” and it featured Steve Salas on guitar.  I guess we can use our imagination as to what the subject matter for this one could have been.

Carmine Appice Performance Shot

“Gonna Rain” was the next and sadly the last track that Appice would deliver and this one he said was a lot of work and featured the guitar talents of Richie Sambora from Bon Jovi.  As he played the thing that became clear about this double CD release was how different and interesting a number of its tracks were.

Carmine Appice Performance Shot

It was amazing to see Carmine doing his thing in such close quarters and his sound was as full as we were accustomed to it being.  He has a powerful style that also is loaded with flair and during the all too brief performance piece he would also twirl and toss the drumsticks without missing a beat.

Carmine Appice Takes Some Questions

Before sitting down at the signing table, Carmine took a few short questions from the people in the audience and for the most part it was about the album and the players involved.  The release also features the talents of axe slingers like Yngwie Malmsteen and Mick Mars on top of many others.  He made people laugh when he informed them on how each unique player had their own equally unique choice of who they wanted to play with.  Yngiw wanted to be on the track that King’s X Dug Pinnick sang while Mick Mars wanted to be on another.  If you have not guessed by now, the release features a ton of differently styled guitar gods and hence the title of “Guitar Zeus”.

Carmine Performs & The Lampshade Cymbal

Carmine also mentioned the cymbal on his kit that slightly resembled a lampshade and you can see it in the photo above as the one directly in the center.  The medium sized implement of percussiveness is a creation of the drummer and made by both DDrum and Sabian if I heard him correctly.  He laughed about it being a lampshade and said how it was a blend of what one gets when you crossed a China Cymbal together with a Splash Cymbal.  I had to admit that it had an interesting sound and if you are a drummer that requires such a tool then I advise that you give this particular cymbal a try when you next go equipment shopping.

Carmine Appice addresses Fan Questions

A couple of people asked if this would be something taken to the live stage and while it might be awesome I didn’t see the logistics of being able to do it.  Even though I was close enough to ask him, I refrained from inquiring about when we would see him working on some future Cactus or Vanilla Fudge stuff.  Part of me wanted to ask about a possible King Kobra reunion since one of the fans had the album “Ready to Strike“ in their hands.  If you have never heard that release believe me its a powerhouse of  eighties Melodic Hard Rock and a recommendation.

Carmine Appice Signs Some Vintage Vinyl

Carmine was very friendly to the fans who had taken the time to come down to see and hear him do his thing today and was visibly willing to sign anything that they had brought along with them.  I liked seeing this and was happy to find that the J&R staff were not regulating this to a “one item that you bought here” kind of mindset.  I even saw some people purchasing releases that featured the drummer from the very racks around us and then getting on the signing line and that is never bad for business.

Carmine Appice signs the Marquee

There seemed to be a good amount of drummers in the crowd and most certainly long time fans of the things that the man did.  Someone even had the Rod Stewart album with “Do You Think I’m Sexy” on it and another with “Young Turks” which Appice had co-written.  He would also sign the stores marquee announcement sign which I believe will eventually hang in the store somewhere for those who sadly missed the day to see again and again.

Drumming Legends: Carmine Appice & Marky Ramone

After the event was done and the business pleasantries had finished Carmine got to catch up with his friend Marky Ramone and I was happy to get this photo of two drumming legends.  Each of them inspired more drummers than can be counted in their own fashion and having them in one place together was awesome.

Ken Pierce & Marky Ramone

I couldn’t let the chance to snare a candid with Marky pass me by, especially since I had long been a fan of their music and would eventually form a short lived Ramones tribute act of my own way back in the day.

Carmine Appice & Ken Pierce

And of course a moment with the main man of the event was snapped as well.   Carmine and his friends would head off to dinner after this and no, I didn’t join in on that or we would have never finished the article.  It was a fun time and I was happy to have been a part of it.  Make sure you look into a copy of “Guitar Zeus: Conquering Heroes” soon as it is a truly rocking endeavor that crosses a number of Rock styles and holds appeal for many.

A full Gallery of Carmine shots can be enjoyed HERE.

Order the CD for yourself by clicking below:

Over the past couple of years, PiercingMetal.com has covered some of the other events that J&R Music World hosted especially when the artists were those that were important to the Heavy Metal and Hard Rock genre. We think its awesome that the store even does these kinds of things and hope that many more are to come. Check out our reports on these past adventures by clicking HERE.