Oh no, the clocks have gone back, which I don’t mind in itself because it’s kinda weird to change the time, but it means that I’m now two hours further behind Australia than I was. They put their clocks forward an hour at the beginning of October but with our change, it now means that instead of the pre-October sesh being at my noon, they are now at my 10 AM, which means getting up at nineish every Sunday morning for Arktik Lake and plotting with Tony. It means five or six hours of sleep instead of eight or nine, a big difference for us night owls.

Tony had come up with a nice piece which we worked on and at 11.30 when we were done, I considered going back to bed, but I was distracted by something and before I knew it Everton were beating West Ham 0-1, Liverpool were beating Forest 3-0 and Man City were winning 0-2 (eventually 0-3) against Man United and then it was time to go. We took a Bolt into traffic and by the time we reached our destination, it was pouring, it’s been two weeks of on-and-off downpours.

We ran into the old Porto Customs House convention centre late, and standing there was Virgil Donati, one of the world’s best technical drummers. He’d put us on the guest list but was delayed by the previous showcase, so we went into one of the halls to be greeted by a deafening cacophony of multiple drum kits. It was the place where the drum nuts could try out multiple kits and there were multiple drummers all banging them all at once. I ran into Rui from the record store there, they had a stand, but it was hard to hear what anyone said. I realised I had earplugs in my pocket from the gigs we’d been going to, sweet relief along with a chocolate crêpe.

We went into the performance hall and found a place to sit and waited for Virgil to come on. It was an amazing display of drum technique, his hands were either a blur or his beats were exploring places where other beats cannot reach. It was an exhibition of gigantic skills that we mere mortals can only appreciate from the sidelines. I suppose we are attempting a different thing to virtuosos, but their dedication to their instrument is years of work and study, and another genre is born.

From there we walked back up the steep inclines from the river via takeaway Asian fusion in honour of the fusion drummers. But we would only be home for a short while because tonight we were off to see another show, but I think I’ll write about that tomorrow.

Music today has been Planet X – Universe (2000), one of Virgil Donati’s most complex projects with Tony MacAlpine on guitar and Derek Sherinian on keys.

Music Of The Daze