Copious Notes

Skillet frontman John Cooper during the band's pyrotechnic-heavy show at the 2010 Ichthus Festival. © Herald-Leader staff photo by Rich Copley.

Central Kentucky Christian music fans, it seems, can pretty much lock the second Saturday of March onto their calendars for Winter Jam.

Skillet will lead the Winter Jam 2012 tour into the home of the Cats on March 10 with Sanctus Real, former Newsboys frontman Peter Furler, Kari Jobe, Building 429 and Group 1 Crew. This means that all that pyro we’re used to seeing out at the Icthus Festival will now be contained inside the arena.

I have this distinct memory of the last time Skillet was on the Winter Jam tour in 2008. It was the first time I took photos at Winter Jam, and no one warned me about those flame throwers at the front of the stage, so when the first ones went off I was feeling a bit … uh … toasty.

Anyway, Skillet in the arena. Should be a good time. As always, tickets are $10 and they are only available at the door. Earlier this year, Winter Jam 2011 attracted 16,431 people to Rupp.

Photos by Rich Copley | LexGo.com

The members of Too Many Drummers include multi-instrumentalist Josh Dahm, lead singer and guitarist David Abbott and drummer Collin Berner. Photos by Rich Copley | LexGo.com.

Too Many Drummers likes to play coffee shops, but there is one little problem: the drums.

“One of the challenges we have is Collin and I like to play loud – too loud for coffee shops,” lead singer and guitarist David Abbott says of himself and the band’s drummer, Collin Berner. “There’s this thing about drummers: They kind of set the ceiling for a band’s sound, so however loud he plays, we all have to be that loud to be heard.”

Bassist Erik Rishel performs with Too Many Drummers on the opening day of the 40th annual Ichthus Festival.

And when you’re in a relatively small room like a coffee shop, and it starts getting loud, “That’s no fun for anyone,” multi-instrumentalist Josh Dahm says.

Fortunately for the seemingly aptly-named band, small rooms have not been a big issue lately.

Too Many Drummers recently spent a few days playing at the Ichthus Festival in Wilmore. The opening day, the group was one of nine acts in the Ascenxion Scout Competition. Then, on the festival’s closing day, the band took the main stage as a reward for winning another competition prior to Ichthus.

July 11, a month in the spotlight will continue for Too Many Drummers as the group opens for Sanctus Real and Tenth Avenue North at the Summer Slam concert at Winchester’s George Rogers Clark High School.

For the band, events like Ichthus and Summer Slam are chances to get in front of audiences that otherwise might not hear them, or anyone like them.

The men in Too Many Drummers describe their sound as, “melodic art rock.”

To a newcomer, it can sound kind of jam-band oriented, as they launch into things like the Reckless Love Trilogy, which the group played at the Ascenxion competition.

But, the band members point out, most of TMD’s music is written, much of it by Dahm, a classically-trained musician who studied at Asbury College and is now the music director at Mt. Freedom Baptist Church in Wilmore.

The group started at Asbury, but is by no means a college band. Abbott and Dahm initially got together at Asbury in 2002, played together for a while, and then reunited years later.

“We were playing coffee shops and praying for a bass player and a drummer,” Abbott says.

They met Berner to form a trio in January 2008. With the addition of bassist Erik Rishel, an old Asbury friend, in the spring, Too Many Drummers’ current lineup was complete.

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