- Herr Slade plays eight (or sixteen, depending on how you count the song) notes on the ride,
Its not a ride but a right-hand mounted hat. You can see the clutch sticking up from the top in the thumbnail of the loop comparison vid you posted. Also it doesn't even sound like a ride; sounds like a closed hat (Rudd's openish hat sounds more like a ride than Slade's). It confused me at first, but then I saw the clutch. You can see it in the few shots of him in the other vid too. I can't tell if he also has a more traditionally positioned left-side hat as well, or not. I have seen drummers do this before; if just the one hat it's usually older gentlemen because it saves you the crossover and possibly some pain. It's now (last 10 years or so) more easily achievable due to 'remote hihat' mounts - yes, there are drummers out there rocking 2 pairs of hats.
It makes a huge difference to me, Slade just sounds smoother and I'm all for smooth, elegant drumming.
Yes, he is much more rigid and stiff, both in playing style and tone (tight and focussedvs Rudd's looser tone with slower attack as I mentionned before) which some people prefer, certain trains-must-be-on-time-jawol types included. Personally, I only like that sort of stiffness on more interesting beat patterns (lets be honest; there ain't no drummer who can't play this song well - it's a mmatter of whether a given individual likes their take on it or not - if you can't, quit or stop calling yourself a drummer until you've practised up; this is the basics; what you drum along to as a teenager to learn the ropes); like mathrock (see the drummer from Helmet/Battles; rigidly on time, but still funky, unlike Slade). I am kinda leaning that way myself in a current drone-pop project; nothing recorded yet tho.
As for Axl, I think, all things considered, he did a bang up job. Better than I expected. Yeah, it's weird to see ACDC just move on so non-nonchalantly, but it's not as if they haven't done that before, multiple times.
