Unique sound rocks Guantanamo

Photo By Staff Sgt. Robert Ponder | Adam Alt, one of the founding members of The Street Drum Corps used an angle gringer on a 55-gallon drum during the group's performance for deployed troops and Naval Station Guantanamo Bay residents at the Tiki Bar, Oct. 3.  

GUANTANAMO BAY , CUBA

10.10.2014

Story by Staff Sgt. Carmen Fleischmann 

Joint Task Force Guantanamo Public Affairs

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba - A curious crowd gathered at the Tiki Bar Friday night not certain of what lay in store as a three-member band took the stage. Precariously perched on the stage were items such as a washing machine, a baseball bat and finally a drum set. From the first beat the audience knew they were in for quite an interesting and especially entertaining treat.

“It was pretty intense, but super awesome,” said a Joint Task Force Guantanamo Soldier. “I didn’t know what to expect, it was pretty cool.”

Service members, civilians and other Naval Station Guantanamo Bay residents swayed and jumped to the rhythm of the industrial sounds, cheering loudly as sparks flew from some of the instruments.

“We brought our big show here,” said Bobby Alt one of the founding members of Street Drum Corps. “We perform on all found objects, so tonight we’ll be playing anything from a washing machine to kegs, a fire extinguisher, real drum sets; we even have some specialty items like a theremin. It’s like a heavy, industrial, percussion ensemble.”

Brothers Adam and Bobby Alt, along with fellow drummer Frank Zummo, founded Street Drum Corps 10 years ago. All original members were drummers in other bands and decided to do something different, “something we could control and we could be the front men of. Now we have between 50 and 100 drummers that we employ at different productions all across the world now doing our Street Drum Corps shows,” said Bobby.

When they met, Frank was performing shows at a theme park, also using found objects around the same time as the brothers were experimenting. The three then began performing together as a side project until it became their main focus. Since then, they’ve been on the Warped Tour, and have performed with several bands such as 30 Seconds to Mars, Linkin Park and others.

“Even now to this day, it’s been an outlet for us to explore whatever it is we want; we’re all very open with each other to whether we want to write lyrics to a song … anything goes,” said Bobby.

While generally their performances are very fine-tuned and comprised of a set production, using items found in a new location can add a variation to their music.

“Ninety percent of the show tonight was stuff that we found on the base, yesterday and today,” said Bobby. The members went to the waste facility and other locations around the base prior to their performance to retrieve a lot of items in their show, including two large blue barrels that, according to the band, sounded even better than the ones they perform on back home.

“Because we haven’t used some of these instruments it’s very inspiring,” continued Bobby.

Friday’s concert marked the beginning of Naval Station Guantanamo Bay’s NEX/MWR 13th Annual Customer Appreciation Weekend, as well as Street Drum Corps first performance at GTMO.

“We’ve toured over 30 countries and Guantanamo Bay does have a lot to offer artists,” said Bobby. “Great venues here too,” continued Frank. “Great production. Great equipment, staging, sound – it’s been top notch.”

On the heels of their last two Navy Entertainment shows in Bahrain and Djibouti, the small town, laid back- island atmosphere of GTMO was a stark contrast to the highly-secured military base they were expecting upon arrival.

“All the Soldiers here, everyone we’ve met from MWR and Navy Entertainment that brought us here, they’re treating us great … we’ve been very welcomed here,” said Bobby.

“Talking to these people, and some of these Soldiers, it’s really inspiring for us because we can see in their eyes how much joy we are bringing to them,” said Adam. “They understand how hard it is for us to get here, and it’s not an easy thing to get to Guantanamo Bay… we’re very blessed to be here. We’d like to keep coming back and doing this.”

• Date Taken: 10.10.2014
• Date Posted: 10.10.2014 10:55
• Story ID: 144854
• Location: GUANTANAMO BAY , CU