Loop: Partners in percussion

By Pitt News Staff

Loop…Loop 2.4.3. March 9, 8 p.m. Your Inner Vagabond 4130 Butler St., Lawrenceville $8 412-683-1623

For percussion gurus Thomas Kozumplik and Lorne Watson, work means banging on their drums – and cowbells, steel drums, marimbas, glockenspiels, cymbals and gongs (you name it!) – all day long. They are an all-percussion duo, and they call themselves Loop 2.4.3.

“We’re trying to do something that’s our own voice and that’s original,” Kozumplik said in a phone interview.

They refuse to let an all-percussion performance sound one-dimensional or to let the politics of a bigger band slow them down.

The duo’s debut album, Batterie, released last fall, features six extended tracks recorded at Jack Straw Productions in Seattle in only an hour.

The band’s shows are all ages for a reason. Besides the usual college and young adult crowd, they’ve noticed many young children “attracted to the visceral energy of drumming,” Kozumplik explains. But it’s not only youngsters who like Loop 2.4.3 – a senior center in upstate New York also absolutely loved the band’s playing.

Kozumplik said, “Creating a fan base is tricky