Wankers

While watching the new Heaven and Hell DVD Live at Radio City Music Hall, it came to me. Listening to “The Mule” on Deep Purple’s Made in Japan just confirmed it: solo spots are overrated.

While I’m perfectly fine with a guitarist shredding away during an extended solo in a song, I can’t stand it when the same guitarist gets five minutes alone on stage to wank on his guitar. The same goes for the keyboard player and the drummer. Hell, even a bass solo would suck if it wasn’t integrated in a song.

On the Heaven and Hell DVD, Vinny Appice gets five minutes to show off his chops. It is by far the dullest moment of the show. In fact, while he was beating up his kit, I just occurred to me that I had to do something for myself. While Vinny is a more than decent drummer, I just can’t see the point of a drum solo. Can you?

But when a solo is helping a song along, I’m all for it. The album version of Within Temptation’s “Enter” starts with a brief drum intro. And when they still played their old stuff live, the drummer was occasionally allowed to tear it up a bit. Like so.

So, while I’m all for solos, solo spots should die a horrible and painful death. Anyone care to disagree?