Can someone with more drum knowledge than me talk about Jack's playing a bit or explain it to me? I like him a lot on the songs of his era but on older songs his playing can sound awkward to me. Where Dave sounded huge Jack sounds rather small and... dry? Does he have a unique drum set up? I think it's his snare that sounds very tight/dry to me. His drum sound does not have a lot of space/openness. Songs like Animal or Go have a weird quality to them when Jack is playing them.

Awesome post LMS

Dave A had a lot of attack and wrist in his playing. He also had very tight snares. Jack is a lot looser in style and doesn't crack the snare as much. Additionally, he has a looser snare so it doesn't peak/attack as much. You can hear the same difference with RHCP listening to Jack versus Chad Smith.

Jack also doesn't push the beat like Dave A and Matt do. He sits on or behind the beat. One of the best drummer of this sort is Steve Ferrone. His work with Tom Petty and strangely Duran Duran on Notorious is a good example of this. When you hear Jack play Animal, Hail Hail, Last Exit etc, the drums don't push the song like when Matt or Dave A plays them.

Fuck yeah wease.

Agree this has been a great recent run of posts. Just want to add that for Cameron, in addition to his ahead-of-the-beat timing, he also has an intentional choice (discussed in interviews) of always hitting his drums square in the center of the head, and with noticeable force. Very different from Jack who tended to finesse the outer edges of the rims.

Agree this has been a great recent run of posts. Just want to add that for Cameron, in addition to his ahead-of-the-beat timing, he also has an intentional choice (discussed in interviews) of always hitting his drums square in the center of the head, and with noticeable force. Very different from Jack who tended to finesse the outer edges of the rims.

Always have to take care to finesse the outer edges

Jack again on drums for some of the new Josh Klinghoffer album.