Recycled Percussion

Recycled Percussion is a Manchester, New Hampshire-based band. The group was originally formed in Goffstown, New Hampshire. Formed in 1994 in New Hampshire at their High School talent show, Recycled Percussion’s first performance gave birth to the style of music now known as JUNK ROCK. This small-town band has built their show into one of the more powerful live performances in entertainment. During every show, the band mixes their gritty assault on buckets, power tools or anything else they can get their sticks on. They do it with a sense of humor and gravity defying athleticism.

History

Justin Spencer formed Recycled Percussion in 1995 for a high school talent show. Justin was looking for a way to be as creative as possible and took the idea of playing buckets, which was introduced to him in the subways of New York City. Deciding to take the next step was Justin adding more and more instruments to the show and expanding on the New York style of street percussion.

The band really started to take off in 1999 when they were featured on the cover of the USA TODAY. Recycled Percussion began touring the country performing over 250 shows a year starting in 2001 and began breaking records in the college market, having received awards yearly (6 time national act of the year, 3 time best major performer of the year, 4 time best live act). Performing at colleges, NBA halftimes, NFL halftimes, and at corporate events for major companies all over the world, it seemed that Recycled Percussion was going to be around for a long time. The group continued to tour for 10 years until they made their debut on the smash hit television show America's Got Talent. The group auditioned with over 100,000 acts and became the highest placed non-singing act to ever compete in show history, finishing third.

After their AGT success, they joined a LIVE version of the America’s Got Talent show. The group spent 3 months performing at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas and then 1 month performing the live show at MGM Grand at Foxwoods in Connecticut. In 2010, the band signed a deal with the MGM Grand in Las Vegas to have their own show nightly at the casino. This has made Recycled Percussion the only true band with their own show on the Las Vegas strip nightly. When audience members attend a Recycled Percussion, show they are given a drumstick and a unique instrument on the way in. The audience members use this throughout the show to play along with the band. This concept has received high acclaim from producers and media throughout Las Vegas. The new show in Las Vegas is the most intense show that Recycled Percussion has ever created and they continued to push the envelope of creativity that they have become known for. Recycled Percussion expanded their show by moving to the Tropicana Theater inside the Tropicana Hotel. With a larger stage and theater, they have been able to add additional elements and interaction, turning the energy level up a notch higher. The theater can accommodate over 700 guests and the enhanced show is designed for all ages.^[1] Recycled Percussion now performs at the Tropicana Las Vegas 6 nights a week, Thurdsay through Tuesday. Tickets can be found at http://www.troplv.com/entertainment/recycled-percussion

Instruments

Recycled Percussion uses trashcans, buckets, washing machines, various car parts, sinks, chainsaws, fans, vacuums, ladders, 50 gallon plastic barrels, rusty metal barrels, metal grinders, and anything else they can get their hands on instead of standard drums. The only "normal" things that they use are drumsticks and few standard gold cymbals. One of the percussionist, Ryan Vezina, does a "body percussion" act. In this he uses himself as the instrument. Other instruments used in their Tropicana show include Matt Bowman on the Electric Guitar, and Todd Griffin's use of DJ equipment for sound effects.

Genre

Recycled Percussion plays all kinds of different genres of music: from metallic, reggae, techno, blues, ska, jazz, classic rock, hip hop, punk, boy band, and “junk rock”. Most of these genres of music are covered in their medley of songs at the end of their Tropicana show.

Members

Justin Spencer - Lead Percussionist,Groups Founder and Creative Force; World’s Fastest Drummer.
Ryan Vezina - Percussion Specialist, Body Percussion Talent.
Matt Bowman - Percussionist, Guitar player.
Todd Griffin (DJ Pharaoh) - Percussionist, DJ and Media Director.

America's Got Talent

Performances/Results

Post Talent

The group performed on tour with season 4 winner Kevin Skinner. On August 25, 2010, they performed during the semifinals results show for the fifth season of Talent.
The group now has their own show at the Tropicana in the Gladys Knight Theater, on the Las Vegas Strip, where they perform Thursday- Monday nights. <troplv.com>
The group performed on the "China's Got Talent" season finale in Fall of 2010
The group appeared in the 2010 Latin Grammies.
Ryan, Justin, Matt and Todd have gone to elementary schools throughout the Las Vegas valley, where they have read to young children.

References

• Sullivan, Brenda (November 15, 1997). "Band shows way to reuse refuse", Hartford Courant, p. B3.
• Whitney, D. Quincy (April 4, 1999). "Old stuff makes new statement: Artists make use of recycled objects", Boston Globe, p. 9.
• Buckley, J. Taylor (May 27, 1999). "Behold the beauty that is the bucket", USA Today, p. B9.
• Hill, Jean Laquidara (February 7, 2002). "Junkyard rhythm has a great beat: Recycled Percussion draws crowd", Telegram & Gazette, p. B4.
• Wright, Diane (April 21, 2004). "Group pounds out career in music world: Recycled Percussion doesn't need a drum set", Seattle Times, p. H29.

External links

• Recycled Percussion The Internet Movie Database
• Recycled Percussion Band Website
• Recycled Percussion America's Got Talent Biography