When your toddler (or worse, someone else’s) goes wild whacking away at pots and pans and trash cans with wooden spoons and things of the like, it’s usually not a very pleasant time. When a nationally-recognized musical troupe does the same thing in a highly coordinated, choreographed and rehearsed manner, it can be a truly awe-inspiring performance.
If you go to NHTI this Friday, you’ll get the chance to be so awed when the nationally touring Recycled Percussion comes to the Wellness Center Gym.
The “junk rock” band was formed in Manchester in 1995, and has slowly but surely gained recognition and praise ever since. The group grabbed the national spotlight in 2009 by appearing on America’s Got Talent and has since performed more than 4,000 shows in more than 15 countries. They’ve even appeared on Carson Daly, The Today Show, China’s Got Talent and the Latin Grammy Awards. In other words, the group is pretty legit, and they’re coming here to our city.
The show marks a slight departure for NHTI’s spring programming. This entertainment slot had previously been occupied by the annual Spring Comedy Show, which itself used to bring in big names like Dave Coulier and Bill Burr. But over the past few years, attendance had slipped and NHTI wanted to shake things up to reignite interest in the spring show.
“The last two years (at the comedy show) we had attendance we weren’t super proud of,” said Kaitlin Moody, student life coordinator. “Someone brought up Recycled Percussion, and I reached out and we nailed them down in November.”
It was a pleasant surprise for the NHTI staff, who assumed the highly popular act would be impossible to book, especially on relatively short notice.
While the group has been spending most of its time lately performing regularly in Las Vegas at the Saxe Theater at Planet Hollywood, this won’t be the first stop in Concord – or even at NHTI – for Recycled Percussion. They performed at NHTI in 2009, right before they really took off, and they just performed for the kids at Christa McAuliffe School last week. All that means they should be fully prepared to make some noise at NHTI this Friday.
The four-man group specializes in making music using unorthodox “instruments,” things like pots, pans, hubcaps, buckets, shopping carts, power tools – everything, including the kitchen sink. Add in some traditional instruments like guitars and you have one unique blend of sound that resembles a mashup of heavy metal, punk, hip-hop and pop that’s fun for all ages.
The group will perform at NHTI’s Wellness Center Gym on Friday at 7:30 p.m. Doors open at 6:30 and parking availability begins at 5:30. Tickets are $15 general admission for the public and $10 for NHTI students, staff and alumni. Tickets are on Eventbrite, accessible from NHTI’s home page, nhti.edu (which is a much shorter and easier URL than the full Eventbrite link). Tickets have been selling fast, so don’t wait around to get yours. No refunds or exchanges will be offered.
For more information, call 271-6484.
