Hydromatics - "Ready To Ball"

From the second Hydromatics album, Powerglide, on tour in Europe ten years ago.

The kid on drums is Andy Frost, then 23 years old, who also played with Scott Morgan in Powertrane. I had the pleasure of sharing a ride with Andy in Geoff Ginsberg's car between Powertrane shows in Cleveland and his hometown of Ann Arbor. He'd played in a band called the High Rollers with Stooges drummer Scott Asheton's stepson, and spent time hanging out with Scott in Florida. He regaled us with stories of having his wrists squeezed between Scott's drumsticks (apparently, the Stooges' tub-thumper doesn't like people using his shit) and gave us the nickel tour of Ann Arbor, including the MC5 house, Pioneer High School, and the "Scott Asheton Memorial Bridge," where Scott famously peeled the roof off the Stooges' equipment van (see Please Kill Me) -- a feat Andy said he once duplicated while driving a beer delivery truck.

When Powertrane played Stooges songs, Andy did the best recreation of Scott's classic style of any drummer I've ever heard. He had mastered all the fills that most drummers miss when they play those songs. When I told him I liked his drumming better than Nicke Hellacopter's on the first Hydromatics album, he just smiled real wide and said, "Me too!" I was deeply saddened when I learned of Andy's death last May at age 32. He was a cocky, funny, life-filled cat who should have been kicking those traps for many years to come.