This past Sunday, I had an opportunity to take part is a truly cool experience. The Big Beat, a charity event I detailed in a post a few weeks ago, rumbled into the Family Arena in St. Charles, MO today. Fifty-five drummers pounded their kits and smacked their hand drums with hundreds of fellow drummers around the US, all to benefit the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation.

Because of my recent motorcycle accident, I was not able to play for the event, but I was there representing DrummBlog.com and handling the technical aspects of the day, which culminated it monitoring a UStream feed from Seattle where the local conductor there kicked off the country-wide event at 4:45 PM CST from Donn Bennett Drum Studio in Bellvue, WA.

The sound inside the Family Arena was amazing, the sound of all those percussive instruments reverberating off the high ceilings. It’s really hard to describe after the fact. It’s really something that you needed to be there for to experience.

And speaking of which, I put this video together to commemorate the event. It has the audio of the entire five minutes of The Big Beat with some additional video and photos I took from the floor of the arena.

I don’t have the final numbers as to the amount of money that was raised for the Mr. Holland’s Opus Fund, but I’ll be sure to post on it when I do.

This was a phenomenal event. Besides doing it for a good cause, it was a great excuse to hang out with fellow drummers and jam inside a great venue. I’d like to extend a personal thanks to Jim Uding and Drum Headquarters and the St. Louis Post Dispatch for leading the way in making this event happen. Also, thanks to all the industry and local sponsors who contributed their time and money they are all listed in my announcement post for this event).

We’ll see you next year in St. Louis for The Big Beat 2010!