Music

The beat goes on … and on

Drummer soldiers through long night when his bands share a bill

Spencer Patterson

Midway through Numbers Like Pi’s December 29 performance at the Freakin’ Frog, drummer Tony Sermeno noticed his drum kit was covered in blood. He wasn’t all that surprised.

The 24-year-old had already played a set with tempo-shifting local outfit Old Iron Sights, and had barely sucked down a glass of water before getting back to work, with his other post-hardcore band, Numbers Like Pi. So when Sermeno realized he’d caught his knuckle on a snare-drum lug, he figured it was simply part of the job requirements for a double-duty drummer.

“When I joined Old Iron Sights, I told the bands, ‘I don’t ever want to play for both in the same night,’” Sermeno recalls. “Then I got really excited about being in both bands, and I wanted it to be a whole experience, so I told them, ‘If you want to do it I’m fine with it.’ Physically, I had the stamina to do it, but afterwards I felt weak, I was limping, and my hand was cut.”

Had Sermeno, who has drummed for Numbers Like Pi for a year and a half and Old Iron Sights the past five months, simply played with both physically demanding bands, back-to-back, it would have qualified as a noteworthy happening. Standing out as the indubitable linchpin for both groups—maniacally driving music reminiscent of Fugazi, Cursive, At the Drive-In and Hot Water Music—turned the feat into a memorable achievement.

Will he do it again? He might have to. Both groups are slated to compete in a battle of the bands on January 23 at the Henderson Institute (801 Arrowhead Trail), and depending how the schedule shakes out, it could happen. “It was tough, but it was totally worth doing. Yeah, I’d probably do it again,” Sermeno says. –Spencer Patterson

(myspace.com/numberslikepi; myspace.com/oldironsights)

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