When a man walks slowly onto a stage, nonchalantly sweeping in front of him, it’s not often that an audience gives their full attention. This, however, was not a usual performance.
The lights dim. Another man joins him, making a simple beat with his rhythmic sweeping. One by one, more people join them, slamming their broomsticks on the ground perfectly in time. When the number is finished, the audience erupts into applause.
This is just a glimpse of the energy and excitement that the Bromery Center of the Arts saw after welcoming STOMP to the Tillis Performance Hall this past weekend.
The internationally beloved percussion ensemble performed three times at the University of Massachusetts, with one performance on Friday, April 28, and two performances on Saturday, April 29.
STOMP was founded in 1991 by Luke Cresswell and Steve McNicholas in Brighton, U.K., and has expanded to entertain audiences around the world. It has performed for U.S. presidents, appeared on TV shows including “Sesame Street” and “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” and were featured at the closing ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics. Over the years, the group received several international accolades, including an Emmy award for the 1997 HBO special “Stomp Out Loud.”
The ensemble is famous for its use of everyday, utilitarian objects to make percussive music, including matchboxes, Zippo lighters, trash cans and suitcases.
“I love to play the shopping cart,” Declan Hayden, a member of STOMP for two seasons, said. “We use the child seat in the shopping cart as a sort of snare drum substitute and then there’s a cardboard box and water jug that are inside the shopping cart. We have one stick and we’ll hit the box in the cart and the jug and scrape them. We also glide on them across the stage and do choreography and that sort of thing. It’s really fun.”
For Hayden, who attended the University of Cincinnati for percussion performance and music education, performing with STOMP is a dream come true. He played the drums for 14 years but has never experienced something quite as unique as STOMP.
“In an academic world, you might have to wear a uniform or a tuxedo and there’s not really a lot of room for improvisation or self-expression … you kind of just play what’s written on the page,” he said. “This is sort of the first time in my music career that there has been a lot of room to put my own spin on things, whether it be visually, musically or theatrically.”
Hayden performs with the North American company of STOMP exclusively on tours; he joined the group amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. He trained in New York for five weeks but was unable to perform during his early days with the group because the show was temporarily closed.
Now a seasoned performer, Hayden says a typical rehearsal lasts about an hour and take place before each show. During rehearsals, trickier moments of the show are practiced, such as when metal paint cans are juggled between performers.
This current tour, which began in October, marks a pivotal point for the percussion ensemble. STOMP’s long-running off-Broadway stage show in New York closed on Jan. 8, 2023, after 29 years and nearly 11,500 performances. Their show in the West End of London recently closed as well, concluding a 15-year run in January 2018.
Despite the closures, STOMP marches on, and audiences can’t get enough. Nathaniel Laursen, an 18-year-old from Barre who attended the 2 p.m. matinee performance Saturday said, “STOMP was an amazing experience. The performers were amazing and clearly professionals.”
His favorite routine in the show was “Hands and Feet,” in which the performers use only their hands and feet to make music. “They showed how despite it being a very simplistic concept, they could turn even that into an amazing performance,” Laursen said.
STOMP’s set, much like its routines, was filled with everyday objects. The performance utilized a two-story set, dressed top to bottom in an industrial aesthetic, complete with street signs, oil drums and metal ladders to get from one level to the next. While at first glance the set appears static, the ensemble took full advantage of their surroundings, including flipping a “Go” sign to read “Stop” when a routine finished, prompting a round of applause.
When the performance concluded, STOMP received two standing ovations from the audience. The first came after the finale, which saw the entire ensemble playing bucket drums and “battling” each other with trash can lids. The second came after a surprise encore number, where members of the group did a call and response with the audience, complete with claps, snaps and of course, stomps.
Nathan Legare can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @NathanLegare23.
