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Dream Theater => Dream Theater => Topic started by: gzarruk on February 19, 2017, 03:46:55 PM
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Title says it all, really. I discovered this video yesterday and have seen it maaaany times already, and love it more every time. His playing is simply amazing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJvaQ84f39U&feature=youtu.be
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Very groovy and great sounding snare. :metal
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In typical Mangini fashion, the footwork carries the groove. :metal
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Ridiculous! I don't even see a cowbell!
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Yeah, Mike's double bass work is amazing! I really enjoy his way of complementing the music with his bass drum patterns on the last 3 DT records.
About this solo, I like this one much more than the LALP one (which was also amazing). Also, I really like to see him play in a smaller version of his DT kit, not because I don't like his big kit, I love it, but because it gives me ideas on how to arrange my own kit when I finally get one.
Ridiculous! I don't even see a cowbell!
Maybe I'm missing the sarcasm here, but, if you're being serious, the cowbell is played with a pedal by his left foot.
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why does he wear safety goggles? :rollin
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why does he wear safety goggles? :rollin
Proves you can wear anything you want and still be a beast on your instrument :biggrin:
I still wish he cut down his hair a little, though. His ADTOE look was spot on, now you just see a big chunk of hair playing drums :lol
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I really like this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oe8XKgOuNtk :corn
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I really like this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oe8XKgOuNtk :corn
You mean the solo or the look? Both? :biggrin:
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Five minutes in a mic from a tom falls down, then he tries to put it back on, then gives up and just tosses it away. Awesome. :hat
On the other hand, his "tractor engine" routine he ends every drum solo with is getting tiresome.
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why does he wear safety goggles? :rollin
Interesting, because I don't see that many often (in fact never) and I think all the drummers should use, just in case of a piece of drum stick brokes and flies right to the eyes.
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Five minutes in a mic from a tom falls down, then he tries to put it back on, then gives up and just tosses it away. Awesome. :hat
On the other hand, his "tractor engine" routine he ends every drum solo with is getting tiresome.
Some quite cool drum solo stuff in there and a lot of the usual stuff he does which I find really boring.
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On a related note, when did MP stop doing drum solos? And, did he ever say why he stopped? IIRC, he revived the practice since he split.
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On a related note, when did MP stop doing drum solos? And, did he ever say why he stopped? IIRC, he revived the practice since he split.
He talks about it in the commentary for Live In Tokyo I believe, he basically said that drum solos take up time that could be used to play another song with the band.
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On a related note, when did MP stop doing drum solos? And, did he ever say why he stopped? IIRC, he revived the practice since he split.
He talks about it in the commentary for Live In Tokyo I believe, he basically said that drum solos take up time that could be used to play another song with the band.
He played drum solos with PSMS though.
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On a related note, when did MP stop doing drum solos? And, did he ever say why he stopped? IIRC, he revived the practice since he split.
He talks about it in the commentary for Live In Tokyo I believe, he basically said that drum solos take up time that could be used to play another song with the band.
That's a good reason! Even Neil Peart eased off on the solos on the last two tours. He actually played three short solos mostly as breaks within songs, which in the end probably added up to the same amount of time as one big solo..lol! :yarr
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On a related note, when did MP stop doing drum solos? And, did he ever say why he stopped? IIRC, he revived the practice since he split.
He talks about it in the commentary for Live In Tokyo I believe, he basically said that drum solos take up time that could be used to play another song with the band.
He played drum solos with PSMS though.
That makes perfect sense then. They were lacking material to play with PSMS, so he did a drum solo to fluff up the time. After Awake, DT had no shortage of material.
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How to turn a thread from an MM solo to MP doing solos. You guys are so bored?
Back to OP : it's a very MM drum solo with some cool things and others not so much. All in all, MM has a groove I don't feel. Btw, drum solos have a tendency to bore the hell out of me and this one is no exception.
B.Lee
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Every time a MM solo threatens to be catchy and something you can nod to
It jettisons it and instead he plays 16th bass drums whilst hitting the China and floor tom
For 32 bars.
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Every time a MM solo threatens to be catchy and something you can nod to
It jettisons it and instead he plays 16th bass drums whilst hitting the China and floor tom
For 32 bars.
Sums it up perfectly for me as well. Because his beginning is kinda groovy, but then...
B.Lee
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I'm listening to it again just now, and yeah, his drum solos are often of the layered kind, where he will start out with some pattern on one hand, then add an entirely different pattern on the foot, and then do random in-beat tom and crash hits. The exercise then is to be amazed that you can focus on each hand separately and still hear the original pattern, i.e. he didn't simplify it.
Truth be told, it is never not impressive, that's for sure. But it's very similar to Rusty Cooley in its approach.
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I think it's fun to see how people complain that he overplays at his solos and also complain that he simplifies some MP songs.
When it comes to solos, MM is just having a great time using his super chops. When it comes to actually playing the songs, he tries to play what's best for the song and not overplay some stuff there, always trying to serve the song. That's what really matters, imo.
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I don't think it's a matter of over or underplaying. Look at Hell's Kitchen; the problem isn't that he's playing too much or too little, he's playing it way too rigidly. It completely sucks the life out of the tune.
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I don't think it's a matter of over or underplaying. Look at Hell's Kitchen; the problem isn't that he's playing too much or too little, he's playing it way too rigidly. It completely sucks the life out of the tune.
I think it's a matter of time (no pun intended) untill he gets more comfortable playing it and then he can change the way he plays it. My bet is that he put much more effort/time working on the IAW songs and ACOS, and I think he nailed it on these songs, specially ACOS.
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I'm sure people will disagree but based on the way he talks about drumming . . . I don't think he feels the music at all . .. if a song is in 6/8 he's thinking of all the ways he can subdivide 6 over 8
and split it up between limbs and tonal variations.
I've never heard him say anything like " Well this is a medium 5/4 feel so I just laid down a backbeat and just grooved along with the song "
It's pretty much always " Well the song is in 5/4 so that means I can play 3 over 16 with my feet and 2 over 4 with my hands and swap over every 9 bars ... "
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I think it's fun to see how people complain that he overplays at his solos and also complain that he simplifies some MP songs.
When it comes to solos, MM is just having a great time using his super chops. When it comes to actually playing the songs, he tries to play what's best for the song and not overplay some stuff there, always trying to serve the song. That's what really matters, imo.
This! :tup
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I'm sure people will disagree but based on the way he talks about drumming . . . I don't think he feels the music at all . .. if a song is in 6/8 he's thinking of all the ways he can subdivide 6 over 8
and split it up between limbs and tonal variations.
I've never heard him say anything like " Well this is a medium 5/4 feel so I just laid down a backbeat and just grooved along with the song "
It's pretty much always " Well the song is in 5/4 so that means I can play 3 over 16 with my feet and 2 over 4 with my hands and swap over every 9 bars ... "
That's not fair to say considering that most drum parts on TA are groove-oriented and not flashy/crazy polyrhythmic stuff.
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I'm sure people will disagree but based on the way he talks about drumming . . . I don't think he feels the music at all . .. if a song is in 6/8 he's thinking of all the ways he can subdivide 6 over 8
and split it up between limbs and tonal variations.
I've never heard him say anything like " Well this is a medium 5/4 feel so I just laid down a backbeat and just grooved along with the song "
It's pretty much always " Well the song is in 5/4 so that means I can play 3 over 16 with my feet and 2 over 4 with my hands and swap over every 9 bars ... "
See, this I think is a misunderstanding and is going the way of a caricature.
Mangini does not really consciously count when he composes and plays drum parts. "The numbers are always in my head," which means the counting is already intuitive out of a strict practice routine. Instead of conscious counting, he sees patterns (or shapes as he calls them) where he can visualize how these patterns fit into the overall structure of a song. A good example here is the intro of Surrender to Reason, where he did different versions of the fast roll, and one of them clicked with James LaBrie as the one that is best to use, and it was only afterwards that they counted it as an odd-metered roll of a 29 over 5 polyrhythm.
When he gives interviews and explains in numbers, though, that is the teacher Mangini trying to explain to the lay person (or to the ordinary drummer) what he is doing. You can not tell a student "just groove along" "just feel it" or something like that because it does not mean anything. But when you explain in numbers, that is, you tell the student to play this then subdivide to so and so, then the student will understand what you mean and know how to play it. That's why he always comes off as if he is always counting when he does the interviews. He wants people to understand what he means.
About the groove thing, I think it's really largely a function of not getting used to listening to polyrhythmic drumming. I mean, I hear the groove in a lot of Mangini's drumming, but I think it's because I am exposed to polyrhythmic stuff as I am immersed in world music. Latin drumming, for example that of Horacio Hernandez which Mangini pointed to as a huge influence, has a lot of those polyrhythmic stuff that some might consider un-musical.
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Awesome post erwinrafael! :tup
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I'm sure people will disagree but based on the way he talks about drumming . . . I don't think he feels the music at all . .. if a song is in 6/8 he's thinking of all the ways he can subdivide 6 over 8
and split it up between limbs and tonal variations.
I've never heard him say anything like " Well this is a medium 5/4 feel so I just laid down a backbeat and just grooved along with the song "
It's pretty much always " Well the song is in 5/4 so that means I can play 3 over 16 with my feet and 2 over 4 with my hands and swap over every 9 bars ... "
See, this I think is a misunderstanding and is going the way of a caricature.
Mangini does not really consciously count when he composes and plays drum parts. "The numbers are always in my head," which means the counting is already intuitive out of a strict practice routine. Instead of conscious counting, he sees patterns (or shapes as he calls them) where he can visualize how these patterns fit into the overall structure of a song. A good example here is the intro of Surrender to Reason, where he did different versions of the fast roll, and one of them clicked with James LaBrie as the one that is best to use, and it was only afterwards that they counted it as an odd-metered roll of a 29 over 5 polyrhythm.
When he gives interviews and explains in numbers, though, that is the teacher Mangini trying to explain to the lay person (or to the ordinary drummer) what he is doing. You can not tell a student "just groove along" "just feel it" or something like that because it does not mean anything. But when you explain in numbers, that is, you tell the student to play this then subdivide to so and so, then the student will understand what you mean and know how to play it. That's why he always comes off as if he is always counting when he does the interviews. He wants people to understand what he means.
About the groove thing, I think it's really largely a function of not getting used to listening to polyrhythmic drumming. I mean, I hear the groove in a lot of Mangini's drumming, but I think it's because I am exposed to polyrhythmic stuff as I am immersed in world music. Latin drumming, for example that of Horacio Hernandez which Mangini pointed to as a huge influence, has a lot of those polyrhythmic stuff that some might consider un-musical.
Look, I'm not a drummer, but I've heard a lot of things and while I didn't say that MM was not grooving at all, I said that I did not feel his groove. I love what John Macaluso does on the drums and, but I may be wrong, the guy is also versed on polyrhythms and latin percussion. When I hear him play, I can always feel his groove. Unfortunately, it rarely happens when I listen to MM. The problem, I think, is that MM is more of a drummers' drummer and because of that, he often loses me. Yet, maybe it's more because I'm a melomaniac than a musician.
B.Lee
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I don't buy the "you're just not hearing it" argument. Hell's Kitchen has no polyrhythms or whatever, all it needs is a simple groove, one so simple I would argue every average drummer can lay down. My theory is rather that he trained himself to make all these snappy movements (what with tensing his back muscles and all), and when combined with the click track, he kinda sounds like a drum track himself.
If anything, I would argue HE doesn't hear what he lost with that approach.
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The back muscles tense only when he's playing high speeds and he needs to use the big muscles for movement. He does not do it for simple beats.
Why is Hell's Kitchen being interjected in my comment about the comment on the polyrhythms in the drum solo? It's a different context. In the case of HK, what was lost was the playful hi-hats by Portnoy which many of us associate with the song. But later videos that surfaced in YT show that MM might be trying something different for the song, experimenting with ride patterns and changing the bass drums.
EDIT: This video was taken last Friday. It still does not have the trademark hi-hat in the original MP version. But it has shaken off a lot of the stiffness that we heard in the vids of the first coupld of nights. The bass drum is so Mangini and the fills are very confident.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gYZBj2mSssQ
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The programmed drums on Periphery's first album groove two times as much as Mangini on any DT record.
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I'm sure people will disagree but based on the way he talks about drumming . . . I don't think he feels the music at all . .. if a song is in 6/8 he's thinking of all the ways he can subdivide 6 over 8
and split it up between limbs and tonal variations.
I've never heard him say anything like " Well this is a medium 5/4 feel so I just laid down a backbeat and just grooved along with the song "
It's pretty much always " Well the song is in 5/4 so that means I can play 3 over 16 with my feet and 2 over 4 with my hands and swap over every 9 bars ... "
See, this I think is a misunderstanding and is going the way of a caricature.
Mangini does not really consciously count when he composes and plays drum parts. "The numbers are always in my head," which means the counting is already intuitive out of a strict practice routine. Instead of conscious counting, he sees patterns (or shapes as he calls them) where he can visualize how these patterns fit into the overall structure of a song. A good example here is the intro of Surrender to Reason, where he did different versions of the fast roll, and one of them clicked with James LaBrie as the one that is best to use, and it was only afterwards that they counted it as an odd-metered roll of a 29 over 5 polyrhythm.
When he gives interviews and explains in numbers, though, that is the teacher Mangini trying to explain to the lay person (or to the ordinary drummer) what he is doing. You can not tell a student "just groove along" "just feel it" or something like that because it does not mean anything. But when you explain in numbers, that is, you tell the student to play this then subdivide to so and so, then the student will understand what you mean and know how to play it. That's why he always comes off as if he is always counting when he does the interviews. He wants people to understand what he means.
About the groove thing, I think it's really largely a function of not getting used to listening to polyrhythmic drumming. I mean, I hear the groove in a lot of Mangini's drumming, but I think it's because I am exposed to polyrhythmic stuff as I am immersed in world music. Latin drumming, for example that of Horacio Hernandez which Mangini pointed to as a huge influence, has a lot of those polyrhythmic stuff that some might consider un-musical.
Look, I'm not a drummer, but I've heard a lot of things and while I didn't say that MM was not grooving at all, I said that I did not feel his groove. I love what John Macaluso does on the drums and, but I may be wrong, the guy is also versed on polyrhythms and latin percussion. When I hear him play, I can always feel his groove. Unfortunately, it rarely happens when I listen to MM. The problem, I think, is that MM is more of a drummers' drummer and because of that, he often loses me. Yet, maybe it's more because I'm a melomaniac than a musician.
B.Lee
Ark - Burn the Sun is a great example of Johnny Mac's drumming. The album oozes in groove and there's a lot of polyryhtms going on.
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The programmed drums on Periphery's first album groove two times as much as Mangini on any DT record.
You need to knock off those types of comments. Aside from being completely asinine, that is nowhere in the neighborhood of respectful or constructive, and as such, it violates forum rules.
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Ark - Burn the Sun is a great example of Johnny Mac's drumming. The album oozes in groove and there's a lot of polyryhtms going on.
Agree that that album has lots of groovy drumming. But isn't that also a large part because the songs themselves as arranged, especially the riffing, are groovy?
Listen to Mangini in Extreme's Hip Today and No Respect. Or in Tribe of Judah's Exit Elvis album. Or more recently, the extended outro of Take The Time in this tour. Doesn't he groove in these songs? In the DT studio albums that he is in, what songs even come close to being arranged with such feel and groove where Mangini can unleash the drumming he used in his Extreme days?
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Ark - Burn the Sun is a great example of Johnny Mac's drumming. The album oozes in groove and there's a lot of polyryhtms going on.
Agree that that album has lots of groovy drumming. But isn't that also a large part because the songs themselves as arranged, especially the riffing, are groovy?
Listen to Mangini in Extreme's Hip Today and No Respect. Or in Tribe of Judah's Exit Elvis album. Or more recently, the extended outro of Take The Time in this tour. Doesn't he groove in these songs? In the DT studio albums that he is in, what songs even come close to being arranged with such feel and groove where Mangini can unleash the drumming he used in his Extreme days?
Hey, all in all, DT songs are not really groovy in themselves, but MP has always managed, one way or another, to make his drumming groovy (not in every song, I agree). As far as Johnny Mac goes, just listen to his solo album or to the Unwritten Pages album he played on, there are songs that are not particularly groovy and yet, he manages to make his drumming sound groovy. What I'm hinting at is that we don't feel it the same way and it's good, otherwise the world would be really boring.
B.Lee
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I went back and listened to 4 versions of Hell's Kitchen:
1) Studio
2) Live in 2002
3) First night in 2017
4) The video posted a little while ago, from last Friday.
The differences in drumming cannot be put down to cymbal playing only - it's certainly not as simple a case as "the drumming is very similar except for the cymbals. Swap the cymbal-playing style, and it would be quite alike".
There are (to me) undeniable differences in approach, swing, "groove", and looseness/stiffness. Both MP's and MM's approaches are creatively "valid". Neither is wrong or in poor taste.
But in my opinion, I vastly prefer MP's approach and find that it suits the composition much much better. MM's version to me doesn't blend with the rest of the song, and actually significantly decreased my enjoyment of the song.
This is one of the very few cases where I have felt this way about his interpretation of DT's music. Most of the time, I find it to be good enough, or even in some cases, enhancing the original composition. But in this case - and I mean no disrespect at all - I am not enjoying his interpretation at all.
I also feel that it is true that his style in DT is on the whole "stiff". In songs like Hell's Kitchen, Surrounded, Count of Tuscany, I feel he could play much looser and suit the song better. I don't know why he plays this way - because in the past he has demonstrated plenty of groove in other bands/situations.
But I do respect his right and privilege to interpret the material according to his taste. And I assert my right to respectfully state my opinions as I have.
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But in my opinion, I vastly prefer MP's approach and find that it suits the composition much much better. MM's version to me doesn't blend with the rest of the song, and actually significantly decreased my enjoyment of the song.
This is one of the very few cases where I have felt this way about his interpretation of DT's music. Most of the time, I find it to be good enough, or even in some cases, enhancing the original composition. But in this case - and I mean no disrespect at all - I am not enjoying his interpretation at all.
Fair enough. I know that, for me, I've never liked the song anyway, so I'm not sure my enjoyment of it actually could be decreased. But what you said actually has me curious and makes me want to go back and listen to those four versions as you did, so I think I'll do that.
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EDIT: This video was taken last Friday. It still does not have the trademark hi-hat in the original MP version. But it has shaken off a lot of the stiffness that we heard in the vids of the first coupld of nights. The bass drum is so Mangini and the fills are very confident.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gYZBj2mSssQ
Interesting you bring up this video, because I actually think it illustrates what I'm talking about.
To me, the big overarching compositional theme of HK is that it is a really slow buildup. At the beginning it's only guitar and bass doing random notes here and there, and at some point the drums come in with this very laid back, careless shuffle. And over time the hitting gets harder, the hihats open up, and then finally HK explodes in this orgasmic release of shredding. That's what, for me, is what HK is about.
Now compare that to the videoyou linked. The moment MM comes in, he is playing 16ths on a semi-open hihat. From there on, instead of slowly building up, the dynamic stays flat, because as Nigel Tufnel wisely said "you're at 10, where can you go from here? Nowhere!"
That's IMHO what MM needs to work on, to get subtlety and dynamics back into his playing. It's the single biggest thing I can point to on the last three albums that left me cold about his otherwise incredibly impressive display of skill.
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Yep. Just watched the video.
His dynamics don't alter for the entire song.
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Before the argument gets made that it is a YouTube artifact, Losing Faythe on TA has exactly the same problem. It's supposed to be a buildup, but the drums come in crazy hard during the quiet section. When "Gabriel my son..." comes around, I.e. the epic conclusion to the song, the drums (arguably) should follow the other instruments in getting louder and more dramatic, but if you actually compare beginning and end of the song, it's the same dynamic throughout. I mean, you can hear he tries at the beginning of the song to be softer, but whether because of the mix or his own playing (at this point I tend towards the latter), it's already really hard sounding.
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His playing in the verses of Breaking All Illusions ( CD ) is pretty soft.
I wonder if he changed his playing style since ADTOE.
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You need to knock off those types of comments. Aside from being completely asinine, that is nowhere in the neighborhood of respectful or constructive, and as such, it violates forum rules.
i'll :chill Bosky
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His playing in the verses of Breaking All Illusions ( CD ) is pretty soft.
I wonder if he changed his playing style since ADTOE.
Same for This Is The Life, lots of ghost notes in there...
The lack of dynamics in the hihats during HK really, really bothers me.
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His playing in the verses of Breaking All Illusions ( CD ) is pretty soft.
I wonder if he changed his playing style since ADTOE.
Yeah, I wonder what happened as well.
B.Lee
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EDIT: This video was taken last Friday. It still does not have the trademark hi-hat in the original MP version. But it has shaken off a lot of the stiffness that we heard in the vids of the first coupld of nights. The bass drum is so Mangini and the fills are very confident.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gYZBj2mSssQ
Interesting you bring up this video, because I actually think it illustrates what I'm talking about.
To me, the big overarching compositional theme of HK is that it is a really slow buildup. At the beginning it's only guitar and bass doing random notes here and there, and at some point the drums come in with this very laid back, careless shuffle. And over time the hitting gets harder, the hihats open up, and then finally HK explodes in this orgasmic release of shredding. That's what, for me, is what HK is about.
Now compare that to the videoyou linked. The moment MM comes in, he is playing 16ths on a semi-open hihat. From there on, instead of slowly building up, the dynamic stays flat, because as Nigel Tufnel wisely said "you're at 10, where can you go from here? Nowhere!"
That's IMHO what MM needs to work on, to get subtlety and dynamics back into his playing. It's the single biggest thing I can point to on the last three albums that left me cold about his otherwise incredibly impressive display of skill.
See, my problem when discussing with you is that you shift from one argument to another. I was talking about groove in polyrhythmic drumming in a drum solo, then you bring up MM can't play a simple groove in HK. I show a vid that MM can play a simple groove in HK, then suddenly your argument is about MM not changing dynamics in the course of the song. So you're argument is really about dynamics?
I have a simple exercise. Listen to the original HK and focus on the snare. The snare alone nothing else. Does the snare change volume over the course of the song? Except for one small section where MP was hitting some sort of build up, no, the snare volume is practically the same all throughout. The buildup in the drumming in HK is in the busyness. The drums get busier and busier as the song progresses which creates this effect of a build up.
Now, let's go back to the MM vid. Was he hitting lots of crashes right at the start? No. Was he playing with the ride from the get go? No. Was he doing syncopated hits from the start? No. Was his bass drum playing fast and busy at the start? No. So overall, was the drumming in terms of busyness the same from start to finish the same? No.
You may not like how he is approaching the material, that's fine. Matter of taste. But to say that the drunming in HK is 10 from the start and does not change throughout the song? That's like typing a templated criticism without actually listening to the material.
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I can only account for what I hear. I feel he breaks into HK like the Kool Aid man, with a loud, and stiff drum beat. That may not even be so, but my ear tells me such. That's all I can say.
EDIT: And just as a point of comparison, check out this rendition, starting from 5:00 on:
https://youtu.be/wG7R-tVIw9Q
What exactly MP is playing is irrelevant, but the effect is important. He starts out with an easygoing, light beat, then gets increasingly more busy, and then switches to full blow. That's the dynamic I'm talking about, and what's missing in current HK.
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So MM started at full blow in the latest HK vid?
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To my ear, essentially, yes. Maybe started at 90%, and then brought it to 100% at the end.
I have said it before, I am not a drum aficionado. I essentially need the Tabasco sauce of drumming, and that includes starting at 20% and ramping it up to 100%. When the dynamic range is operating in the 5% range, I just don't hear it.
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So when you use the term dynamic range, which you like to throw a lot, are you referring to loudness? Because I would argue again that if you listen to original HK, the bootleg you shared and this good audio bootleg:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Zt5s1YiivhU
the one thing constant in the whole song, the snare, does not really go up in volume. It's the business of the cymbals and bass that create that effect.
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Comparing these videos, I don't think that the snare is the key element here. For me, the most obvious difference is in the hi-hat playing. MP's playing is more nuanced, he mixes it up, leaves some holes here and there, and yes, he plays around more with dynamics. MM's hi-hat playing is like a straight up metronome here.
PSMS also played it nicely, damn, when that B3 cuts in at 3:40: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9uMr5HIhQM
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Exactly. Which is why I treat the hi-hat criticisms as legit. Criticisms on dynamics though I really do not agree with because there really is not much change in volume throughout the song.
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Exactly. Which is why I treat the hi-hat criticisms as legit. Criticisms on dynamics though I really do not agree with because there really is not much change in volume throughout the song.
Isn't the hi-hat criticism intertwined with dynamics? Since he plays them with no dynamics.
edit: I get that you were talking about the song as a whole, and MM did build it up, but he also started right out with that stiff and loud hi-hat playing. Just because of that, MP's version will seem infinitely more dynamic by comparison, even if the real difference isn't that significant. I'd say that in this case, it's not the dynamic changes throughout the whole song what counts, but the dynamic variation between each hit, and that's where MP seems lively and MM stiff.
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The approach of the two drummers are different. MP played it unevenly, interspersing opening and cloaing hi-hats with the rides and some syncopated beats to make the song breathe. MM on the other hand played it sectionally, starting out with a very basic hi-hat then building up to a more intricate ride then putting in syncopation later.
I prefer MP's approach, but I think MM also has a good idea of not showing all your variations early on in the song. So if the two approaches are combined, that would be the best.
EDIT: In the first bars, was MM hitting the closing hi-hat accent with his snare hand while his other hand maintains the basic metronome hi-hat hits?
Also, there may not be a lot of nuances in the hi-hat playing of MM, but in typical Mangini fashion, there are lots of variations in his bass drums.