The plaza outside of Faneuil Hall is generally packed with tourists and performers on a summer weekend, but the performers can often feel as commercial as the shops around them. Breakdance crews with highly rehearsed acrobatics and jokes draw big crowds, and there always seems to be a guitarist with Ed Sheeran covers.
From his perch on a milk crate, striking plastic buckets, pots, and pans, drummer JoshOnBuckets carried out a different busking tradition this past Saturday. Following in the tradition traced back by some to the Civil War and perfected in the 1990s by a 13-year-old Harlem prodigy named Larry Wright, JoshOnBuckets shook up the sidewalk crowd with a mix of authenticity and sheer energy. Onlookers stared as though hypnotized by his relentless rhythm, nodding along to the beat. More than one Sephora customer accidentally blocked the doorway to the nearby store, momentarily abandoning their shopping missions to fiddle with their bags, fishing for their phones to take a quick video.
Josh played at breakneck speed, twirling his drumsticks, readjusting a backing track on his phone, kicking a cymbal on the ground. His music had an improvisational, spontaneous feel. Occasionally, as people dropped money into his bucket, his performance was punctuated by his voice-cracking scream: “I can’t believe I made mooonnneeyyyyy!” or “I can’t believe it’s working!” The crowd’s laughter ramped up his act further.
According to Josh (full name: Joshua Rodriguez), his musical career began roughly two decades ago at age 13, more or less by accident. He has no formal training apart from playing marching band in middle school; he practiced his drums outside in an effort not to annoy his mom. He soon found that people were stopping and giving him money. “So I just rode with it,” he said, and started seeking out busier and busier areas.
Josh has sourced his pots and pans from antique shops. When asked about the buckets he said, “I just like the way they sound — they sound so much better than real drums.” He used to perform every day, but just bought an abandoned building in New Hampshire with the money he’s earned from busking (which can run anywhere from $100 a day to several hundred) and so goes up there a few times a month to work on it. He has been performing at Fanueil Hall for over a decade.
Rather than playing individual songs, he seemed to ride a rolling wave of music, an endless stream of energy.
Ari Williams, visiting from Virginia, smiled as she dropped a bill in the bucket. “I like his passion and his bare set up. He seems like he really cares about making music — that’s why I gave him money,” she said.
Eric, visiting from Orlando, Fla., was nodding along as well. “I love it. Is he the best musician in the world? No, but he has a vibe going on out here,” he said, gesturing to the crowd. “We’re visiting from Florida and looking for some culture and that’s exactly what we’ve found here.”
Another watcher held a dollar in their hand, debating whether or not to walk up and drop it in his bucket. “I don’t want to disturb him, he’s in the mode,” they said.
When asked if he was on Spotify, or if there was anywhere that people could find his music online, Josh shook his head,
“I just play on the street. I don’t really have any music anywhere,” he said. “I just like that it’s here, spontaneous. And I like that if you want to find me, you have to find me here.”
How to Follow JoshOnBuckets: On Instagram here.
Where I’m going next: Photoville X Winchester.
