PRESS
NOTABLE REVIEWS MENTIONING Elijah's work on SHANIA TWAIn's 2018 now tour:
"And while Twain is unquestionably the life of the tour, its heartbeat is 22-year-old drummer Elijah Wood, the shadowy figure who started the show with a drumbeat...Throughout the first half of the show, Wood shone, but always in the background, in that fundamental way. Then it happened. The drum solo. Drum kit mastery, above jackhammer quickness, involves a simplicity that can erupt into chaos at any moment, always back and forth. Plenty of drummers can parade around a drum kit — often at an impressive clip — but few have mastered its secret monasticism.
...At Wednesday night’s show, Elijah Wood proved herself one of the enlightened drummers. Jammed into an embankment of drums — big drums, a Gretsch kit, with a tight snare and four tom-toms, loud, massive. If you saw it with the music muted, you’d swear Wood — with the long silver hair and a coal-black outfit — was a heavy-metal drummer. Her solo had the wild sharpness of John Bonham, a longtime hero of hers. Like Bonham, she’s a head-down drummer, seeming so enraptured by the beat that she involuntarily faced the floor as she thrashed at the drums, the drumsticks and the clear drumheads colliding with a dangerous intensity that shook the entire stadium." – Dallas Observer
"And when Twain disappeared through a trap door after the "sexy grooving music," as she called it, of "Let's Kiss and Make Up," the spotlight shifted to drummer Elijah Wood, who managed to earn the most enthusiastic reaction I've seen to a drum solo since Rush's final tour." – AZCentral
"Shania Twain fans jumped to their feet and excitedly whipped their heads around the still-lit Bridgestone Arena Saturday night when the music started. Twain’s drummer Elijah Wood — a rock-solid, captivating player — pounded out a rhythm from the b-stage at the back of the arena’s floor." – Tennessean
"As the crowd at PPG Paints Arena buzzed with excitement before the show began last night, loud beats of a drum reverberated from a small stage in the middle of the arena floor. It came from drummer Elijah Wood, who, with body flailing and blonde hair flying, alerted the packed arena that the queen of country pop had arrived." – Post Gazette
"[Shania] stayed busy throughout the show, and employs a stage crew that barely took a break from shuttling staircases, unfurling curtains and transporting the platform bearing band MVP, drummer Elijah Wood, to various areas of the stage." – AJC
"Making great use of a set that featured five cubes adorned with video screens, rolling stairs, a flying drum riser (manned to perfection by transgender drummer Elijah Wood) and six lithe and agile dancers who sometimes added background vocals, Twain was able to captivate the Gund, er, Quicken Loans Arena crowd for the best part of two hours." – Cleveland.com
"Twain started the two-hour show by playing a bit of Queen through the house PA system. Positioned near the back of the arena floor, hard-hitting drummer Elijah Wood hammered away at a single snare while Twain made her way through the floor seats before arriving on stage to sing “Life’s About to Get Good,” a feel-good anthem from Now." – Clevescene
"Always the flashy performer, Twain began her performance in the midst of the audience in the stands while her amazing trans female drummer Elijah Wood (not the actor) — who also played on the Rock This Country trek as a young man — pounded a drum kit to Queen’s “We Will Rock You” on a smaller b-stage on the floor." – Toronto Sun
"She never introduced her ensemble, but Let’s Kiss and Make Up featured the tremendous power of transgender drummer Elijah Wood (not the Hobbit), and Edmonton seemed particularly bad at the timing our kiss-cam smooches, though a lucky fan had one planted on him by Twain." – Edmonton Journal
"Take the beginning of the show as a prime example. When the lights went out after a loud pre-tape of Queen's "We Will Rock You," drummer Elijah Wood appeared on the satellite stage banging out a loud beat on two drums. With the audience's attention diverted, Twain actually made her initial appearance halfway up an aisle in a side section of the audience." – HeraldExtra
"What followed was a drum solo which weirdly morphed into a kiss cam while Shania got ready for her next amazing feat. It’s great to see a good mix of male and female performers on stage with Shania and the drummer is my favourite. She’s going hell for leather on the skins and is later raised into the rafters of the building because there’s no space for her on stage." – Live In Limbo
"...the encore reinforced that her “Smells Like Teen Spirit” is the deathless, triumphant “Man!! I Feel Like a Woman,” and that it’s bashed out even better when the drummer is more than 50 feet above the stage." – Philly.com
"The show opened with drummer Elijah Wood pounding away on a small stage at the rear of the arena floor, which was a distraction as Twain walked down the aisle between Sections 102 and 103. She strutted onto the floor and made her way to the stage as fans cheered." – STL Today
NOTABLE REVIEWS MENTIONING Elijah's work on SHANIA TWAIn's 2015 rock this country tour:
"Everything else about the show was set up to live up to the tour's name, Rock This Country. Twain's sturdy, seven-piece band was decked out in all black attire, with an emphasis on leather. And during the superstar's costume changes, the ensemble showed off their voluminous chops, rousing the crowd with bombastic guitar shredding instrumentals. The staging of the nearly two-hour set was pure arena rock overkill, with lots of pyrotechnics and a colorful laser light show." — Rolling Stone
"The band was exceptionally tight and consisted of seven other band members on guitars, strings, keyboard and drums. Shania shocked her drummer Elijah Wood by inviting him to join her at the front of the stage as she introduced him to the crowd, sharing that he is only 19 years old, is new to the tour and is a local Long Island native from nearby Port Washington. The fans cheered wildly. Elijah was exceptionally sharp and on point like a seasoned pro proudly playing his heart out with a youthful energy and fierce, forceful drum banging, rocking out during every song with full on head banging. It was quite an impressive display proving that Elijah could easily compete with some of the most experienced and best drummers in rock and roll." — ZEALnyc
"... she let the strength of her material and the prowess of her well-drilled band provide much of the heavy lifting, while relying on her infectious verve and well-honed charm and personality to seal the deal. …. Her band played with well-oiled precision throughout, whether providing a Texas-swing lilt to “I’m No Quitter” or rocking out with gusto on “Honey, I’m Home,” which suggested what Def Leppard might have sounded like if it had relocated to Nashville." — San Diego Union Tribune
"Oh, and not surprisingly, she has a brilliant band ... They played their asses off while singing and striding back and forth across the stage." — Now Toronto
Check out Elijah in the December 2015 issue of Drum! Magazine