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Alex Nails it

Originally published in The Daily Telegraph (AU) on October 13, 2005

IT'S a long way from the local RSL to Madison Square Garden but Sydney-based drummer Alex Carapetis has made the remarkable transition after being recruited to hit the skins for heavyweight US rockers Nine Inch Nails.

Having previously played alongside Diesel, Jimmy Barnes, Nathan Cavaleri and Delta Goodrem, the 23-year-old has been called upon by the multi-million-selling industrial band to fill in for original Nails drummer Jerome Dillon.

Dillon was forced to leave the group's 42-date US tour because of a heart condition that saw him stagger off stage at an earlier concert.

And Carapetis has taken full advantage of the opportunity, joining the tour last week after just one practice session.

"Alex is doing great and fitting in well," Nails frontman Trent Reznor wrote on the band's website.

"We played the set with Alex for the first time at midnight the night before (a show). Not exactly how I like to do things but the only other alternative was to cancel more shows and I am not going to do that."

Carapetis has been playing drums since the age of 11 and studied jazz at the Adelaide Conservatorium before touring with the likes of Barnes and Goodrem.

But the Nails tour is in another league - the group are playing arenas in major cities in most US states, including the legendary Madison Square Garden in New York - and have had recent singles The Hand That Feeds and Only hit the top five of the US charts.

The band recently wowed rock fans in Sydney with two electrifying shows at the Hordern Pavilion, cranking out songs from their new studio effort With Teeth as well as old favourites like Closer and Head Like A Hole.

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