You feel it before you hear it. Then the room turns as one to find out where it is coming from.
Percussion is pure energy with no lyrics and no language to get in the way. Taiko drummers landing hits you feel in your chest, samba lines snaking through a crowd, tabla and dhol lifting an entrance, or an electronic drummer locked in with your DJ to turn a decent dance floor into a proper one.
It works as an arrival, a build up to a big reveal, a bridge between the meal and the evening, or the thing that reminds a corporate audience they are at a party rather than a conference.
Loud, physical and impossible to talk over, which is exactly the point.