A recent update to the crew photos page on dmband.com included some interesting photos from the 7/30/05 Randall's Island show. Shots of Carter show that he was wearing something on his left arm.

Exactly what he's strapped on isn't clear. The general consensus is that he's wearing a Nike Mp3 Player. Why would he wear this during a performance? He already wears an IEM feed in both ears--anything extra would only obstruct his movement.

Here are the pictures in question:

Carter's arm is beefy

Here we have an aerial view

The second gunman

Carter's been known to wear Nike clothing, is he rocking out a corporate sponsorship? He wouldn't be the first. Check out this article on corporate sponsorship of musicians. Aerosmith, Garth Brooks and Kiss are all listed.

Another possibility is that Carter simply didn't take his Mp3 player off for a performance. This very article may be the result of a theory put forth in this article on Advertising to Adolescents, giving the example:

"The sale of Adidas jogging suits climbed when alterna-metal band Korn hit the charts with its lead singer Jonathan Davis constantly decked out in Adidas jogging suits. He was under no contract, he just liked Adidas clothes..."

Weekly Davespeak keeps Justin Scott's Carter Beauford Drum Kit Diagram, so naturally we're curious when a new piece of equipment shows up. We're awaiting confirmation on the UFO. In the meantime, what are you waiting for? Be like Carter, and buy a flippin' solid-state Nike mp3 player.