After four decades, this one-of-a-kind Kansas City classic will stop the beat

The door chimed, and in walked Rejean Barbeau, a French-Canadian gentleman with a shaved head, front teeth like a shark’s, multiple facial piercings and a graying goatee that hung several inches off the front of his chin.

He was in the market for a drum kit. He was in the right place: Explorers Percussion, a backbone of Kansas City’s drumming community for the better part of the last 40 years.

“That Ludwig there, that’s a more entry-level kit — it’s a more conservative start,” said co-owner Lorene Faulconer, popping out from behind the counter. She gestured toward the yellow set sitting beside it. “With this Mapex, you’ll be in pretty solid shape for a while. You could get sassy down the road with some high-end cymbals if you wanted. Have you ever owned drums before?”

The phone rang, and Lorene excused herself to answer it. The phone’s been ringing a lot lately at Explorers. In February, she and her husband, Wes, announced they would wind down operations at their Waldo shop at the end of March. Longtime friends and customers have been checking in to say goodbye, and many others have been calling in search of deals on percussion instruments and other equipment as the Faulconers drain their existing inventory.

They’d prefer to lease the building at 8050 Wornall Road, which they own, to another drum or music shop. If not, Wes and Lorene might rent to a different type of business, or possibly keep Explorers going in a diminished capacity, with shorter business hours and less inventory.

But either way, the end of March will mark the end of an era — one that began at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory, where as a student in the early 1980s Wes sold his classmates sticks and mallets and drum heads he stored in a large locker at the school. (That’s also where he met Lorene, a pianist at the conservatory.)

A few years later, Wes opened his first proper retail space in the basement of what is now Waldo Pizza, then moved on to a space beneath some apartments near what is now Summit Grill.

Those were short stints.

“A drum shop downstairs while upstairs people are trying to live and work and sleep,” Wes said. “It didn’t work out too good. We had humble beginnings, you could say.”

Lesson learned. They bounced around a few more Waldo addresses before buying the 8,000-square-foot Wornall building that Explorers has occupied for the last 25 years. The Faulconers never took out a business loan, opting instead to plow their earnings straight back into inventory for the shop. “It made me a more disciplined buyer,” Wes said. “For several years, I didn’t spend much money on myself at all. But we’ve always been pretty much debt-free because of that.”

Independent retailers of musical instruments were more common in Kansas City in Explorers’ early days, but the shop has always been unique on the local landscape. It is a specialty music store catering to percussionists — no guitars or keyboards here — that also offers drum repairs, drum rentals and studios in the back for drum lessons. (“The kids taking lessons, they usually start with AC/DC’s ‘Back in Black,’” Lorene said. “I’ll bet you I’ve heard that beat coming from the back studios 10,000 times.”)

Explorers was also ahead of the curve on carrying world music instruments, which gained popularity in the late ’80s and early ’90s. It was, and still is, one of the only places in Kansas City to purchase a surdo (a Brazilian bass drum), a cajón (a Peruvian box that percussionists sit atop) or a djembe (a goblet-shaped African drum covered in animal skin).

But drum sets, cymbals and high-end snares still make up the bulk of Explorers’ sales. Players in high school bands, churches and marching bands are regulars at the shop, as are local musicians like Andy Hambleton, who stopped in last week to pick up some Vic Firth sticks and a drum head ahead of a gig that weekend at The Phoenix.

“I’ve spent money with Wes in about five different locations, going back to 1982,” Hambleton said. Like many drummers, Hambleton is something of a compulsive gearhead, so he wasn’t saying goodbye for good. “Oh, I’ll definitely be back before they close this place down.”

The perks of running a drum business can be nice. Over the years, the Faulconers have sold instruments to, and in some cases hosted clinics for, some of the world’s most famous rock acts: touring drummers for Paul McCartney, Journey, Santana, Styx, Prince, Tool and the Killers. The shop has also connected the Faulconers and their staff with the local music scene, past and present.

“When I first got into business, I got to meet musicians who’d been playing around KC as far back as the ’30s and ’40s — guys like Speedy Huggins, who’d tell stories about old gigs and old drum sticks and would bring in old drum catalogs for me,” Wes said. “It’s been a really rich experience in that way, getting to know several generations of players in town.”

Amazon and big-box retailers like Guitar Center have taken some bites out of Explorers’ business model, but Wes said that’s not why they’re closing. The Faulconers’ children live out of state now, and they have grandkids they’d like to visit more. And the Elton John cover band Wes plays in — Elton Dan and the Rocket Band — has been playing out of town more lately. “We thought it would be nice to end on a positive note,” Wes said.

In the meantime, inventory is moving fast.

“We’re all cleaned out of congas, but we do have some bongos left,” Lorene told that caller last week. She hung up.

Off in the corner, a customer was sampling the shop’s cymbals, each tap a miniature explosion producing a slightly different pitch. Somebody else kept shaking a tambourine. The door chimed to greet a new visitor. Lorene returned to Barbeau, to close the sale on the Mapex kit.

“Now, the only thing we haven’t talked about is a seat …” she said, unruffled after four decades by the cacophony that’s surrounding her for just a few more weeks.