Gigging Mishaps

I went to a country town gig without cymbals.
I went to a winery gig without a bass drum.
And a local gig without floor tom legs.

Two years ago my band got to play a small local music festival. Our lead singer was away, but we had got a stand in, and had a well rehearsed 45 minute set.

We were due to go on at 10 pm, as the last act for the night. I emailed the organiser who confirmed that guitarists and bass players would need to bring their own amplifiers, but that there would be a PA and a drum kit.

We got to the venue (Collaroy, on Sydney's Northern Beaches) with time to spare and made our way to the stage where we were due to play. There were 2 acts still ahead of us, with the one currently playing being a band. The band finished and...departed with their drum kit.

The organiser denied having told me a drum kit would be provided (it was all done by email).

We managed to blag our way to the main stage where there actually was a drum kit that would be left on stage.

Only to be told that we couldn't possibly go on at 10 because that was when the festival shut down for the night.

Some more negotiating and the sound guys agreed to stay so that we could get our slot.

More negotiating to persuade the last drummer that his cymbals would be safe with me.

During all of this, the whole festival area kept being plunged into darkness, because the generators were not up to the task and the circuits kept tripping.

Eventually we got to play. We had a small crowd of people determined to drink the evening to its lees...and then the rain arrived.

Saw a belter on Sunday night. Went to see Flower Kings/Spocks Beard in London.

Spocks Beard tripped the noise limiter and everything went off apart from the mics. I didn't think they had limiters that were that sensitive in theatres. They weren't loud, I was stood next to the sound guy.

I've had a few mishaps with drums, but nothing too spectacular.

• I've forgotten my cymbal bag, but always with enough time to retrieve it in time.
• I've had cymbal tilters loosen so that my crash cymbals fall
• I've forgotten my drum rug and had to deal with the walkaway kick drum
• I've dropped a stick and forgot to have anything handy nearby, so I had to find and retrieve the dropped stick while playing. (that's a mistake you only make once)
• I've had my kick beater catch in my pants cuff.

Nothing major with drums though - I've had much more interesting mishaps happen as a trumpet player.

Puking on my kit at a gig wasn't exactly what I would call a "highlight". The clean up was even worse.

Once I had the tab that holds the spring snap off my main pedal 15 seconds into the first song and had to play the entire set off the slave pedal with my left foot. Fortunately for me, when I'm driving and listening/playing along to music, I would play the bass drum with my left foot since the right was busy with gas/brake duties, so it was that much of a reach, but a few people that noticed were buggin' out over it.

Not me, but too many to mention when another band member was too shitfaced to perform at any acceptable level.

K Chez said:

Not me, but too many to mention when another band member was too shitfaced to perform at any acceptable level.

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Mate. I can't remember the time I played in your band. But I do apologise !

I put one of the rack toms on upside down at my first show and then couldn't figure out why it sounded bad.. I had my friend come up and tune it for me. Didn't realize that was why until I was taking them apart.

Last weekend played a house party and let another band's drummer use my kit when I was done and while she was playing the crash stand collapsed so the cymbal was resting on one of the rack toms, I guess it wasn't tightened up enough. I went and fixed it between the songs.

For this gig, I was told to bring my cymbals. I brought hats, and two crashes. When I got to the venue, the house kit had 15" hats, so I wanted to try them out instead of my 14" new beats.

Well, my dumbass put the top hat as crash #1 by accident. First song, I was wondering why my crash sounded pingy. Doh! Had o swap it out real fast after the first song.

Not so much a regular gig ,but back in my marching band days ,the bass drummer forgot the straps that attached the drum to the marching harness.

We had to tie a rope around the back of his neck that went through the eye holes of the bass drum attachment screws.

Hot humid day and parade was like two miles long.

Ughhh!