I almost fell off my throne last night

Late Bloomer

Senior Member
My Blues band were doing a guest appearance at a blues open mic jam last night. We were into our second song, Robben Ford's "Tired of Talking" which is a shuffle at 135bpm with a fair bit of off beat 16th phrasing etc. Behind the house Ludwig drumkit, there is drop of about 2 ft into a old unused fireplace and all of a sudden, I could feel the thrones back leg starting to slip over the edge into the fireplace. I had horrible visions of falling backwards into the old fireplace, so I just kept leaning right forward while playing the song.
Luckily, I just managed to get through the song without falling right over the edge, but it was getting very interesting.
 
My Blues band were doing a guest appearance at a blues open mic jam last night. We were into our second song, Robben Ford's "Tired of Talking" which is a shuffle at 135bpm with a fair bit of off beat 16th phrasing etc. Behind the house Ludwig drumkit, there is drop of about 2 ft into a old unused fireplace and all of a sudden, I could feel the thrones back leg starting to slip over the edge into the fireplace. I had horrible visions of falling backwards into the old fireplace, so I just kept leaning right forward while playing the song.
Luckily, I just managed to get through the song without falling right over the edge, but it was getting very interesting.
I don't understand the issue. Doesn't gravity work upwards down under, lol?
Seriously, I've had that happen on an undersized riser many years ago. I had no warning though, & went A over T. Luckily, it was only a few bars from the end of a number. I got away with a few laughs & a sore shoulder.
 
Bloomer---if you didn't fall off your throne, you clearly haven't had enough to drink! Please see your nearest available barmaid...here's one I highly recommend.
 

Attachments

  • beer-maid.jpg
    beer-maid.jpg
    11.4 KB · Views: 648
lol - well done for staying put, LB! It's distracting. I suspect a few of us have been placed close to the edge of a stage before. It scared the poops out of me when I've been in that situation.

Last year I played on a stage with a thin, deep cranny at the back that lead down into the dark pits of hell (or it might as well have been). I lost an o-ring and a stick down there. I wondered if the bar had some secret passageway so they could collect the sticks that would have dropped down there over time and flogged them off :)
 
Now if it had happened in the middle of Peace on my mind or There will never be another you, I'd be really upset.

...
 
I remember once playing a wedding in So. Cal, and the bassist pointed up above me. A HUGE black widow spider was descending from her web, almost right on top of me! So I'm playing Jeff Beck's 'Going Down' and scooting by throne over bit by bit backward, watching this black spider come on down and there's no way I can move far enough in time. I make a grab for my cowbell and right as this THING gets in front of my face, I pop it between the 'bell' and my stick, teetering on two of the three throne legs and was barely able to keep my balance. I did, but just barely. No one but me and the bassist and most of the audience saw this since the keyboardist and guitarist were heads down playing away. The only thing amiss was the cowbell sound for one note, but I did it on beat.

Wow, if this were the 60's you could write a song about it, a tune called Spider Boogie! An upbeat shuffle with HH and cowbell. The chorus could go "Smash that spider! Dooo the Spider Boogie *CLUNK CLUNK*"

...I think something's wrong with me
 
I never could get used to seeing him do that crazy bit...drives me nuts!

I can see coordinated-looking players any old day so it's fun to see something a bit different. It looks ungainly, as though it wouldn't work but, as they say, the rest is history ...

And that snare sound does it for me.
 
Why is it that people are always trying to back drummers up? Up against walls? Into corners? Edges of portable stages? People seem to think you can lean back against a wall and drum. I've hit my elbows against walls so many times being jammed back into some place. And as for risers, free standing stages; I want a minimum of a foot between my throne and the end of the stage. Two feet gives you a chance. Out here in earthquake country, you never know what will happen. A couple of feet gives you some place to land. Often I'll lay my hardware bag back there as a barrier and set my throne in front of it.

But LB, that song has breaks in it ("Cause it's time to go..."). Plenty of time to reach down, grab the throne and scoot it forward a couple of inches. You could even do that with one hand while hitting the toms after the break and leaving out the snare ghost notes. Of all the drummers I've seen play with Robben, only Tom seemed to get that part right. Most others would complicate it unnecessarily.
 
Why is it that people are always trying to back drummers up? Up against walls? Into corners? Edges of portable stages? People seem to think you can lean back against a wall and drum. I've hit my elbows against walls so many times being jammed back into some place. And as for risers, free standing stages; I want a minimum of a foot between my throne and the end of the stage. Two feet gives you a chance. Out here in earthquake country, you never know what will happen. A couple of feet gives you some place to land. Often I'll lay my hardware bag back there as a barrier and set my throne in front of it.

But LB, that song has breaks in it ("Cause it's time to go..."). Plenty of time to reach down, grab the throne and scoot it forward a couple of inches. You could even do that with one hand while hitting the toms after the break and leaving out the snare ghost notes. Of all the drummers I've seen play with Robben, only Tom seemed to get that part right. Most others would complicate it unnecessarily.

In all but one of the breaks, the hi hat is going on 2 and 4, so not really any time. We do the version with Brandon Temple drumming(I think thats his name). Its the version with the sound of electrical current at the beginning. That is my favourite version, especially that syncopated stop in the last verse after the guitar solo. Awesome song. Anyway, 'cause I enjoy playing that song so much, I did not want to risk mucking it up and throwing the rest of the band by pulling the throne back up over the edge. If everyone is not together with the phrasing, it kills it.
 
i hate being back up against a wall......it makes my drums sound weird sometimes and my elbows hit the wall.......my band is a 2 piece punk rock type thing so when we perform, i'm gonna be a frontman as well...........
 
Back
Top