Ridiculously oversized kits

Jeff Almeyda

Jeff Almeyda

Senior Consultant
What is it with guys that have to bring tons of drums gear to a basic classic rock cover gig?

My town did a music fest last week. The bands were classic rock cover bands, Stones, Eagles etc.

The drummer on stage had a kit that would have done Bozzio proud.

Full DW (what else?) kit with 4 rack toms, 2 floors, a gong bass drum and a side snare.

2 sets of wind chimes !
2 gongs!!! (one was easily 36" dia)
full set of 8 octobans
full set of electronic pads
his own mics, mixer and monitor

Cymbals galore! Rides, crashes, splashes (lots of em), chinas, O-Zones with holes in them etc

All of this mounted on a 2 story square "power Tower" type of rack. Some cymbals looked 8 feet off the ground

Do you need all of this to play "My Best Friends Girlfriend" by The Cars? (Rhetorical question alert!)

I never saw the guy use 2/3 of the stuff on the stage.

The band members were all middle aged, no kids.

What gives?

Is it just a rich guy getting off on his Neil Peart kick? (It is an upscale neighborhood)

Do some people think this is cool? It just seems like such an exercise in vanity.
 
I imagine he's popular with drum retailers. I wonder how long it took him to tune, set up and down and to lug? It's a tough job but I guess someone's got to do it. Variety is the spice of life.
 
Jeff Almeyda said:
Do some people think this is cool? It just seems like such an exercise in vanity.
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Vanity perhaps, but usually it's just lack of professionalism.

I bring only what I need for a particular gig, both in terms of pieces and sizes. Tonight for example, it's kick, snare, hat, and a crash/ride cymbal.

Of course there are gigs where I bring all four drums and both cymbals.

Bermuda
 
That sounds like the mark of someone who gigs 2 or 3 times a year.

Hey as long as you don't have to move it...


But I hear ya. It's way over the top. Could even be a little sad.
 
Mindless consumerism. There is a feeling of "win", being able to purchase every possible drum toy on earth and show them off. In the U.S. especially, people were (and still are) raised to be consumers of products...it's a business, to get people to buy things they don't want or need.
 
Jeff Almeyda said:
2 sets of wind chimes !
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It was all sounding perfectly reasonable until we got to this ;) ;) ;) (kidding)




My 6 piece goes out with my band, but it's used - all of it, including ONE set of wind chimes :) In fact, we're just discussing my dilemma involving a 4 piece vs. 6 piece on another thread right now. My band is mortified by the prospect of me doing the next few gigs on a little bop 4 piece, although i'm up for it :) The need for a lot of melodic expression drives my 6 piece decision, although I've always had a 4 piece setup as my practice/backup kit/groove gig kit.

The monster you're describing is just a collection of ego fed appendages TBH. That said, Simon Phillips goes out on a jazz piano trio gig with his monster kit, & uses every damn piece of it, so who am I to judge.

Just guessing, but I'm pretty sure the guy you saw was no Simon Phillips ;)
 
Bermuda's right, if the set is too large for the music, it's certainly less professional. On those occasions when I did gig a monster kit, I was using it all, and not just because it was there... we were doing originals where I composed the drum parts on the larger kit. Even then, there were plenty of times I scaled it down due to time or stage constraints.

We had another thread going where there was a discussion of this being a symptom of a certain age of drummer. My personal opinion is that it's like a visual expression of being a packrat.

To be fair, in a lot of the videos where Bozzio is playing with a band, he's playing a tiny fraction of his kit (and, IMO, his weird sound palette these days doesn't fill the same sonic space).

I seem to remember once seeing a band with a lot of crazy stage antics and a drummer with a Bozzio-style setup doing simple four-on-the-floor covers that they never could get cooking correctly. Too much flash, too many people sitting down with arms folded. They were followed by a four-piece band in t-shirts, jeans, and a drummer with a 4-piece kit. They kicked off their set by playing the last song the previous band did, but they swung it hard. The dance floor suddenly got packed, and the previous band slunk out of there with their tail between their legs, never to be seen again in that venue...
 
It’s not just drummers …

The wife and I were at a smallish pizza place awhile back that has bands on the weekends, they were setting up as we were ordering. We watched as the guys (a cover band) brought in lighting trusses, a 6 piece kit with many cymbals, Marshall half stacks and such, then they proceeded to put mics in front of it all; really in this place? A bop kit and Fender Deluxe size amps would have filled this room with plenty of sound un-miced!

It was a bunch of middle aged weekend warrior types, living out a rock and roll fantasy I guess, we didn’t stay to hear them.
 
alparrott said:
I seem to remember once seeing a band with a lot of crazy stage antics and a drummer with a Bozzio-style setup doing simple four-on-the-floor covers that they never could get cooking correctly. Too much flash, too many people sitting down with arms folded. They were followed by a four-piece band in t-shirts, jeans, and a drummer with a 4-piece kit. They kicked off their set by playing the last song the previous band did, but they swung it hard. The dance floor suddenly got packed, and the previous band slunk out of there with their tail between their legs, never to be seen again in that venue...
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Ha. That is so funny. I too recently saw a band and the drummer had a three up 2 down double ride, double hats, 4 crashes, 2 chinas, 3 splashes, side snares, bells, blocks

Holy cow! He played only a small portion of the kit.

The next band came on and the drummer had a bass, snare, ride hats and one crash.

He totally killed it and I never missed or was left wanting for a tom fill or splash.

TomPlaysDrums said:
By all means have as big a kit as you want at home but like bermuda said if you dont need it at the gig dont bring it.
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I too have indulged in the over the top kit at home or at our rehearsal space. It's a lot of fun.

It's just stupid when you don't need it on a gig but you bring it anyway.
 
Kudzu Monroe said:
It’s not just drummers …

The wife and I were at a smallish pizza place awhile back that has bands on the weekends, they were setting up as we were ordering. We watched as the guys (a cover band) brought in lighting trusses, a 6 piece kit with many cymbals, Marshall half stacks and such, then they proceeded to put mics in front of it all; really in this place? A bop kit and Fender Deluxe size amps would have filled this room with plenty of sound un-miced!

It was a bunch of middle aged weekend warrior types, living out a rock and roll fantasy I guess, we didn’t stay to hear them.
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You've pretty much described our band. We go out with a full show, but not to a pizza place. That said, we do bring an over sized show to smaller venues (say 200+). Both venue owners & audiences seem to like it, as we command almost double the going rate on average & fill almost every venue we play. We don't haul that show for vanity, we haul it because it's part of getting us more gigs than we can handle, & pride in sounding + looking as good as we can.
 
I play mostly clubs, fairs, and family campgrounds. I bring a 4 piece kit with hats, splash, 2 crashes, and a ride, sometimes a 22" Swish Knocker for fun.
No one has ever said to me that I should have brought my 6 piece kit with everything possible that can go with it. I have taken my 6 piece out on rare occasion when I was in the mood to lug it.
 
Don't look at me, I loathe to bring any more than 2 cymbals and a floor tom to my rock band's gigs.

I used to be "that guy", though. Bringing my 6-piece CB kit to a different rock band's gigs, trying to fit it in the back of a tiny record store. 5 or 6 brass crashes, 3 splashes, an awful stack... it was a bad idea. The kit was actually 12-12-13-16 with a mismatched 12" tom that I just thought was so cool... I have learned my lesson!
 
Brian said:
Mindless consumerism. There is a feeling of "win", being able to purchase every possible drum toy on earth and show them off.
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My feeling of "win" is when I bring the least I can to the gig and make it work. Also, when I don't let on to groups that I have more instruments than I'm bringing...otherwise, it turns into, "Wow! You have a gong? Could you bring that and play it once at the beginning of this song? Oh, you have a pair of congas? Maybe you could bring those, too, and play them on just one song..." Ugh.
 
And yet...

How many times on this forum do we congratulate a member for acquiring a new piece of gear, a snare drum, a cymbal, even a whole new kit, equipment that member didn't really need? How many complete drum kits do some members here own? How many snare drums? How many cymbals?

So if one guy, a weekend warrior by the looks of it, decides to bring his big because-I-can-afford-it array of drumming equipment to a a local music festival one day, why should any of us rag on him? Maybe his family was going to be there and he wanted to show off, you don't know.

What we do know is that it's his gear and he's entitled. I hope he had a good time, him and his band and their friends.
 
People hear with their eyes. I think most drummers want the look of their kit to convey a certain message. That would probably explain Bermuda's bass drum reso head. :)

When I did some recording with the surf band the guitarist was telling me that he was impressed with the way my time didn't waver during a take and from take to take. Two weeks later he was going on and on about a great drummer he heard. When I asked him what he was impressed with he started describing his huge Pearl kit.

Most of the venues I play would be hard pressed to fit anything bigger than a standard four or five piece kit.
 
bermuda said:
Vanity perhaps, but usually it's just lack of professionalism.

I bring only what I need for a particular gig, both in terms of pieces and sizes. Tonight for example, it's kick, snare, hat, and a crash/ride cymbal.

Of course there are gigs where I bring all four drums and both cymbals.

Bermuda
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I can attest to this. when I saw Bermuda play with Weird Al his solo was only 5 notes long.
 
I saw Buddy Rich once, and most of us know how big a set he played. Even at that, it was modest compared to what may play today. Yet buddy played everything he brought, including the shells, lugs, sticks, and rims! And he drove a big band to boot. He went to a gunfight with a gun, but he brought the right gun with plenty of amo. He brought what he needed, no more, no less. There's a lesson there.
 
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