A very cool thing happened last night

Ha, loved it Pol. It's the video I've been waiting for! Tempo control in man's world was superb. I could feel you holding the guys right back at the start. A lovely stamping of drummer authority, cool! As for "Polly, the delicate butterfly of a drummer", yeah right! You're a credit to the primeval tub thumper's group! Tastefully done though, but with a drive that I wasn't expecting. As for you needing "subtle hihats", hmmmm, I don't think so. I'd keep the hats, & get the rest of the guys to up their mojo a bit. Both you & Glenn are giving it the beans, whereas the other guys are on cruise control. A band of two halves, although, in a strange way, that works. Glenn features himself, whereas the other guys feature you. I like that. Different, but cool.

As for the venue, well, there was more life in the smoking area behind the glass partition, & that's only because they needed to raise their arms to smoke, lol!

The kit sounded good, but didn't respond to your input when you turned on the drive. Probably just as well really, as the rest of the band didn't respond to Glen's power moments either. Ever thought of doing a Glenn & Pol White Stripes side project? Can Glenn play guitar? Just a few power chords should be enough.

Loved it Pol, & your a drummer with superb restraint & tempo, yet more power than you think. I suspected as such from your early material recordings. Very very cool stuff!
 
That is a great story. I expected it to end with, "he wanted us to pay him" , so the have it end with that great video restores a little of my faith in humanity.

I would love to come across a band like yours in some random dive bar. I would have sat and watched the entire set then left, half crocked Im sure, and raved about the quirky band with the great drummer I spent the night watching.

Just a thought. Maybe next time you guys should play in the smoking area. Seems to be the place to hang out.
 
That was a great way to start my day (listening to your band that is).

I absolutely love your singer, and your wonderful playing was very inspiring!

-Jonathan
 
haha I'm shocked! Thanks for the encouraging words, guys. I was half-expecting "hmm microtiming .... hmm tempos .... hmm that grip/stroke" ... which would have been fair enough.

@ Skulmoski, I might have messed up my karma ... just before reading your post I killed a cockroach :)

@ Bob ... good idea! It will take much more work but I think your decision to stick to acoustic kit was a good one. You play a familiar instrument and also get away from factory presents so you can tailor the sound to what you want.

@ jer ... the theme was blue jeans, white and grey so it wasn't teenage rebellion (for once).

@ Andy ... yeah, it's a funny fit - an old tub thumper like me playing this music. It's a fine line - easy for me to be overbearing with this music. I'm just learning to play things quietly with groove.

Unfortunately, Glenn doesn't play an instrument. We've actually talked about doing a duo a few times with me programming up the other instruments, but I haven't been able to get my head around online sequencers. The boys have improved a fair bit since last year (and I've improved in this style).

@ eclipse ... thankfully no stings in the tail. It doesn't look it but there were about 50 people there, there was a bunch of people further back in the main area. There's a full stage at the other side but it's set deep in the club and a bit dark. Another band told us it was nicer to set up by the windows with the greens and nature around us so it turned out to be good advice.

@ Pass.of.E.r.a. ... yeah Glenn's amazing. It takes me about 5 or 6 songs to even start warming up. He is "on" from the first note ... every time. Some people have just got it. Based on your Tool cover you seem to be pretty switched on yourself.
 
Thanks DED. I think Glenn and I both figute that if a song doesn't build up to the point of major hamming up then chances are that only half the job is done :)

Here's another excerpt, from the start of the gig: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cNGU9SDjbo

I have a problem where my left hand shakes so much at the start of gigs I can barely play. You'll see it in the second song.

This started at a gig in June after I hadn't played a gig for 9 months, and it's continued ever since ... only ever my left hand and only at gigs before I get warmed up (no matter how much practice pad I do beforehand). Bizarre. Makes it damn hard to play!

Has anyone every experienced anything like this?
 
Wow Pol what a bonus! I really enjoyed all that. Did feel bad for the guitarist. He looked pretty bad but he played quite well. Sad time for him.
Really a very good band though. Very interesting to watch. Nice drumming with feel and timing and all that. All seemed quite professional to me.
Your right arm definitely wants to rock though. I hope you get that sorted.
 
...

Somebody down the post count said you were a superb drummer and I agree. There is something very Gadd-like in your playing. In that the tempos, the grooves, and appropriateness of the spaces you choose to fill really added to every song that you played. Your general self effasiveness, added to the simplicity of your playing often hides the fact that you've got incredible mojo.. the little bit of magic that you cant buy or learn.

The singer is fabulous and you look cute in your little sailor outfit ; )


...
 
Cheers Jim. Yeah, Michael's situation did make us feel a bit weird but he really had the stiff upper thing happening. If you didn't know him you'd never know that he'd been through such an intense time.

And yes, that left hand thing is killing me. In June the shakes were so bad that I missed a number of backbeats in the first song - really embarrassing.

Abe! That's is the best compliment anyone's ever given me! And here I was thinking that the horizontal stripes made me look fat ...

:)
 
Very cool indeed, Polly! You're a mighty fine drummer. You and the singer (who's also very awesome) were dynamically matched the whole time and it worked beautifully! I figured you were pretty good but that was *perfect*.
 
@ Andy ... yeah, it's a funny fit - an old tub thumper like me playing this music. It's a fine line - easy for me to be overbearing with this music. I'm just learning to play things quietly with groove.
Pol, my comment copied here: Tempo control in man's world was superb. I could feel you holding the guys right back at the start. A lovely stamping of drummer authority, cool! As for "Polly, the delicate butterfly of a drummer", yeah right! You're a credit to the primeval tub thumper's group! Tastefully done though, but with a drive that I wasn't expecting., was meant as a very positive statement. You didn't come across as a basher in a subtle context, quite the reverse. I found your dynamic & conviction very refreshing, & yes, unexpected in that context. I also remarked about how locked in to Glenn's dynamic you were too. Again, refreshing. The band featured your playing even more by being a touch on the benign side. At no point did I find your playing "overbearing". If Glenn was a shrinking violet, that might be different, but he isn't, & needs a player to run with him.

As for the merits of horizontal stripes, I think you cut a pretty good visual too.

As for the kit, & I know I'm going to get flamed for this, but I'm sticking with my original observation that it doesn't respond as well as it could when you go for the drama stuff. Great for 95% of your playing, but when you deliver those big support pieces, it needs to grow in depth as well as volume. Bottom heads on the toms (especially evident on the second song in your latest clip) & a full kick reso head would go some way to helping IMO.

Anyhow Pol, I hope you're taking my comments constructively, & in the same way you'd deliver comments about my stuff. Bottom line is, it's a great performance all round!
 
@ MikeM ... cheers! Yes, Glenn and I are pretty well on the same page dynamically because we're both hams :)

@ DMC ... actually, the attack of kindness was entirely unprovoked. I didn't remember the guy at all. Based on the amount of camera time on my boobs, perhaps he remembered me better. A friend saw the vid and wondered if the guy fancied me lol

@ Skulmoski ... or maybe an irresponsible vocalist or a guitarist who steals your gear?

@ Andy ... true, Glenn definitely wants the burners turned up when he goes for the big notes - which suits me down to the ground.

I have to be careful dynamically with the other instruments too; if I get too loud (which happens at times) we lose the good stuff coming from the tasty tones of the guitar and keys. Apart from trying to groove playing mellow I've found the other hard thing is adjusting from level you normally expect from drums in a rock band (ie. prominent). Some passages work best when I'm embedded in the total sound to the point where you'd have to listen carefully to pick what the drums are doing.

I like the fact that the band is more "drummy" than most playing this style - drums with a touch of rock spirit add edge and take away the tweeness that can so easily happen. It's sad to bands where the drums sound limp all night, played by some bored guy who lost his enthusiasm years ago and is treating it as a job.
 
I like the fact that the band is more "drummy" than most playing this style - drums with a touch of rock spirit add edge and take away the tweeness that can so easily happen. It's sad to bands where the drums sound limp all night, played by some bored guy who lost his enthusiasm years ago and is treating it as a job.
Hear hear! That's exactly the point I'm making, & what I like so much about your performances. As for being careful dynamically, I'll go out on a limb here, & say I think it's up to the other band members to raise their game & go with you. I know that's against convention, but I don't think convention suits your band. Of course, that power edge needs the juxtaposition of mellow passages, & also needs to feature the other band instruments, but Glenn has an edge of his own, & derseves a band with a similar dynamic range.
 
That certainly was some great drumming. I realise I'm only repeating what's already been said, but hey, that certainly is great drumming. Nice feeling for groove, you really seem to give a drive to the band.

Great band too. :)

BTW, how is it to be the only ''girl'' in what seems to be a ''men's band''?

As for being careful dynamically, I'll go out on a limb here, & say I think it's up to the other band members to raise their game & go with you. I know that's against convention, but I don't think convention suits your band.

True. If only more bands were to realise this. Drummers can be more than just timekeepers to music, and Polly really seems to have that 'edge'. Don't be afraid to let the drums speak for you, Poll. ;)

Now, I will leave it to others to do the ''ego-inflating''. ;)
 
One thing I'll say about Pol's playing...She can make songs that I don't particularly care for and hold my interest till the very end. It's because she makes the time feel soooo goooood. THAT'S what makes her so easy to listen to. You look very much at home behind a kit, and you convey, in my mind anyway, the right attitude and feel that makes your band work. You are a big part of why your band works so well.

And you are so cute. Almost every white woman I know is too self effacing IMO. White women could take a lesson from the black woman. Black women can be 300 lbs and when they dress up to go out, they behave like they are all that. And they are, as long as they think that.

Love your feel Pol. You are very humble when it comes to your own drumming, which is preferable to the alternative, but you've got "it", and no amount of self deprecation will change that for me. You have the right idea though. It's only good when others to sing the praises. Otherwise, we'd all be like Purdie lol.
 
Not much I can say that hasn't already been said, but suffice to say that your drumming is a perfect fit for the band, not too much in either background or foreground, but matching the intensity of the music very well moment to moment. Good timekeeping, nice balanced sound...good.
 
I'm gobsmacked by the positive replies!

The drummer face you don't notice at the time of the gig.

Drummer face, BD?? Perish the thought!


keep it simple said:
Glenn has an edge of his own, & derseves a band with a similar dynamic range.

Yes, he does. Hopefully we'll get better and give him that - this lounge-y stuff is a bit of a new frontier for most of the band (me too) and with luck we'll get the hang of it ...


larryace said:
You are very humble when it comes to your own drumming, which is preferable to the alternative, but you've got "it", and no amount of self deprecation will change that for me. You have the right idea though. It's only good when others to sing the praises. Otherwise, we'd all be like Purdie lol.

Scary thought, Larry. I think there's only room for one BP in this world ... oh did I tell you that I played on all The Beatles's recordings? :)

If my microtiming, stiff shoulders, dexterity, limb independence and foot control miraculously sort themselves out I'll start being a big head ... until then I'll keep pumping out my joyful slop :)


Lex said:
BTW, how is it to be the only ''girl'' in what seems to be a ''men's band''?

Lex, too often find women musos are either trained players moving in more advanced musical circles or they're untrained and hopeless. I rarely meet any who are in the middle like me so I've always played in mixed bands or with guys.

As it is, our singer is my best "girlfriend" and we're the mad rats of the band *grin*... the boys are much more quiet and refined haha. The vid pretty accurately reflects the band member's personalities.


PQley said:
Not much I can say that hasn't already been said ...

Cheers PQ - it's miles from your preferred style. Cool that you can go with it.


Guys, thanks for all the positive comments - very encouraging!
 
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