Lordy lordy. Is that where people think I'm coming from? That I think one should play without variations not only within songs but between them? Or that there's a hard and fast rule about how one should play?
Oh boy, I need to work on my comms skills. Have I at any point said ANYTHING like that, JP? I saw on another thread that Average created this amazing straw man (or woman) accusing some of us of being postmodern, as though we can't tell a Weckl from a White. Alas, I'm afflicted with the curse of enjoying music that musicians aren't supposed to like
But I'm always keen to hear differentiation in a band's set. I get bored if all the songs a band plays sound similar. I want different tempos, dynamics, feels and arrangements. All of my favourite bands are eclectic. As David said, the $$ beat isn't something you do all the time, just one of the tools we use to scupt songs.
First thing for me is that the music does or says something that appeals to me. If the drummer is just playing a support role with a $$ beat or whatever, that doesn't make me like it less if it works. For an ageing has-been like me whose heyday was in the 80s, I find it better to play a good $$ beat than a bad version of the more complex things I played in the days when I had much more facility.