Fixation on drumming

Phills

Member
A question for the friday:
When you go to a concert, do you keep your eyes and ears fixed on the drummer or can you see, hear and enjoy the whole ensemble?
Because I can be a bit obsessed sometimes…
 
It was that exact thing that finally convinced me that I needed to get off my arse and start taking lessons and learn to play myself. :)

Now that I actually play, I watch in a different way but always drawn to the drummer first.
 
And miss everything else going on? Perish the thought.

Sure I check out the drummer, what they're doing, how they're doing it, what gear they're using, see if there's anything I can beg, borrow or steal off him.......but I'm there for everything else too. If a bass player is laying down some heavy groove, I'm all over it. A vocalist using his voice like an instrument, I want in on it. A guitarist totally ripping it apart, give it to me baby!

Drums are just one part of a musical experience.....without the rest it's pretty one dimensional. Why miss out on it?
 
Definitely. I think even non-drummers would have that tendency for obvious reasons.
 
I do listen to the drummer a lot but I do find different people make a song at different times, you just couldn't listen intently to the drumming in Comfortably Numb and ignore the guitar nor Stairway to Heaven, Hotel California or Sultans of Swing to name a few. There are many amazing bass players out there, I love some of the old disco songs from the 70's / 80's but only because of the amazing bass playing and you definitely don't listen to those for the drumming, I love listening to Jack Bruce, Mark King, Pino, Palladino. Watching Max Beezley playing piano for Mr Bo Jangles on Robbie's Knebworth CD, I could just go on and on and on, the list is endless so I think it totally depends on the song and what each member and my attention will go to a great vocalist, pianist, guitarist or indeed drummer depending on who's doing what at the time but I'm probably always very aware of what the drummer's doing in context to what else is going on.
 
Yes, I'd say I fixate about 70% on the drummer and 30% everyone else. And I love to even stay after a show and watch the roadies breakdown the drum kit, if possible. The drum kit can be setup thousands of different ways, each unique to the drummer. Just informative and fun to watch.
 
I don't usually go to various concerts, most of the concerts I attend to are Metal concerts. So, in the time I'm out of a mosh pit, I try to WATCH what the drummer is doing exactly. I get to some spot where I can see everything he does. Yeah, I'm kinda obsessed with that too.
 
Really depends on the band and the venue. I tend to listen to the whole band .... and try to look at whatever is most visual. And that might include the drummer, the guitar solo, the light show, and of course "the crowd" itself. Many shows that I've gone to, where the crowd is "almoist" as entertaining as the band.​
 
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