Pitfalls of playing a kit

I'm late to the party, but I came up with one not mentioned:

The bass drum pedal spring that breaks. No amount of foot technique will save you at that point. The overall effect is as if your bass drum grew a couple wheels and suddenly took off away from you, leaving you with nothing but the flat floor underneath.
Could you ask a lady to remove a stocking to make a 'get you home' fix a la old school fanbelt?
Or ask a lady to remove a stocking to make the crowd forget about the lack of drumming?
 
It's not related to the instrument itself, but I experienced something similar to Andy's wasp incident.

We were playing an outdoor gig near a lake and the sun started to go down during our last set. Suddenly, all these red beetles were flying around and into everything and everyone. Of course, we're all playing instruments, so we can't swat them away easily. I tried to wave off a few between backbeats, but it was hopeless. Our guitar player was wearing a white shirt and he was covered by these things. It was like something out of a horror flick. I hate having bugs on me, so I was pretty unsettled, but I survived. I wasn't so sure the aforementioned guitarist would make it. He was starting to get a look of panic on his face. But he got through it.

We took another short break to compose ourselves and then the things just started dropping and leaving us alone. Memorable, and not in a good way.
 
I'm late to the party, but I came up with one not mentioned:

The bass drum pedal spring that breaks. No amount of foot technique will save you at that point. The overall effect is as if your bass drum grew a couple wheels and suddenly took off away from you, leaving you with nothing but the flat floor underneath.

I had a similiar problem on the first show a tour a few years ago. The second song into the first set the spring broke (There was a thread about nicknames where I mentioned this and it was part of how I got the nickname "thunderfoot")

Well...this was a huge problem and it was made excessively worse because the pedal I was playing was a Gibraltar G class...which I'll post a photo of below - but the spring is encased in a pillar.

Luckily I was friends with the venue owner and he realized something was wrong - he flew down and magically repaired it (And he said it sucked haha) while we switched to a ballad and did some talking on stage.

I've traveled with two pedals ever since then - but that pedal is still kicking to this day.
 

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Usually knuckle issues on rims or the top of my foot when the beater head hits it.
I use the old style key heads on my kick drum tension rods and if I had a dollar for every time I've scratched my shins on those...
 
I suspect most of us have caught the pedal beater in our pant leg, cut our knuckle or hand on the hats, or dropped or had a stick break while playing.

What are your other disruptive hazards associated with playing?

trying to get paid at the end of the night can be somewhat disruptive :)
 
I had a similiar problem on the first show a tour a few years ago. The second song into the first set the spring broke (There was a thread about nicknames where I mentioned this and it was part of how I got the nickname "thunderfoot")

Well...this was a huge problem and it was made excessively worse because the pedal I was playing was a Gibraltar G class...which I'll post a photo of below - but the spring is encased in a pillar.

Luckily I was friends with the venue owner and he realized something was wrong - he flew down and magically repaired it (And he said it sucked haha) while we switched to a ballad and did some talking on stage.

I've traveled with two pedals ever since then - but that pedal is still kicking to this day.
Maybe we've discovered a reason to prefer pedals with external springs, and in general more adjustment flexibility than those that don't.

"Thunderfoot" seems an adequate name considering your experience. LOL
 
Sliced knuckles on cymbals and hats.
Banged knuckles on rim of snare.
Went to hit a poorly-misplaced cymbal (not my kit), stick caught my ear on the way down
Scratched up the toes of my Doc Marten's on my kick drum and hh pedal.
 
Hitting myself in the face with a stick during the rebound has happened a few times. Bashed my knuckles open a few times on the snare's rim. Experienced the beater-pantleg thing the first time I had to play in a tux.
 
Cops staring at you waiting for the set to finish so they can shut down the unpermitted outdoor festival taking place alongside a much bigger outdoor festival.
 
This sounds like part of a much longer story
It is. Every year Fayetteville has a Springfest. Fayetteville is a large city, Springfest takes place right on the edge of the University of Arkansas campus. We, a death metal band, were invited to play at Witchfest, a wicken sponsored festival. A tent was set up in the wicken shop parking lot, we played like 4th or 5th. It was like 1PM. The bands that played before us were all acoustic hippie type stuff. Anyhow, apparently we made so much noise that the cops patrolling Springfest all showed up to see what the commotion was. They talked to the owner who had no permit for outside music, so decided to shut it down. They let us finish our set though.
 
It is. Every year Fayetteville has a Springfest. Fayetteville is a large city, Springfest takes place right on the edge of the University of Arkansas campus. We, a death metal band, were invited to play at Witchfest, a wicken sponsored festival. A tent was set up in the wicken shop parking lot, we played like 4th or 5th. It was like 1PM. The bands that played before us were all acoustic hippie type stuff. Anyhow, apparently we made so much noise that the cops patrolling Springfest all showed up to see what the commotion was. They talked to the owner who had no permit for outside music, so decided to shut it down. They let us finish our set though.
That’s pretty nice of the cops. Not joining in with the party nice, but pretty nice.
 
OK one bone head story. The band is friggin roaring. Break down is coming. And now the big rock star cymbal choke. Misses and hits thumb with butt end of 5b from over head position. There really aren't words for how bad that hurt!! LOL!!
 
There are very challenging things in life, bordering on impossible:

Trying to build a time machine
Solving world hunger
Statistical summaries of nuclear fission examples
Trying to adjust a ball and socket tom arm that has a tom with a suspension mount attached to it and get it in the right position.

Seriously, just when you think it's perfect and you tighten the ball and socket up tight and then let go.....................................it sags!

Another pitfall:

Anytime we step behind the drums, we enter a weird, Bermuda Triangle. We must be extra careful, as drum keys, wing nuts and cymbal felts are always the first to go missing.
 
There are very challenging things in life, bordering on impossible:

Trying to build a time machine
Solving world hunger
Statistical summaries of nuclear fission examples
Trying to adjust a ball and socket tom arm that has a tom with a suspension mount attached to it and get it in the right position.

Seriously, just when you think it's perfect and you tighten the ball and socket up tight and then let go.....................................it sags!

Another pitfall:

Anytime we step behind the drums, we enter a weird, Bermuda Triangle. We must be extra careful, as drum keys, wing nuts and cymbal felts are always the first to go missing.
Have you talked to @bermuda about this? :unsure:
 
One pitfall we all probably share: first to arrive to setup and the last to leave after load out (except maybe the sound engineer).

Being the band leader, I've resolved this by implementing a "everyone gets paid once I get my gear loaded" policy. I have great band-mates so I really never have to ask for help.
 
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