I play drums for the band of the church I go to. I guess you could say I'm mellow so whenever I play I try not to beat the living hell out the drums. Occasionally we have guests come in and play a small set sometimes. Well....this one time, a group of musicians had come to play for a little. They were all nice, decent people. Very well dressed too. So they started setting up and warmed up a little too (soundcheck, etc.) Then they started playing.... Keep in mind that they in no way were bad at all. Everything had sounded great....except for probably just one thing. The boy whom they had playing the drums was a magnificent drummer. Always on time, never skipping a beat. But the thing was that this kid was just going to town on the kit. It kind of seemed to me like he was doing every stroke as loud as he could. This kind of led to a few problems, because this kid was playing so loud everybody else had play louder and they had to try and play over him in a sense too, else you wouldn't able to hear the other instruments. And keep in mind that it was mainly slow, classic gospel that they were playing. Which just leads me to this, do any of you usually try and play as loud as possible and whats your opinion on playing loud too?