Strange places to play drums!

Drum Cover Brasil

Junior Member
Guys, I’d like to know in what different place have you played. Everyone have a story to tell. I remember that I played in farms, in stages almost falling, in church garage, etc.

I’d like to share with you a video where a drummer is playing on the top of snow mountain (wearing a sleeveless T-shirt). I guess it was so cold. Other cool stuff is the drumstick effects. They seem a little weak.

This video link is http://drumcoverbrasil.blogspot.com/2011/10/vincent-girault-time-dirty-bit-black.html

Tell us where you’ve played.
 
not my photo but strange enough for you? lol

toilet-drummer.jpg

Some friends of mine in Texas used to play in their tornado shelter, they said it was the only place they didn't get noise complaints.
 
On the roof of a house, just south of the 210 FWY in Pasadena. A band I was in (back when I was in bands) was asked to play a party, but they hadn't thought through where we'd set up and the roof ended up being the only viable location. Now, when I hear other drummers bitching about lugging their kits around, I have little sympathy. Try hauling a 7-piece up a freaking ladder and then get back to me.
 
By virtue of me sitting behind it, anywhere I play is strange.
 
In drum corps days we did a few winter drill camps in a decrepit WWII blimp hangar in Astoria, Oregon. It was about 45 degrees inside, the concrete was caked with grime, and acoustically it was like playing in a blimp hangar. The floor was littered with what appeared to be rusting pieces of the building itself- we thought they had fallen from the 60-foot rafters- so you had the sense that you were personally in danger being in there. Good times.
 
In a two hundred year-old cemetery in New Orleans at sundown. Very strange gig.
 
I once played in an ASDA supermarket in Dundee. It was surreal watching people push their trolleys along the aisles dancing and singing along to our band as the picked their fruit and veg !!!
 
I guess the strangest place I've played in was in the back of a london pride truck, although that was actually pretty cool.
 
At the dinning commons at Uhartt...during exam time, the people were NOT happy! But hey... a paycheck is a paycheck
 
Can't say I have ever played drums in a strange place so to speak other than a gig at a local Shriner's club where they wanted nothing but old country tunes. Then the patrons didn't even dance...just sat and watched. Strange to us anyway.

I guess the most enjoying gig I have ever done was at a rest home. Those older folks really loved the music and had a great time...even danced..
 
On the back end of a flatbed trailer being pulled by a truck. About a 10 person jazz band all crammed on. The piano player got me the gig. I was playing a 4 piece with 1 ride mounted on the bass drum and hats. Such a tiny space, my 20" ride cymbal was about 1 inch from the piano players left arm. My butt was on the throne but a slight move back and I would have fallen between the trailer and the truck. It was a July 4th gig. Fun but weird. LOL
 
Played the kit on a float during a parade. And it was a metal float, and it was 95 degrees without any shade.
 
I once played in a rodeo arena in the dirt without my rug. Had a lot of cleaning to do afterwards.

I also played an orchestra gig under the North edge of a canopy when the breeze was from the North and it was drizzling. My tom heads and cymbals got covered with water and every time I hit one it looked like "Stomp". Since my acrylic kit is impervious to moisture I didn't have a problem but the violins and the tuba player in front of me weren't very happy.

I have also played on the back of a truck in a parade, in an airplane hanger and our big band plays regularly at retirement centers and nursing homes. Those folks dig that music because it is from their era.
 
I played in a Royal British Legion club once for someone's birthday. The drum kit looked like it had been carefully assembled from cardboard. I was in a sort of cave at the back of the stage where no-one could see me and I'm not sure I had room to move my arms much.

Another time I played in a pub on a stage too small to accomodate a 3-piece band, or even my fairly modest drum kit. On one side there was a leaky radiator, so it was all damp. We borrowed a tiny PA from some people and played only to the people we'd brought with us. It was a small pub, chances are there wouldn't have been anyone there if we'd not been playing.
 
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