drummingman
Gold Member
So last night I show up at the venue my band is playing at. As soon as I get there I find out 2 things: Our set time has changed, and the club wants all the drummers to do a drum share. I go to talk to the sound guy to find out if the drum share thing is true. I ask him if I can use my kit. He proceeded to give me a huge attitude about it. My band is looking at me all freaked out cause this is a big club and our first time playing there. So I agree to do the drum share.
When its our time to play, we were forth up, I start walking to the stage with my throne. Some goofball had put his cup of beer on the floor in the hallway on the way to the stage. I did not see said beer. I boot it with my left foot and soak my left foot, shoe and leg with beer. Then I get on stage. This guys kit is nothing like mine. Its on a rack and everything is memory locked in place. I can barely move anything. Meanwhile one of the clubs stage hands is rushing me because the sound guy is a time natzi about starting and stopping set times.
I try to get things adjusted but its all jacked up. My parts in my bands songs are very orchestrated. So my fills and beats are pretty much written out note for note. As soon as we start playing I know its gonna suck. Throughout the whole set, which is only 30 minuets but feels like 2 hours, Im flailing around like a toy monkey trying to play my parts on this jacked up kit. I cant get to the ride bell cause its up underneath a crash. The other crash is to far away so evertime I swing for it I feel like Im gonna lose my stick. The rack tom is 8 feet deep and the kick is a 24. So the tom is a mile to the left of the kick cause I cant move it any closer without hitting the kick with it. The bass drum also felt like crap to play. The monitor mix was awful and I could not hear hardly anything besides the bass drum.
I played the worst I have ever played in my life on a gig. I was so embarrassed that I wanted to crawl under my drum throne. I could not even remotely play the parts I created on that kit. So Ive decided to always insist on using my own kit from now on no matter what.
I was fumming when I came off stage. But on the drive home I got more perspective on the situation. I realized that I cant let the sound guy, my band, or anybody else pressure me to do something I don't want to do again. I have to be comfortable while playing or Im just not going to play well. I consider this a big lesson learned. So at least that one good thing came out of this whole crappy situation.
When its our time to play, we were forth up, I start walking to the stage with my throne. Some goofball had put his cup of beer on the floor in the hallway on the way to the stage. I did not see said beer. I boot it with my left foot and soak my left foot, shoe and leg with beer. Then I get on stage. This guys kit is nothing like mine. Its on a rack and everything is memory locked in place. I can barely move anything. Meanwhile one of the clubs stage hands is rushing me because the sound guy is a time natzi about starting and stopping set times.
I try to get things adjusted but its all jacked up. My parts in my bands songs are very orchestrated. So my fills and beats are pretty much written out note for note. As soon as we start playing I know its gonna suck. Throughout the whole set, which is only 30 minuets but feels like 2 hours, Im flailing around like a toy monkey trying to play my parts on this jacked up kit. I cant get to the ride bell cause its up underneath a crash. The other crash is to far away so evertime I swing for it I feel like Im gonna lose my stick. The rack tom is 8 feet deep and the kick is a 24. So the tom is a mile to the left of the kick cause I cant move it any closer without hitting the kick with it. The bass drum also felt like crap to play. The monitor mix was awful and I could not hear hardly anything besides the bass drum.
I played the worst I have ever played in my life on a gig. I was so embarrassed that I wanted to crawl under my drum throne. I could not even remotely play the parts I created on that kit. So Ive decided to always insist on using my own kit from now on no matter what.
I was fumming when I came off stage. But on the drive home I got more perspective on the situation. I realized that I cant let the sound guy, my band, or anybody else pressure me to do something I don't want to do again. I have to be comfortable while playing or Im just not going to play well. I consider this a big lesson learned. So at least that one good thing came out of this whole crappy situation.
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