When was the last time you made a fool of yourself behind the kit (or other percussion)?

topgun2021

Gold Member
Me?

Junior year in high school. Jazz band festival. Played a 16th note hi hat groove in front of all the other rhythm section players. I fumbled pretty hard. I did not have a huge drummer ego back then, so thankfully what ego I had was not harmed.
 
A few weeks ago at a Jazz gig I counted 4 to start a 6/8 tune. I came in on 5.
I turned a bright shade of red when I realized what I had done to the rest of the band. Everyone started at a different time.
I also did this mess at the end of Mr PC.
I was a little off that eve. I did wake up by the third set though :)
 

Attachments

  • Mr PC.mp3
    1.4 MB · Views: 95
All the time, im sure many of us can relate to this one:

Writing new material, youre feeling it, you know theres a big opening coming up for a sweet fill of some sort...you get the idea, you hit the mark, put all your energy into making it look and sound awesome....then you come in completely off time/ drop a stick/ miss a drum or cymbal completely or forget the basic groove to the next part of the song, causing everyone to come to a screeching halt.

Yup, did this at jam last night
 
Every time I sit down to play :)

But for real, the last time was at a little gig around chirstmas. I had a 16 bar drum solo, fun little thing with some nice licks, wouldn't you know, the first bar goes and I toss a stick out back 16 feet! Naturally I hadn't brought any extras, so I had to play the rest with my bear hand. Ah well, Joe Morello and Bonzo did it. :)
 
outside of mistakes and missing changes:

About 3 years ago we played at this biker rally and it was pretty terrifying. All the bikers riding around out in the field, really rowdy crowd. They started cheering for a drum solo and I have never taken a solo outside of the context of a song. Everybody turned around and looked at me. I went into this gene krupa kinda big band solo for a minute or two. It was pretty crappy and went nowhere.
 
Nice screwup and brave posting, Bob.

I did pretty well the same thing at practice the other day. Simply drifted off with the pixies for a moment. Even when I was little I'd have little fadeouts; Mum used to say I was like an absent minded professor. Just regular garden variety madness, I suppose.

I'm with the "every time I play" crowd - that constant sense of embarrassment I feel because what I do isn't as groovy and tuned-in as I'd like ... I'm always feeling as though I'm about to knock the tomato sauce (US translate: ketchup) bottle over on Aunt Joanna's white tablecloth ...

... kind of clumsy and gauche, definitely not one of the cats lol ... more like one of the hamsters. I find the trick is to be happy within my own hamster skin, if that makes any sense.
 
I find the trick is to be happy within my own hamster skin, if that makes any sense.

BE the hamster Pol. You are talented and the cutest one too.
 

Attachments

  • hamsters.jpg
    hamsters.jpg
    64.9 KB · Views: 335
Last edited:
Stairs and Jagermeister do not mix. Moonshine either (especially peach). I've been there once or thirteen times.

I'm like that without the booze, Clutch (or may I call you Ineeda?).

But yes, I've been struck by white lightning. Probably made a fool of myself ...

Around 1976 and I was feeling miserable about life, the universe and everything (not unusual at the time). We were playing this crappy daytime gig at a fair and the opener had a drum beat intro. Very simple - 2 bars beat and then all in. I played about a bar and dropped a stick. I almost cried, slowly shook my head, slowly leaned down and collected the dropped stick and started again mournfully ... comical in hindsight (a lot like Eeyore) but even now remembering it makes me cringe.
 
I played a gig recently and when I was sound checking my drums I had both the other bands watching me. Sound people asked me to play something round the kit and I suddenly got really nervous and just ended up playing a really simple groove and some very simple tom fills but really stiff and a little out of time, haha. I felt really judged by everyone after that, but the gig went fine thank god.
 
Played a gig about a year ago and started the wrong click track for the upcoming song. The song was supposed to be around 160 bpm and the click I started was about 130. Didn't notice it in the heat of the moment, but as soon as we started playing it was clear that something was seriously wrong. Frantically had to increase the tempo and ignore the click before I could finally turn it off halfway through the first verse and play the rest of the song without it. We saved it, but I bet that intro wasn't too nice to listen to.
 
I played a gig recently and when I was sound checking my drums I had both the other bands watching me. Sound people asked me to play something round the kit and I suddenly got really nervous and just ended up playing a really simple groove and some very simple tom fills but really stiff and a little out of time, haha. I felt really judged by everyone after that, but the gig went fine thank god.

Ouch - I know that feeling. Last year Bermuda was playing at a venue near my home. So we caught up and before the show took me to the stage to see his setup. He invited me to play on his kit and I got stage fright bad ... and I played, "really simple things but really stiff and a little out of time". Skinny, you put it perfectly lol

Jon's darn buttkicker didn't help - it nearly scared the bejesus out of me!

The more I think about it there are a lot of cringe moments ...
 
First gig ever, highschool dance. We set up this big mega kit for a few bands to play on, first set goes great, go to hop on stage for the second (one of those stages made up of several table like segments) and a few segments collapse, putting meo n the floor with half the kit on top of me lol, not my best moment ever.
 
I'm like that without the booze, Clutch (or may I call you Ineeda?).

But yes, I've been struck by white lightning. Probably made a fool of myself ...

Around 1976 and I was feeling miserable about life, the universe and everything (not unusual at the time). We were playing this crappy daytime gig at a fair and the opener had a drum beat intro. Very simple - 2 bars beat and then all in. I played about a bar and dropped a stick. I almost cried, slowly shook my head, slowly leaned down and collected the dropped stick and started again mournfully ... comical in hindsight (a lot like Eeyore) but even now remembering it makes me cringe.

Just remember.......................
 
Just remember.......................

lol, nice sig, Ineeda. The hamster doesn't want the gig - she prefers studios. Easy parking, short lug, familiar acoustics, no nerves, no obnoxious drunks, no hustling bar managers, only slightly more expensive and we can re-do songs that we flubb.

And if you make a fool of yourself it's just your band mates who know, and they're used to it :)
 
When I was 18 or 19, I signed up for a jazz band class at my local community college. I was a punk rock, self taught drummer. I had no idea what I was doing and was very insecure about my abilities.

The instructor always tried to get me to play, and I was so nervous I would just completely suck. He called me out every class.

I remember one time, he left the class, and we were working on "Footprints". I layed down this sexy, funky, groovy beat and he comes running in screaming "WHERE THE HELL DID THAT COME FROM?!?! WHY CAN'T YOU DO THAT WHEN I ASK YOU TO???"

I think about that almost daily when I play. Be confident. Feel the music (even if you can't read it). Feel the drums.
 
My worst gig ever was a few years ago. We were playing two shows that day, one earlier and another in the evening but at a venue quite a ways away.

First gig goes fine, everyone loves us. Then we pack it all up and try to get to the second venue, hit traffic, don't have a place to load in from, and just generally don't have a nice time. We were supposed to be headline band that night, but because we were late, missed sound check, and the first band was already playing... They bumped us to last on the bill after the band that was supposed to close down the joint.

It gets worse... The band who was supposed to be after us played long, like too long. I think they didn't realize we had showed up and were playing two sets to make up for us. At any rate, by the time they tear down, and we setup, it was after 12:30pm, then the sound guy who is pissed we missed our earlier check basically gets frustrated, pretends to do a quick check and then promptly hits the "suck" button. FOH sound was terrible. By the time we finally got introduced and got the go-ahead to play, it was after 1, and the place was emptying out pretty good.

Anyway, all of the above made me pretty off-center. I played the worst show of my life, and the rest of the band didn't do much better. Timing was off, I was so tired I was missing whole parts, my kick foot wasn't cooperating, it sounded terrible, and to make matters worse the band who played before us had one of the best drummers I'd seen in a long long time. She was amazing, perfect time, not a note out of place, more feel than I've ever had... You get the idea. And of course, that band is there watching us along with the few drunks left at the bar.

We went through the motions to a mostly empty room and I certainly felt like a fool. I made sure to compliment the drummer before me... She wouldn't even look me in the eye, let alone attempt to console me... It was that bad.

The only silver lining at all was that the amazing drummer from the other band is now my private lesson teacher. More than a year later I saw an ad she posted for lessons, and I figured who better to take my playing to new places, right?
 
Back
Top