Serious drummer? (I think not ;)

Andy

Honorary Member
The band had "one of those nights" last night. Gear issues (keyboards), multiple mistakes, etc, etc, so Andy went into fun mode. I always "play up" a bit on stage. The audience engage with that, so when things aren't going exactly to plan, I turn it up, just to take attention away from the issues, & improve the band vibe. Is that something you do, or am I just weird?

So here's some short clips of me (I have no shame), behaving / playing in a way you haven't seen before. I've put it up here to open up a general conversation on drummers being part of the entertainment presentation - we're so often not :(

Some explanation:

Clip 1/ Irreverence / childishness :)

Clip 2/ Playing up to some audience guy acting like John Travolta in Grease.

Clip 3/ Note to self - don't forget your sweat towel!! I was literally blind for 3 minutes :(

Clip 4/ Tongue pulling air drumming girl get's the animated reciprocal treatment.

Clip 5/ An interlude where we welcome Oz (our lighting guy) back to the lighting desk after his terrible ordeal.

Clip 6/ Guitarist asked me to pace up & get crash heavy on this outro - I obliged (& don't I look stupid!)

Please select HD720p so you can pick up detail (Zoom camera - low light). Have fun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bs8SjpX28P8&feature=youtu.be

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Looked pretty good to me. You certainly seemed to be having fun and laying down a solid groove. :)
 
I have no idea what you are referring to. I thought the whole thing was rather tame. Nice playing !
I play like that all of the time. I’m a graduate of the Keith Moon School of Drumming, and I always have to remember to tone it down a little.

There was one inexcusable moment though. That was when you were cross sticking during Sunshine of Your Love. Don’t ever let Ginger Baker see you do that !


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Thank God for Gene Krupa, Keith Moon, Steve Moore and all the others who showed us that drummers were as big if not bigger part of the band than the rest. Someone on this forum recently said it's best to just keep time and not do much else so you don't show up the "leader" and lose your gig.
"F" the "leader" !! Put on a show. Do what others ain't. Make 'em look at you. Make 'em laugh. Anyone can play the drums. But how many Krupas, Moons, etc. are there? You be one. I was at the Beatles concert Candlestick park in 1966. Do you really think I went to hear their music? NO. I went to SEE the Beatles. I went to SEE the Who. (believe me, they had many bad nights) I went to SEE each and every musical group I loved. I have the music at home, so I went to their concerts to SEE what they had to show me playing live.
Okay. Someone here is going to dispute me by saying "We just play bars where people wanna dance. They don't come to SEE us." GUESS WHAT? So did the Beatles, Stones, Who, I saw SHA NA NA when they first started. Damn they screwed up a bunch of songs, but damn were they ever fun to watch. Here's a tip.....loosen up when you play a gig and quit fretting over "getting it right". The audience knows when you're having a tough time and if you let it bug you, it'll bug them. But shrug it off and they will too, Just have fun.....I'm taking my soapbox home now....
 
Thank God for Gene Krupa, Keith Moon, Steve Moore and all the others who showed us that drummers were as big if not bigger part of the band than the rest. Someone on this forum recently said it's best to just keep time and not do much else so you don't show up the "leader" and lose your gig.
"F" the "leader" !! Put on a show. Do what others ain't. Make 'em look at you. Make 'em laugh. Anyone can play the drums. But how many Krupas, Moons, etc. are there? You be one. I was at the Beatles concert Candlestick park in 1966. Do you really think I went to hear their music? NO. I went to SEE the Beatles. I went to SEE the Who. (believe me, they had many bad nights) I went to SEE each and every musical group I loved. I have the music at home, so I went to their concerts to SEE what they had to show me playing live.
Okay. Someone here is going to dispute me by saying "We just play bars where people wanna dance. They don't come to SEE us." GUESS WHAT? So did the Beatles, Stones, Who, I saw SHA NA NA when they first started. Damn they screwed up a bunch of songs, but damn were they ever fun to watch. Here's a tip.....loosen up when you play a gig and quit fretting over "getting it right". The audience knows when you're having a tough time and if you let it bug you, it'll bug them. But shrug it off and they will too, Just have fun.....I'm taking my soapbox home now....


Well I agree with you to a point. And that point is; we should be supporting the music. And sometimes that requires that we simply keep the beat.
When the band and the music gets loud and fun and loose, then we can do the same.
And yeah, if people have come to a concert to see crazy wild music, then give them crazy wild drumming.

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Couldn't agree more, johnwesley.

Bands are there to entertain. If you notice that no entertaining is taking place, step up and do it.
 
Well I agree with you to a point. And that point is; we should be supporting the music. And sometimes that requires that we simply keep the beat.
When the band and the music gets loud and fun and loose, then we can do the same.
And yeah, if people have come to a concert to see crazy wild music, then give them crazy wild drumming.

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Maybe I'm A.D.D. but I can't just keep the beat. After about a minute and a half of 2, 4 backbeats (even with obligatory ghost beats or grace notes as reed players call them) and a few thumpety thump fills, I go stir crazy. Oh, I still "keep the beat" but tend to "support" the music with other than ostinato phrasing, and supplement that with faces ala Steve Moore. Sometimes I'll go out of my way to look like I'm going to hit a cymbal,,....but don't. Or while looking at a cymbal to my right and taking aim only to miss, actually hit a cymbal on the "other side" while "not looking". All the while "keeping the beat" and putting smiles on everyone's face. Works for me, but not all.
What night do you play 16th & Thomas? Thursday? Going to try and get by to see that drum kit of yours.
 
The band had "one of those nights" last night. Gear issues (keyboards), multiple mistakes, etc, etc, so Andy went into fun mode. I always "play up" a bit on stage. The audience engage with that, so when things aren't going exactly to plan, I turn it up, just to take attention away from the issues, & improve the band vibe. Is that something you do, or am I just weird?

So here's some short clips of me (I have no shame), behaving / playing in a way you haven't seen before. I've put it up here to open up a general conversation on drummers being part of the entertainment presentation - we're so often not :(

Some explanation:

Clip 1/ Irreverence / childishness :)

Clip 2/ Playing up to some audience guy acting like John Travolta in Grease.

Clip 3/ Note to self - don't forget your sweat towel!! I was literally blind for 3 minutes :(

Clip 4/ Tongue pulling air drumming girl get's the animated reciprocal treatment.

Clip 5/ An interlude where we welcome Oz (our lighting guy) back to the lighting desk after his terrible ordeal.

Clip 6/ Guitarist asked me to pace up & get crash heavy on this outro - I obliged (& don't I look stupid!)

Please select HD720p so you can pick up detail (Zoom camera - low light). Have fun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bs8SjpX28P8&feature=youtu.be

.

I think you need to bring it all OUT a bit more ;)
And I still don't like that thin-sounding Guru snare - tune down ;)
 
Maybe I'm A.D.D. but I can't just keep the beat. After about a minute and a half of 2, 4 backbeats (even with obligatory ghost beats or grace notes as reed players call them) and a few thumpety thump fills, I go stir crazy. Oh, I still "keep the beat" but tend to "support" the music with other than ostinato phrasing, and supplement that with faces ala Steve Moore. Sometimes I'll go out of my way to look like I'm going to hit a cymbal,,....but don't. Or while looking at a cymbal to my right and taking aim only to miss, actually hit a cymbal on the "other side" while "not looking". All the while "keeping the beat" and putting smiles on everyone's face. Works for me, but not all.
What night do you play 16th & Thomas? Thursday? Going to try and get by to see that drum kit of yours.

I feel your pain. When I was in my garage band in the 60's I used to get bored. Especially playing fraternity parties.
So I used to try and throw off the other band members and the drunk dancers with strange sounding fills while still keeping the beat.

You need to play my kit too, and you can if you come on down. It's an open Jam. 16th St. just north of Thomas, RIPS Night Club, every Thursday night at 8 PM.
(But due to a scheduling problem, we are not playing this Thursday night April 30th.)


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It's a gig, not a Requiem Mass! Always good to see the band enjoying themselves. Hell, if they aren't, who will?
 
I have no idea what you are referring to. I thought the whole thing was rather tame. Nice playing !
The devil's in the detail :)

Looked pretty good to me. You certainly seemed to be having fun and laying down a solid groove. :)
Fun indeed - thank you :)

The audience knows when you're having a tough time and if you let it bug you, it'll bug them. But shrug it off and they will too, Just have fun.....
Excellent advice! The audience really pick up on the smallest of things sometimes. Facial expressions is a big one.

Bands are there to entertain. If you notice that no entertaining is taking place, step up and do it.
Indeed - there's no reason why "the guy at the back" can't take the lead :)

I think you need to bring it all OUT a bit more ;)
And I still don't like that thin-sounding Guru snare - tune down ;)
It's not tuned that high. About medium I'd say - maybe slightly up from medium. The snare isn't mic'd, nor are the toms - just two overheads & bass drum. Additionally, the camera is stage side of the PA, so all you're hearing is stage sound - from a distance - on a fairly loud stage.
 
Drums sound great. Really very good testament to the quality, to sound so clear through what I assume is the camera mic.
Of course your playing helps too.
 
man so many sad things going on here, where do I start?
1, you should probably play one handed from now on, it was the best playing I saw on the clip.
2, Rock and or Roll should not be played on a 4 piece kit, with or without wind chimes.
3, the shows are not about you, I cant express this enough, no fooling around or goofy showing off.
 
I just wish that you would bring a towel to wipe off with. Nobody needs to see your flabby abs as you pull up your shirt to use as a towel!
Also, investing in a decent kit would be a good idea. :)
 
I have a question, and it's an honest question, not one where I'm trying to make you think like me:

Do you think goofing around on stage undermines your show?

We play pretty much just bars, and we get lots of requests. They're always for goofy songs ("Born to be Wild", etc.) My guitarist usually says no and plays something else. But when we do play a song the band doesn't like there's a lot of goofing around and rolling the eyes, and it always pisses me off. It seems to me that people take you as seriously as you take yourself, so if you're rolling your eyes and saying "this sucks" while you're playing it, they'll agree with you.

Not sure what my message is here but I know I end up playing a ton of songs that I hate. I try to smile my way through and give it my best. I don't always succeed, but I'll always remember something stupid I did. I was playing a show right before a Neil Diamond cover band and they did that "so good! so good! so good!" song and I just started laughing, and everyone looked at me like I was a complete asshole. And they were right, I was.
 
I have a question, and it's an honest question, not one where I'm trying to make you think like me:

Do you think goofing around on stage undermines your show?

There's goofing around enjoying the songs you're playing.

Then there's goofing around to show how much better and cooler you are than the songs you're playing.

The first kind is cool, the second, not so much.

If you think that the songs you're playing are lame, either play different songs or move over and let somebody else have the gig. If you don't want to play what the audience wants to hear, what are you doing?
 
I have a question, and it's an honest question, not one where I'm trying to make you think like me:

Do you think goofing around on stage undermines your show?

We play pretty much just bars, and we get lots of requests. They're always for goofy songs ("Born to be Wild", etc.) My guitarist usually says no and plays something else. But when we do play a song the band doesn't like there's a lot of goofing around and rolling the eyes, and it always pisses me off. It seems to me that people take you as seriously as you take yourself, so if you're rolling your eyes and saying "this sucks" while you're playing it, they'll agree with you.

Not sure what my message is here but I know I end up playing a ton of songs that I hate. I try to smile my way through and give it my best. I don't always succeed, but I'll always remember something stupid I did. I was playing a show right before a Neil Diamond cover band and they did that "so good! so good! so good!" song and I just started laughing, and everyone looked at me like I was a complete asshole. And they were right, I was.

Great tangent. You have to remember that the goofing around that goes on with songs they don't like...I believe the audience would rather see them goofing around on a song that's "beneath" them, than to be serious on a song that they like. Civilians don't think about music like musicians do. Fun trumps serious, like all the time. I think it's funny, not good funny either, when bands are SO serious. Like lighten up Francis. The cooler they try to be, the more they blow it in my eyes. Honesty, and truly being relaxed enough to just be yourself onstage is cool, to me anyway. I don't like seeing fake, or people trying to feed their ego up there.

Also, I'm not going to ape onstage, because that's not me. I feed witty lines to the guy on mic if I think of something funny. Other people, it might be a giant asset, the whole aping thing, because it's honest. I smile a lot, because I genuinely enjoy it all, and believe or not, that's all I have to do. I hear easily as much about my smiling as my playing. My point is it has to be honest and not put on.

But audiences, like girls, just wanna have fun. They don't take music seriously, it's all a big hoot lol.
 
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There's goofing around enjoying the songs you're playing.

Then there's goofing around to show how much better and cooler you are than the songs you're playing.

The first kind is cool, the second, not so much.

If you think that the songs you're playing are lame, either play different songs or move over and let somebody else have the gig. If you don't want to play what the audience wants to hear, what are you doing?

You nailed it dude. If you don't like the food, don't eat it. Can't stand the talk show host, change the channel. If you hate black socks, don't wear them.
For those who haven't seen it...YouTube Steve Moore. There's one video about 17 minutes long and the band goes through 5 or 6 songs and during a couple of them Steve just sets the whole mood by goofing around. Not making fun of the music so much as just having fun with the style of drumming the songs require. (beat keeping) It makes you laugh and really makes the show fun. Kinda like Louis Prima.....yeah I'm that old.
 
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