Last piece of gear you forgot?

Les Ismore

Platinum Member
What's the last piece of gear you realized you forgot/left behind when you got to the gig?



My last one was pretty easy, brought the wrong cymbal stand upper tube for an extra cymbal stand, it was a 7/8 boom top section used for my rack, wouldn't clamp tight in the base of the floor stand. Since it was an extreme right side extra crash, no big deal, made it work.

Juggling one hardware bag with two kits leaves the door open. My last major was bringing the wrong tom mounts for the rack (YAMAHA instead of GRETSCH), played that gig with only a floor tom, no racks.

If I forget something I never let on to the band, just play it like that's what Im doing (in the case of no rack toms) and- They'll never know anyway (in the case of the cymbal stand top).
 
I vaguely recall not bringing a pedal to a gig, somehow - pre-GPS mind you - I found a music store and bought a really cheap one, I don't think they even had a DW or Pearl around. But I think that happened only once.

I did forget to bring cymbals to a rehearsal once... I kept a kit there, but always brought cymbals from home. the place was pretty far from the house, and when I realized I'd forgotten to bring them, it was too late to turn back. I stopped at the closest GC, and bought a Sabian B8 pre-pack. It resides there now, and I don't have to think about a thing when I go there. :)

Bermuda
 
My one time was crucial. We got hired to play for a gubernatorial fund raiser in a ritzy neighborhood and I forgot the snare stand. I had to make do with putting the snare on a music stand. Played mostly brushes (in my face) all night and no one noticed at all. We still got paid. But I was kickin' myself there for a bit!

It never happened again.
 
Forgot my throne on a gig an hour from home. Fortunately it was the bass players home town and he borrowed one from a buddy. Hard to find phone books to stack on a chair these days. ;-)
 
Forgot my hihat stand last year. Not the first time it's happened, either. The drummer up after us kindly let me use his with my own hats.

Forgot the rug once or twice. I think I lucked out and the place(s) had a decent piece of carpet.

Forgot my hihat clutch. I use a drop clutch, so they're loosely closed most of the time anyways...but there went any cool/subtle hihat stuff that night. Kept the regular clutch in my snare bag since then, which is almost as useless as no clutch at all as I found out the next time I forgot my drop clutch.

Forgot my throne a long time ago...I don't remember which throne I had at the time, or what I did to remedy its absence. But I have had other drummers forget theirs and ask to borrow mine two or three times.

Forgot my cymbals once, but we were luckily picking up the guitarist and then passing my place on the way to the gig, so they were recovered. One time said guitarist forgot his backpack, with all of his cords and pedals. He had to jack in to his amp and use it's gain (heaven forbid!), and surprise surprise, it sounded better than the shitstack of dirt-butt-gain usually coming out of the metal zone pedal.

And the worst one...forgot my tom legs AT THE GIG AND NEVER GOT THEM BACK. I don't use the 16" that came with my X7s, so it's legs are the 14" legs now. And I have some crappy kits floating around that I could steal legs from that I guess I could bend around to 90 degree angles at the bottom like the pdp ones and then paint black...but still. Played the place since and they weren't in the mystery gear stack and no one remembered seeing them. So if any of you have seen some black tom legs with red electrical tape on them at the diesel concert lounge in chesterfield...please let me know.

Also there are definitely things that I have forgot that I have forgotten. Notoriously sketchy short-term memory plus an instrument with 100 pieces isn't a good combination. I know a lot of you can relate.
 
I've never forgotten anything too serious- a music stand, a rug, a second cymbal stand, a tie. We did have an epic CF on the last gig of a tour a couple of years ago-- we get out of the car in Aachen, Germany, and the bassist (electric) forgot his amp, the vibraphonist forgot his mallets, and the club, which was supposed to have some drums, didn't. We had a kind of intense 90 minutes scrounging up everything we needed to do the gig, but it turned out ok.
 
I forgot my hi hat clutch once (I think you call it that, the device that attaches the top hihat to the stand) and had to play the show with no hi hat movement, something in between a closed and a slightly washy open sound.

Another time at a gig, on a seriously tight stage, my snare drum fell off the edge while still in its soft case and the bottom head snapped. Lucky another drummer was kind enough to let me use his snare, although he obviously didn't care about the tuning of his drums.
 
I forget the last piece of gear I forgot. I don't even remember if I ever forgot anything. :)

My gear never leaves my van except to play, so I don't even have a mental checklist., I just drive to the gig.

I have to Larry-proof myself.
 
Bottom, tripod part of the throne. It was an out of state gig so I found a Guitar Center nearby and picked up the only decent throne they had, a Pork Pie for almost $200. Figured a good one can be used as a backup but a cheap student-level throne would be just used once. Haven't used that Pork Pie since. Expensive gig. I generally avoid Guitar Center but they bailed me out that time. Bar stool wouldn't have worked.
 
I play a stripped down version of my Club Custom with one of my bands - just bass drum, snare, hi-hats and a crash/ride. Arrived at band practice a few weeks ago and hadn't I forgotten the bleedin straight stand for the crash/ride. Made do just using the hi-hats all evening - wouldn't you know the singer wanted to focus on all the songs in our set that have a lot of ride on them that particular evening - bah! Shouldn't be a problem again as I recently got the ultra-light hardware in a bag package that Maxwell Drum Shop sells so just grab the bag and go now.
 
My one major slip up happened on March 7th. I was opening for Hawthorne Heights! I forgot my SNARE DRUM! it was a good 40 minute drive back home, sound check in 5 minutes! My band was the first to go on. My best friend came in clutch and stopped by my house to get it and bring it to me as I was setting up on stage. Never happening again.
 
The last thing I forgot was my hi-hat clutch. It somehow got left at the practice space. I realized it was missing as I was setting up.
Luckily, there was a music store about 15 minutes away. I made it back with about 5 minutes to spare. I now keep a spare clutch in my stick bag.

Sort of related, the last thing I had to make a special truip for was my bass drum pedal. I just played a private party this weekend where I brought my Sonor Safari kit. I have only one bass drum pedal that will fit on that (why is the bass drum clamp area on those Safari mounts SO DAMN THICK?) I made the trip to my house and back in record time. Grinding down the mounting area on the bass drum clamp would solve that problem...
 
I was playing a gig with an orchestra and a rubber foot fell off my Sonor Safari kick. I haven't found a replacement. I went back to look on stage and in back loading dock but nothing. Funny such a tiny little thing just bugged me to death for some reason-got over it though. You are correct Brady that little Sonor Safari clamp is too thick-I thought about getting a machinist friend of mine to grind mine down too.
 
I once forgot my rack tom so I just had the floor. No biggie. I have a vague memory of forgetting my throne once and sitting on milk crates. Not sure if that actually happened or was just a dream.
 
I've only ever once left anything behind, and that was my throne. Luckily the bass player was a builder and had a stack of rubber kneeling pads in his van. A few of them on top of a low bar stool did the trick.

BUT - what I mainly wanted to say here is - I keep my hi hat clutch attached to the stand. Take it off the top hat, put it back on the rod and tighten it up. And I'm now wondering - IS THAT A BAD IDEA ? Sorry to go off topic.
 
This is actually one reason why I've been scaling down my kit. The less you have, the less you have to forget, and the easier it is to keep track of what you do have. I've only ever forgotten the rug, and I managed to borrow one from the venue. I once left my stick bag at the venue, and it was gone when I went to retrieve it the next day. I'm sure I don't have to tell anyone here that a full stick bag is not a cheap thing to replace when you add everything up.

I forgot my SNARE DRUM!
That must feel like a self-inflicted punch to the gut.

I keep my hi hat clutch attached to the stand. Take it off the top hat, put it back on the rod and tighten it up. And I'm now wondering - IS THAT A BAD IDEA ? Sorry to go off topic.
I do the same and haven't had any problems. It's probably why I have never forgotten it either. At any rate, I just "upgraded" my clutch to a Gibraltar quick-release one, so I'll be keeping the old one in my stick bag as backup, so I should always be pretty confident about that piece of gear at least.
 
At one time or another I have probably forgotten every thing except the shell pack. This includes sticks, bass pedal, cymbals, hi hat clutch, music, I can't remember what else (pun intended). Most of the time one can improvise. I thought I was over this but tonight I forgot....

....my snare drum!!! 15 min. till the gig. Fortunately I live about 15 min. from the gig and my wife met me half way. I was only 5 min. late.
 
At one time or another I have probably forgotten every thing except the shell pack. This includes sticks, bass pedal, cymbals, hi hat clutch, music, I can't remember what else (pun intended). Most of the time one can improvise.

Same here. The most recent was a small bag of hardware. Luckily it was just a jam, a couple of miles from home.
 
Floor tom legs are the repeat offender. If I'm alternating between kits, one has RIMS mounted FT legs and the other has traditional legs. Usually end up putting the floor on of the guitatrists hard cases.

I don't have a hardware case as I'm a firm believer that the back seat footwell in a car was deliberately desgned to put drums stands in it.
 
I do the same and haven't had any problems. It's probably why I have never forgotten it either. At any rate, I just "upgraded" my clutch to a Gibraltar quick-release one, so I'll be keeping the old one in my stick bag as backup, so I should always be pretty confident about that piece of gear at least.

Thanks.

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