Jumping in...

Instead of trying to craft a coherent thread or topic for this blog, I'm going to wing it for a while with tidbits that may or may not have anything to do with drums, drumming, music or life. Sounds good to me!

I had an interesting chat with my friend Frank who is an amazing musician currently living in Oakland, CA. Check him out.

We swapped stories about some of the less-than-enjoyable gigs we've experienced in the past. I guess one of his recent gigs ended up being incredibly annoying due to last minute over-booking. Frank ended up waiting around all night to play to a sparse crowd with zero financial return. This led me to think about other types of annoying gig behavior that leads some performers to unnecessary suffering.

Tops on my list of personal pet peeves is what Mike Watt refers to as "bogarting the stage." Simply put, this is when bands take way too long setting up or tearing down after a set. This makes the other bands have to wait, which makes the crowd wait, so on and so forth... Being a drummer, my (least) favorite is when the drummer disassembles their entire kit - folding every stand, putting the drums in their road cases, etc - while still on stage! This is lame behavior. Totally rude. And you can ask Mike Watt yourself.

More on the constructive side: Ever watch a musician perform and see them openly wince when a mistake is made? I have a good friend who sometimes does this and it drives me crazy. First of all, he is the only one who could tell it was a mistake (besides me, I guess) and instead of playing it off, a ill-timed reaction broadcasts the mistake to the entire audience. I recently read a quote from Sonny Rollins, "It's not what you play, its what you play next." Most audience members are not musicians, they won't know the difference.

The last one I want to touch on (and I promise to try and not be so negative on my next post) involves shows with three or more bands on the same bill. Now, any booking agent worth his or her salt should already have the night’s line up set. The sound person should also know this info. But anyone who plays the B and C list clubs around town knows that this is often not the case. What happens next is what I call “the last minute shuffle.”

Let’s say it’s a Tuesday night at Club XYZ. That’s bad enough as it is, but no one wants to “deadline” and no one wants to start before ten. Sure enough, one of the bands will have an emergency and explain to anyone that will listen that they need to play 1^st or 2^nd. Being the nice guy and not wanting to cause a scene, you say ok. Now you’re playing at 1am. Did any of the bands stick around to see you?

I guess all I’m getting at is a the need to help each other out a little. Take your lumps when you need to and don’t be insensitive to your peers (even if they suck!). After all, as a musician, most of us have fragile enough egos as it is…