The Worst Thing to Forget at a Gig...

When I was in high school, I played a battle of the bands at a friend’s school. What never occurred to me until the middle of the show was that I had forgotten the most essential piece of gear that a drummer could have. Not the snare, not the bass drum pedal...not even the cymbals. More important than that.

We loaded in that Friday night, hauling in the black and gold Gretsch drumset from the church where my friend and I both played. This was a pretty nice kit, and though more suited for jazz, it held up just fine for Sunday mornings (and the occasional battle of the bands at a nearby high school). In addition to the sleek drumset, we had a whole stack of the ZBT “rock” cymbals ready to go. I could always count on those cymbals to make enough noise. But as a precaution, we also borrowed the large, folding drum shield from the church as well. Hopefully that would win the battle with the ZBT rocks.

Myself, my friend (who played bass in the high school worship band at church), and his buddy (a guitar player and singer), were pretty well-rehearsed and ready to go. We were playing a couple of originals by the singer as well as the all-time classic “Dare You to Move” by Switchfoot. We honestly couldn’t have been more psyched for this, and even though the audience consisted of the other acts and their parents, we might as well have been playing Madison Square Garden.

We launched into the first song, and our show began. We remembered everything we’d rehearsed, and we felt like we were really rocking the crowd. However, a few bars in, I noticed a problem with my drumset. The kick drum was bumping into the drum shield, which was causing it to shake and wobble a bit. “Oh well,” I thought, “the shield oughta be fine. It only weighs a hundred pounds.” (Those shields ARE pretty heavy. They’re not going anywhere.) Well the kick drum continued to scrape against the shield, and it was becoming pretty annoying. On top of that I noticed that my hihats were suddenly bumping into the shield also. What was up with this?

I kept on playing, even though I now felt like someone had grabbed my drum throne and pulled me backwards about 6 inches. Were my arms getting shorter? Were my legs getting shorter too? Maybe I was just shrinking. Man, I almost wished those things were true, because anything would be better than admitting the rookie mistake I had just made. I forgot a drum rug.

I powered through the rest of the show, at times literally playing with my left hand only while my right frantically held onto the kick drum hoop for dear life. If I let go, the drum immediately began sliding away from me at a rate of an inch per measure. I had already given up on the hihat, which was too far away to reach. If you’re familiar with “Dare You to Move,” you remember that this song has some slamming drum work and lots of heavy kick drum parts. Well that didn’t help. I suffered through the last chorus with no wash from the ride or the crash, because my right hand was put to better use holding the kick in place. Better to maintain a kick pattern, right?

We finished our set to a roaring applause from about 31 people, and we walked off stage. To my amazement, no one else around had noticed my panicked frenzy during the set. They were all congratulating us on how great we apparently were. That was fine with me, because I knew that I had just learned a really valuable lesson playing my first “gig” not at church. BRING A DRUM RUG. Always. Never forget that. Even if you’re playing a house kit. Bring a drum rug. Keep one in the back of your car. Don’t let it leave the back of your car. I still follow this advice today, and my drum rug doesn’t leave my car unless it’s currently in use at a gig. I never let that happen again.

I share this story not to give you some enlightening piece of information. I know that any of you who have played a gig or two know that a rug is essential. If you’ve yet to play your first gig, though, I hope to spare you the agony I experienced! Find a rug and put it in your car now.

Ultimately I hope that this story shows you that I, like probably every musician out there, have learned a LOT by experience. I was fortunate to play drums in my church worship band in high school, which opened up the doors to other playing opportunities and gave me a chance to learn early on. Nobody just learns everything quickly. You have to get out there and do it...and make mistakes. Shortly after this story, I went to college and decided to major in music. College was a great environment for mistake-making, and I certainly took advantage of that. However, I came out on the other side having learned by experience. That kind of learning has continued since then, where I feel like I learn something new every gig. Whether it’s through playing with someone older and more experienced than myself, or maybe it’s just me evaluating my playing, there’s always something to learn from and correct. Taking on that mindset is the key to steady growth as a musician. Make mistakes, but always learn from everything that happens - good or bad.

Thanks for reading this long email. I hope you guys like stories! I know I do.

Take Care and God bless,

Stephen

P.S. - We didn't win, btw. We would have, but another band brought on a child-prodigy violin player last minute who blew everyone away. We settled for second. :) Later I'll have to tell another battle-of-the-bands story where we DID win....