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Dude... that sucks! I would stay away from public if that happened to me.
-32
The tiny drum riser
Ah man, I just had to get this out of my system: a painful gig story.
Last night I played a metal gig at a new venue in town. So naturally I took the full metal kit (2 bass drums, 6 toms, more cymbals than is absolutely necessary, etc.)
The joint was on the second floor, with no freight elevator (which is good for building up muscles) and when I got in I saw the size of the drum riser: too small for my liking. But I managed to get the kit mostly setup, largely by having boom cymbal stands off the drum riser and raised high and angled in.
The sound-tech was great and did a good job on front-of-house sound. We started off well, and played fast and strong ... until the second last song of the set. At which point the bass player's rig died. I dunno exactly what happened, but sound stopped coming out of it, and he spent the rest of the song kneeling down and fiddling with knobs and looking nervously at me.
The show must go on, so the rest of the band pushed onwards - not knowing precisely what the hell was wrong with the bass.
I figured I'd play a bit more 'flashy' and aggressively to try and take away crowd attention from the lack of bass.
So I must have been hitting everything a bit harder or something, because a crash cymbal stand fell off the drum riser - narrowly missing the singer's head. I kept going, and the cymbal that fell obviously upset two boom cymbal stands that were off the drum riser ... so they came down. One of our guitarists sidestepped them, but the bass player was preoccupied with trying to fix his rig, and copped a china cymbal on the back of the head.
We finished the song and called it a night. As I was packing up, I got a call from the sound-tech at the venue we're playing at tomorrow night (a favourite joint of mine to play, so the tech is a good mate). He was ringing to tell me that they'd just installed a drum riser.
I'm gonna gaff everything to the ground tonight.
Dude... that sucks! I would stay away from public if that happened to me.
-32
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Surprisingly enough, everyone in the audience thought it was great.
The chaos at the very end seemed to help people forget the death of the bass rig.
But I'm dreading tonight ... I wonder what the bass player is gonna do.
Did I hear Chaos?
ANyway thats a pretty interesting story Jobby! I felt like I wanted to laugh, but its not exactly a laughing matter now is it?
I'm with 32nd, if that happend to me I would avoid all human contact for a long time.
"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer."
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Sorry to hear about your mishap, jobby. I've had something similar happen, so I know where your coming from.
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Sounds aweful! However, with that said, it is very cool hearing about a true sory, first hand, from a drummer in a "real" band..... Very cool Jobby!
hah, that had to be embarassing but then again if that happend to me i'd probably look into the crowd and shrug my shoulders like "OHHH wells", laugh and push everything else of the riser, raise my sticks in the air and wait for the applause, and perhaps crowd surf just for the added effect
Thankfully the gig the night after was truly awesome. We utterly destroyed the joint.
The drum riser at my fave venue was designed to accomodate big drumkits, so everyone had plenty of room (a 5 piece band with hair to spare takes up a lot of room - so it's a blessing to have a big stage).
There were a couple of people there taking pics, so will post them when I get copies.
thank god that hasn't happened to me lol.. hopefully it never will... sorry to hear about that though lol
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That's damn unlucky Jobby. The venue our band plays at barely holds our band on it. I can't wait to see how it will go with my complete 8 piece kit and rank full of cymbals, and our guitarists full stacks and a big bass stack. Haha.
I've never really asked you where in Australia you hail from. Where are you? And where do you play your gigs?
HB58
My Kit: Pearl Session Custom 7 Piece w/ Zildjian Cymbals
My Band: Lead Redemption
Current Favourite Band: Necrophagist
Current Favourite Song: To Rid The Disease - Opeth
Next purchase: Pearl 18"x16" Floor Tom, Zildjian A Custom Crash
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Hey HB58,Originally Posted by hellsbells58
I'm in Canberra (no, it's not full of politicians). There are quite a few decent live music venues about at the moment - the Basement, the Jamo Inn, the Venue, the Greenroom, the ANU Bar, Holy Grail, a few more places in the city ... and more that I've forgotten. Also played quite a few gigs in Newcastle. Not so much Sydney, but a few in Melbourne. And have been getting organised to do a bit more regional stuff - they seem to go nuts for it in places that don't get as many regular gigs (everywhere from Queanbeyan to Goulbourn, Cooma, Albury and around there).
We should hook up and organise some gigs together - always keen to play with new bands. Could organise something for here, and would love to play Tamworth in return.
forget the bass player, is your gear ok?
Heh heh heh.
Yeah. My gear's fine. The cymbal that came down was an old Z custom Oriental Smash, which is damn near unbreakable. I was more worried about our singer's head. He's such a prima donna, if it had hit him I would never hear the end of it.
That's the trouble with living in Tamworth, there's next to no music venues to play metal. We've done a handful of gigs at the Youth Centre and one at the Town Hall, but there aren't any amazing clubs or venues where bands here can get up and do their thing.
Our band is currently working on doing some 'Away' gigs, to Armidale and Newcastle, and some various coastal towns. But it's hard to organise that sort of thing when we have no transport to gigs.
I'll definately keep you in mind when we get going a little further, I'd love to play some gigs in Canberra and stuff, but 8 hours away is a little out of our reach for the moment.
I love playing with new bands as well, so I hope we get the chance to play a gig together sometime.
HB58
My Kit: Pearl Session Custom 7 Piece w/ Zildjian Cymbals
My Band: Lead Redemption
Current Favourite Band: Necrophagist
Current Favourite Song: To Rid The Disease - Opeth
Next purchase: Pearl 18"x16" Floor Tom, Zildjian A Custom Crash
Rudiments?
No fuss mate. I can only imagine how hard it is to do this stuff without transport.
Good luck with the away gigs - and let me know if you need a hand with Newcastle; I've spent a lot of time there and know the organisers for a couple of joints (the Cambridge and the Chaos Club are particularly good venues - we're talking with them about heading back down to play again soon). Maybe I could help you out with an early spot at a gig in the near future - easier to meet half-way than head all the way to Canberra. Newcastle is a truly kickass town for metal and punk; they just love it.
PS - you're always welcome to crash if you come through this way too. "Brotherhood of metal" and all that jazz.
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