Everything in it’s place…
So the classic rock band I play in just did two weekends of outdoor shows, and it really drove home how important getting the drums in the perfect (comfortable) position is.
The first gig was relatively easy. We had 15 or 20 minutes to get setup after the previous band, but we were the last act. And to make things even easier, we did a mid afternoon sound check, so I had plenty of time to get the big Gretsch Rock kit setup. Once sound check was over, We just moved them out of the way and staged them for later in the show. The gig went off without a hitch, because when it was go time, I moved everything into position, and was perfectly comfortable for the hour and a half gig.
Last gig was a bit more difficult. We were one of eight bands, and our placement was 3rd from the last. We had 15 minutes to get our gear in place, get mic’d up, and go. About half way through the previous bands set (Stranglehold – a Ted Nugent tribute band who was really tight!), I started staging my gear off-platform, and was ready to go. Cymbal stands are always packed at the correct height, so getting that right was the least of my worries. I just needed to get the kick drum, double-bass pedal, snare and hi-hat placed first, and everything else just falls into place from there – or is supposed to.
In order to help the transitions between bands, there were some very good stage hands who were extremely helpful. Once the previous set was down off the riser, I headed up with the bass drum. Once I got it set in place and turned around, here were all these stagehands hauling up gear, in all the wrong order. “Where does this go?” “How about this?” Before I knew it, I had the monster 26″ bass drum, ride tom, and 2 huge floor toms all on the riser in all the wrong places, cymbal stand positioned all around, and nowhere to move them to I could get things setup correctly. In fact, they were starting to mic-up the drums before I was even close to setup!
As you might imagine, I did finally get everything positioned close enough to get though the gig, but I was mostly uncomfortable thoughout the gig. You can watch the highlight video below. The only really bad thing was that my hi-hat tripod wasn’t set level, so every time I’d start to pump the hi-hats, the stand would tilt in toward me like it was going to fall over. Never did, and after a couple of songs I realized I was just going to have to deal with it, because we typically try to keep the music flowing with out dead-time between songs. All in all I had a great time playing, but I’m really considering a rack setup to make things a little easier (maybe).
