Drummer Cafe Community Forum

Our P.A./Soundtech got stuck in a huge traffic jam coming to the gig last night.  He arrived at the venue about 45 minutes before we are scheduled to start.  I wanted to help expidite setup for him any way possible so I lugged gear in with him... None of my other bandmates offered, which aggravated me mildly.  So I schlepped subwoffer boxes, mains , monitors, cases, lighting rigs, the whole ball of wax.  While I am in very good shape, work out 5 times a week, I had worked all day at my regular job outside in the heat in a fairly physical job.  We got started about 15 minutes late and the first 2 sets went off with no problem.  But the final 2 sets I was struggling to relax and was feeling the burn. I basically was running out of gas.  I had never had this happen to me before.  My forearm and calf muscles were getting that "pumped" feeling you get when lifting weights.  Not good.....  Everyone was still complimenting me on my playing ,but I knew it was not quite up to my standards.

Does anyone else have any stories where you had to deviate from your usual "pregame ritual" where it caused some problems????


                                        Dave

I play in a Taiko group.  We had a nice paying gig at a huge Boston hotel downtown.  10 mins before our performance we realize one of our chudaiko(med size) drums was missing.  While a couple of us scoured this gigantic hotel the rest re-wrote the show to exclude a player and drum.  Our Sensei suprised the hell out of us with" it's just a material thing and we'll know better next time."  We all were pretty pissed and kept looking around for this $5,000 drum.  We played the show, things felt a little muted by our standards but the crowd of 1,000 seemed happy.  After, one our members wouldn't let it go and kept digging around the place.  About an hour later he shows up with the drum which had been "helped "  by an hotel employee into an adjascent banquet room.  Close call and a very cheap lesson in attentiveness.

Uh, yeah.

Well back to your question Doc.

This is a natural thing to run out of gas or get stiff.  It sucks too.  

Here are a few things I do so I can minimize this things.

1.)  Don't work before gigs.  Even on Fridays, I try to take it easy.  Saturdays I try to do as little as possible.  If you can put it off- put it off.

2.)  Don't move equipment or move as little as possible.  The more you are in this business the more you learn how to stay away from it.  You can hurt yourself and make yourself sore.  Let some other shmuck move it- you have your drums to worry about.

3.) Eat a warm, healthy *home cooked if you can* meal b4 the gig... greasy road food does not count.  I try to hit "Subway" when I'm on the road.  Seems to be ok.

4.)  Don't drink on the job- alcohol makes you sweat more.  I can take or leave booze on a job, but these days I really havn't been drinking much, usually not at all.

5.)  Drink water and pace yourself.  Economize motion.  You can look good and not be into full on rockstar mode.  Bring a fan if you know the joint is a sweat shack.  Playing drums is my workout, so I personally would not "work out" before a gig unless it was drum/sticking related.

that happened to me a few times, too. the real bad time was when we drove to a venue that was much further out than what we expected, and we got stuck in traffic [after a full day at work]. because of the delay, we had to rush the unload, and that was rough, because the drop from the van to the curb was pretty high, so hauling the amps was a bummer. then we had to wait like 4 hours till it was our turn to play. i was tired, sore, dehydrated and cranky.

needless to say, i felt like a bag, and didn't enjoy the gig or my playing.

these things happen.

Our Smoggy--cranky? Maybe a little more free with an opinion... ;)

I discovered that I was diabetic because of working too much before a gig. All of us would load amps and drums and it would wipe me out. I couldn't move. Of course, I'd have a beer (yeah--not a good idea looking back on it) and try to recover. It would leave me about a step-and-a-half behind everyone else all night long. I'd go from low glucose levels to high in a short period of time. It was kind of tough on this old dog.

Now that I've had it pointed out to me that I can run out of gas easily, I'm actually able to load in to a gig, set up and be ready to go all night.  

Some one-size-fits-all tips that everyone else in the band seems to have picked up on include:

1) Try to eat protein and not as much sugar. Jerky in the gig bag is great to chew on while you're setting up. Try to have a burger during the evening (on a break) to keep up to speed. Fries distill into glucose which can become a sugar high with a sugar drop.

2) Drink lots of water. Now drink some more. Sweat as much as you can. Make a tinkle during the break.

3) Sit down and take a break to relax when you are able. If you're young and immortal, that's kind of tough to do. If you're more **cough** chronologically gifted, you'll find it a little easier.

Point being: no one remembers how fast you loaded out. They remember how good you were.