What is my job? I play drums for 2 hours every night. Well, every
night that I have a gig. Sometimes I enjoy it, other times I really
don't. What makes the difference between a good and a bad gig? I
suppose it's whether I feel like I'm making good music.
Other things come into consideration too. Playing to 20,000 people in
a stadium is quite different to playing to 30 people in a bar. I've
done both. Is one better than the other? It depends how you look at
it.
Personally there are things that can spoil a gig for me. One of them
is lighting. Occasionally there'll be a really bright spot pointed
straight in my eyes. It means I can't see the audience, and it's like
staring at the sun for 2 hours. It gives you a headache and kind of
tires you out. I suppose I shouldn't complain - I should just try and
make sure it doesn't happen.
Last year we did a gig with Toto. I was using a hired drum set which
needed a lot of work to get it to sound even half decent. Behind me
was Simon Phillips's monster kit - every drum in the perfect place. I
spoke to him about setting up drums and said that sometimes I just
gave up and made do. He said you should never do that. If you're not
comfortable on stage and happy that you're making a good sound then
you're not in a position to do your job properly, and you'll probably
have a bad gig. One could say that's fine coming from Simon Phillips.
He can request exact drums and hardware and have his tech set
everything up the way he likes it. Even so, he always comes and makes
the small adjustments required to make sure he's comfortable.
A couple of years ago I read a great book called 'A Complaint Free
World' (
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385524587/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=drums...)
Even if you're skeptical it's well worth a read. I was well aware
that complaining is unnecessary. Most people complain to their wife
about their boss, and to their boss about their wife. It doesn't
serve any purpose apart from sustaining your annoyance and boring
whoever is the recipient of the rant. I didn't feel like I was much
of a complainer, but after reading the book I became more aware of the
times that I did complain and resolved to try and eliminate them.
If you feel annoyed at someone or something then you should figure out
why, and do something about it. I spend a lot of time writing
software to automate menial tasks, and I spend a lot of time finding
problems with my playing and working to overcome those. These are
active ways to overcome annoyances. Complaining that I have a bad gig
because there was a spot light in my eyes seems really petty when I
think about it.
So, I plan to start a check list of things that can make a gig bad,
and make sure I systematically eliminate them from the equation. It
doesn't take much to ask someone to turn on the stage lights in sound
check and request that they change the angle of a spot or don't use it
as full brightness. If there is no soundcheck or they can't change
anything, then I suppose I could wear shades.
Another thing that can spoil a gig for me is having a bad monitor mix.
Last night was the final night of a 19 date US tour. We had an 11
hour drive to get to the gig and there wasn't time to set up the
in-ear monitoring or do a proper soundcheck. The result was that I
could barely hear myself during the gig. I felt like the sound out
front also had no drums and assumed everything I was playing sounded
terrible to the audience. I played the whole gig, especially the drum
solo (which I wanted to cut from the set), feeling slightly
embarrassed about the performance and the sound.
At the end of the gig many people came up and congratulated us on a
great set and commented that the sound was fantastic and the drums
were really powerful. This has happened on more than one occasion,
and I really should have learned by now. One of the hardest things to
do is look like you're enjoying something when you're not, but that's
what I'm paid to do. I've found that if you make the effort and
decide to let go of the things you can't change and trust that
everyone else is doing the best job they can do then things usually
turn out for the best.
I know of no better example of this kind of professionalism than the
following clip. The backing track is played back at the wrong sample
rate and is out of tune by a random amount. Eddie does his best to
bend notes to make them sound less awful, but it's pretty horrendous
by any standard. I have no idea how he felt on stage, but it couldn't
have been good. Despite all this he still 'jumps' every time the word
comes up. Now that's a professional performer!
As for the gig when only 30 people show up to a bar in the middle of
nowhere... They've all paid for a ticket and deserve to see the same
show that the 20,000 arena goers paid to see. In some ways it'll be
even more special for them. If Eddie found himself in that situation
I think he'd still jump.
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Thanks for your support,
Joe
