Hi

Has anyone been in a band and show up to a gig ( or find out in advance) that you are obligated to play on a “house” kit.

I live in Pembroke, ON Canada and around here there seems to be this fad of drummers sharing a drum set..minus cymbals, stands, snare and bass pedal.

My rant is really that as convenient as this can be, it’s kind of insulting…don’t get me wrong it can be a pain in the patootie to set up and tear down a kit sometimes, but seriously we’re all drummers and we all play differently, our set ups can be unique. What if a drummer plays with a whole rack of toms and the house kit only has 1 or likes his floor tom(s) higher lower or whatever…not to mention we didn’t spend X number of $$ on our gear and countless hours tuning and setting up the perfect set up to leave it at home collecting dust. Not to mention it takes away our individuality. I think guitar players should try house guitars.

i just think that I have the right to play MY instrument like any other member of the band, I also shouldn’t be obligated to share.

I should mention that I am not including “open jam” situations

I hope I am not coming across as conceited or difficult in any way…I just find find being able to adapt to any drum set up is not a point of pride as my guitar player tries to convince me it is.

I agree. I love spending hours messing around with my kit… tuning, polishing, what have you. I tend to feel a good deal of pride from playing MY kit for an audience, knowing that it is set up how I like it and tuned how I like it tuned, and nice and shiny because it hasn’t been sitting on the same bar stage for who knows how long with out anyone really tending to it.

You bring up a great point of guitarists playing their guitars. Every guitarist I know, can’t stand playing a guitar that they are not familiar with.

Thank You, its nice to know some agrees!!!!!

i agree half-heartedly.

my set up downsized considerably when i got fed up with going from a 7-piece to a 4-piece on the demand of the venue.

but-

i can see where smaller venues, like they’d have in pembroke, ontario, not having the time, or facilities to enable a drummer to switch gears with an other drummer. it takes up an incredible amount of space and man power to have two drummers setting up/tearing down on a 6 foot stage, and venues with that kind of stage, probably don’t even have a load in door, or area for equipment to go. and theres alot of pieces that can get lost, accidentally traded, or even completely broken, so it is a neccessity, and should you ever play bigger venues, it may even still be an issue.

and don’t even get me started on promoters/venues keeping me informed about what i need to bring. i had an arse named gary taylor book me and the artist i work for to audition for canadian music week in toronto, three weeks to tell me what i needed to bring, 3am on the day of the show, my artists manager gets an email saying the drummers ought to get in contact and decide what to bring. no numbers given, no band names thrown out, no details on the venue.

i assumed canadian music week would actually book a venue.

i end up bringing 20’’ crashes, 24’’ bass drum, a three sided icon rack, etc, to a 20 person restaurant with six, two person tables and a stand up bar that can accomodate ten people. stage was a good 5-6 feet, i had one elbow into a wall, another into a railing, the left side of the parts of my kit i was able to use, were straddling a curtain, that was for some reason hung up behind the stage, presumably to make it look showy, i had to use blasticks, all of my cymbals and drums were tissue/duct taped to complete deadness.

then the guy comes up to me as we’re on stage, ready to go, and says, oh hey, the venue has sound issues. tape everything up.

i spent that entire gig faking an effing smile on my face.

we did so unabashedly poorly, and he dared accuse me of being an awful drummer. took everything i had to not tell the guy to learn how to do his damn job.

moral of the story, reap the benefits of the poor planning and ideals of the people in this industry, up to, but not just including having the pride of your playing, your own drumkit, ripped out from underneath you.

Well, at least you had everything with you.

In a bit of a reverse twist on your story, some years back our auditorium was booked for a popular touring religious singer. As tech supervisor at the time, I did my damndest to get as much info as possible about what we would have to provide. The contact for the production group repeatedly emphasized that this was a professional group and toured with their own equipment. “A stage mic will be fine.” ...(You already know what’s coming.)

During load in the evening before, the drummer comes up to me and says “I need drum mics.” And he was the first in a line of performers for this show that had no sound equipment whatsoever.

Sometimes ya gotta expect the worse no matter how convincing the person is you are talking to.

I love my touring(only use it for shows) kit, but if I can play a show on a house kit, I’ll do it in a heart beat, especially when I play line ups with more than two bands(a house kit means less time between bands). I don’t mind at all. Especialy if the venue doesn’t provide stage hands, than its less work for me. And my sound man is a drummer, so he always makes sure the drums sound amazing no matter what kit I play on. As for my individuality as a drummer, for me it’s not about what I play on, but how I play, and my individuality goes with me everywhere.

The older I get, the more I appreciate house drums. If I don’t know the kit, I always bring my snare, cymbals & pedals. That stuff is easy to swap out, and the right snare can make a big difference in my sound.

bigbeat - 05 April 2011 01:30 PM

The older I get, the more I appreciate house drums. If I don’t know the kit, I always bring my snare, cymbals & pedals. That stuff is easy to swap out, and the right snare can make a big difference in my sound.

LOL! Well said.

I’ll have to agree with your guitar player.