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Did my drummer really just do that .....

#81
tpaul said:
Back in my day, onstage violence was commonplace. Why, I used to work with a drummer who would routinely saw my fingers off during gigs and eat them with horseradish. Our singer impaled the saxophone player with his mic stand three times a night, four on weekends. When our manager didn't like the mix, he would take pot-shots at us from the balcony with a squirrel gun. One time the lead guitarist thought I was playing too loud - he wrapped a high E string around my neck like a garrote and hung me from one of the rafters above the stage. Then the entire band danced around my corpse singing "Kumbaya" while flogging the keyboard player with a live cat. Yeah, things were tough in those days. I can remember walking sixteen miles to rehearsal and back, carrying a half stack, two wedge monitors and three instruments on my back, barefoot, in the snow... and it was uphill both ways! My feet were bloody stumps and all my hair fell out, and we were so poor we had to perform tonsillectomies on one another in the van on the way to the pawn shop between gigs, and the record company repossessed both the tuba player's glass eyes after he failed to put enough posters up on telephone poles, which was difficult because we didn't own a hammer or a stapler or any staples so we had to use six penny nails, which our manager rented to us for eight pennies each, and we had to drive them in with our foreheads and then pull them out again later with our teeth, which were rotten because we only owned one toothbrush between the sixteen of us and no toothpaste, and the bar owners used to pay us off in dog turds at the end of the night, which we felt lucky to have because we'd all grown up with nothing more nutritious than hamster turds. But you tell that to kids these days, and do they believe you? Nahhhh.
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Man you people are killing me!! First the Fast Show Jazz Club, now you're quoting Monty!! How am I ever gonna practice if I keep getting urges for good humoUr!!
 
#83
I used to get a lot of gigs with a drummer who would pull crap like that. He thought any low frequencies on stage were coming from the bass. I once turned off completely during a song and he was still freaking out. Had to show him my hands to prove it wasn't me.

My solution was to put my amp in front of the drums and tilt it away from him whenever we played.
 
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#85
Joe Nerve said:
I used to get a lot of gigs with a drummer who would pull crap like that. He thought any low frequencies on stage were coming from the bass. I once turned off completely during a song and he was still freaking out. Had to show him my hands to prove it wasn't me.

My solution was to put my amp in front of the drums and tilt it away from him whenever we played.
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I had something similar happen. The worst sound man I ever played with. Turns out all the deafening bass was coming from the drums. DOH!
 
#88
Too many sub factors to be considered. However, there have been times that I've had to be the "tapper", whether from the drums or bass, just because constant eye contact, or at least repetitive eye contact, is imperative. I try my best to only involve myself in situations where that is never an issue, and all parties involved are attentive. What do you do though, when the guy who should be tapped, is actually the MD?
 
#90
I've been tapped with sticks...feet...elbows nudged in the butt..and have done the same thing to people. Tight stage, dark, everyone looking down, gotta get everyone's attention because we don't all just grind out the same part the same way every time.

I never even considered getting all militant and jacked up over someone doing whatever they had to do to get my attention when they had their own hands full
 
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#91
i have the luxury (?) of playing with two different drummers regularly: one guy is small, wiry, energetic, and not beyond using his sticks to conduct, call/get attention, yada yada. if he 'tapped' me on the arm during a playdown: i would interpret that he knew something which i didn't, and i'd probably be thankful for the tap tip. i would interpret his act/actions as congruent.

the other drummer is large (ex-football), sometimes lost (follows vs. leads), and struggles to adequately remember some of the arrangements. if he tapped me with a stick: i'd consider it an incongruent bit of behavior and we'd have to "discuss" the issue post haste.

but: i know both of them very well and i have played with them for years = they are both gifted musicians (in spite of my description! :roflmao:).

if i was playing with someone new-to-me: i would address the 'tapping issue' right there, mid-song, somehow/someway to let the drummer know that there may be better ways to communicate. i say lots of things to other musicians during a playdown (although usually, we get by with facial expressions, winks, nods), but IMO it's OK to say things like "don't do that again!" when i've said that to other adults = they comply (and so do i when i'm addressed in that way). only 2-5 year-olds would test such a boundary.

communication is key.:thumbsup:

noagreement said:
I will point out that there have been some tensions lately (but nothing particularly out of the ordinary drama) and it was a very small, cramped stage.
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communication is key! :thumbsup:
 
#92
lfmn16 said:
You might want to be a member for more than a month before you start giving advice on how to act on this forum. ;)

Some asshat attacks me when I wasn’t even addressing him, I’ll call him on it. We have the ignore feature for a reason.
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Maybe he's better qualified as someone who hasn't (yet) normalized some of the pissing matches that go on within otherwise informative threads on TB. Then again, it's not a real discussion board without the occasional e-skirmish...
 
#94
lfmn16 said:
You might want to be a member for more than a month before you start giving advice on how to act on this forum. ;)

Some asshat attacks me when I wasn’t even addressing him, I’ll call him on it. We have the ignore feature for a reason.
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By all means act how you will online, not what I was saying! Was giving advice on how to act outside of an online forum! A place I've been a little longer than a month. ;)
 
#96
I see two standout recurring themes in any discussion about drummers here on TB...

1. Those that know they can find a replacement easily so they don't put up with any crap (usually an A-type personality)

2.Those that will put up with an alarming amount of crap and desperately try to justify their reasons because it's hard to find drummers in their area (usually a B-type personality)

Those that are level headed and actually have discussions with their bandmates... few and far between
 
#98
Stunned. 5 pages about a drummer tapping a bass player on the arm. And not from an aggressive place. He wanted to communicate. Do you not look at the drummer then? I thought this was where adults discussed music... Ever heard the term "snowflake"? I'd suggest you stop looking for things to be offended about and come join the real world, where bandmates look at each other every few seconds and do their best to play together.
 
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