My first warning was being told before he got there that he likened himself to Keith Moon. I've never known anyone else say that about themselves.
He was maybe 15 minutes late, this drummer. Things happen to make us late. Some are fair. Not 'My clock was an hour slow; it must have stopped, when the time changed'. This was today, 2nd July. Our time changed at the end of March. 'Have you listened to the CDs?' He'd listened to them in the car, he said. Listened in the car. Not practised them, let alone learnt any.
He played the first song well, with good fills. On the downside, we'd said 130bpm. He went off at 180+. The next song starts with the guitar at 130bpm. The drummer came in at 180+. I told him he was too fast. I like playing fast. My other band's slowest is 172, but I wasn't liking playing this with him. I played a busy, walking bassline to it, for the first time. It didn't help. I almost walked out. Drummers and bassplayers can have something between them that others in the band don't have. There was none of it here.
Next song has a middle 8 with heavy kick drum only from the kit and leads into a bar of rests. He didn't get it after being told three times. He tapped softly on the kick and played heavily in the rests.
We did the first song again; I don't why. He said 'You want it a bit slower?' We said we did. He started at 180+ bpm.
His timekeeping on the four songs was bad, speeding up and slowing down.
Afterwards he told us about his own kit: 'I've got a cowbell and a thing that goes on the hi hat'.
'What's this "thing"?' I asked, reckoning it would be a hi hat tambourine. I was right, but why didn't he know what it was called?
He was maybe 15 minutes late, this drummer. Things happen to make us late. Some are fair. Not 'My clock was an hour slow; it must have stopped, when the time changed'. This was today, 2nd July. Our time changed at the end of March. 'Have you listened to the CDs?' He'd listened to them in the car, he said. Listened in the car. Not practised them, let alone learnt any.
He played the first song well, with good fills. On the downside, we'd said 130bpm. He went off at 180+. The next song starts with the guitar at 130bpm. The drummer came in at 180+. I told him he was too fast. I like playing fast. My other band's slowest is 172, but I wasn't liking playing this with him. I played a busy, walking bassline to it, for the first time. It didn't help. I almost walked out. Drummers and bassplayers can have something between them that others in the band don't have. There was none of it here.
Next song has a middle 8 with heavy kick drum only from the kit and leads into a bar of rests. He didn't get it after being told three times. He tapped softly on the kick and played heavily in the rests.
We did the first song again; I don't why. He said 'You want it a bit slower?' We said we did. He started at 180+ bpm.
His timekeeping on the four songs was bad, speeding up and slowing down.
Afterwards he told us about his own kit: 'I've got a cowbell and a thing that goes on the hi hat'.
'What's this "thing"?' I asked, reckoning it would be a hi hat tambourine. I was right, but why didn't he know what it was called?
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