I'm a singer by nature, and a drummer by incident.
I've sung onstage several times, once winning the first ever Talent Contest at my HS, in 12th Grade. I love to sing, and it it's in my blood, so it isn't all too surprising. I've been trying to get a band together or somewhat, but it seems noone around here wants to. Even Craigslist hasn't been help. I'm about this close to just going on America's Got Talent. -_-;
I've also played three-four shows on drums as well, all at the same bar, funnily enough. A "friend" of mine needed a drummer a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, and I'd never drummed before, but he had me come over, played a song from his computer, then had me drum it. I nailed it, so I was in. Over the course of around three years, I drummed for him several times in several bands. When I got fed up with the way he treated the rest of the band, myself included, I quit.
Recently, a drummer he'd gotten specifically to play a certain show had quit week of, so he asked if I'd drum for a split of the profits. (Whereas before, it was all "band money"; In other words, it basically went straight to him, seeing as how he never used it for anything band-related.) I heard each one of their songs once, save for the only cover, ("Orion", by Metallica; it was the anniversary of Cliff Burton's death, so they wanted to play it.), and listened to it for hours the night before, to make sure I got at least that one right.
My "friend"'s drumset, which he stole from someone else at the aforementioned "long time ago", is in a state of disrepair that words cannot do justice to. To say it is a wreck would be a magnificent compliment.
The top of the highhat's is bent backwards around the outer edge; just a strip halfway around the cymbal about two inches thick. I had hammered it as flat as possible before the show, but, nontheless, my sticks managed to find the one, tiny hole left between the strip and the rest of the cymbal, and catch there several times. Three of the times, the cymbal came back up with the stick, and two of those three times it went flying away.
So I'm feeling embarassed and frustrated, and we go to start the cover.
Technically, the set had no bass pedals; they weren't part of the set at all, they just sat there in front of the bass. However, the one worked relatively fine with it, despite some occasional incidents. The second bass pedal my "friend" has put in front of it was in a farther state of disrepair, but, seemed to work to a small degree, albeit a softer sounded one.
As the bassist started Orion, I get ready on the bass pedals. On the first two notes, do you know what happened?
If you guessed that both bass pedals broke, you'd be absolutely correct.
So, desperate, I begin kicking the bass drum, in an effort to keep the song going. So far, noone had noticed the bass pedals were dead, and I intended to keep it that way. Unfortuanetly, Murphy's Law decided it wasn't done with me quite yet. Despite the fact that the set was set against a groove in the floor to keep it from moving, the kicking I was doing, having to be rather forceful, given the muted sound effect generated, was sloooooooooowly moving the set away from me.
At several points, I would literally be reaching four-six feet ahead of me, just to use a tom, or finish a roll over all the drums. (Only the snare and highhats were still in their original positions.) I had to try drumming both highhats and snare simaltaneously with one hand, while reaching forward to pull the set back in, about once every 20 seconds or so, 30 if I pushed my luck.
Eventually, an audience member noticed my plight, ran up on stage, and crouched down, holding the set in place for me until the end of the song. (Though there was but a minute or so left, it was appreciated.) About halfay through the song, I'd stop being embarassed and couldnt help but laugh, and that continued far after I jerryrigged one of the bass pedals, only for it to break again partially into the next song, and well after we finished 4 songs later. I am never drumming on that set, or with that "friend" again.
Rock'n'roll.
