I fell pretty lucky that I have not had any physical issues during my 35 years of drumming but last year saw my first worrisome injury
Of course, there was always the banged up knuckles from bashing but I developed problems with my left elbow when playing for the traditional Ramones Tribute band in 2017
The injury was a result of over practicing a technique that I had never really used before
For the un-initiated, playing Ramones music on the drums involves playing the hi hat very fast
The secret to this technique is to smooth out all the normal dynamics, replacing the punches and stabs with an even wash of 8th notes
I have been playing 90% punches and stabs for my entire drumming existence and my muscle memory was pretty much set in stone
Things would have been OK but I insisted on overd...
This past year has involved a lot of effort both on a physical and mental level
I have had some really great moments and I have had even more moments where I should have been demoralized more than I was
If there’s one thing I can take away from this year is that I have confidence in myself that I can work hard
My biggest enemy is my own mental and emotional attitude when things don’t work or when people don’t give a shit but I cannot deny myself that the results of this year have been very positive
As 2017 approached, I had my 2nd round of background videos and was just staring to investigate a multi-track audio interface
I settled on the Presonus 1818 because I will use it in both recording and performace
This enabled me to record my drums into individual tracks so that I could give more ...
Most of my gigs have been last minute additions and/or short notice
This gig at the Foundry was booked months in advance and I had booked Bullet Machine as a headliner
Bullet machine backed out couple of weeks before the show because their drummer needed surgery
The Foundry is not a punk club and they didn’t want a really rowdy crowd, which made it hard for me to find a band
I finally decided that I would play both sets myself, which meant that I was going to have to quickly edit some of the new tracks I was working on
My current setlist has about 18 good tracks which makes for a 35 to 40 minute set
19 new songs made it onto the Roland P-10 video sampler for this gig
This was going to take some serious cramming
I had just finished the bass parts and my plan was to go back and EQ the indiv...
I have not done a “gig recap” in a while because they are pretty much all the same at this point
Not that they aren’t different in their own way, it’s just that I have gotten to the point where there enough gigs for things to settle into a pattern
This was a night that was very good for me because it threw some curve balls at me
I took a last minute gig this past Saturday
It was a battle of the bands to determine who plays the Remember the Punks festival in San Antonio
I was told I was going on first (which is where I always am) but that gives me plenty of time to set things up perfectly
After getting half set up, I was told that a band was added and that they were going on before me
This made me reconsider my live setup and how complicated I have made it
I have a headphone mic cable, a gu...
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