This Stage Was Literally Too Small For My Drumset

I played a gig a few weeks ago that tested my patience and ability to adapt as a drummer. This was pretty much a logistical nightmare for several reasons. It all started when I rolled into town…

The venue was at a downtown area where there’s a historic city-center square, surrounded by all sorts of hip restaurants, bars, and theaters. As I arrived on the square this Friday night, I was shocked to see a sea of at least 2,000 people on the lawn and flooding the streets. Crosswalks were crawling with folks. Sidewalks were crowded. Parking spaces were filled. Good thing I got here early.

Evidently a big family event was going on downtown, and EVERYONE was there. But the *fun* part was that the venue I was playing at didn’t have any parking (of course). And the valet lots were full. So myself and my bandmates had to take turns unloading each other’s vehicles on the curb in front of the gig location. Somebody would unload then go look for a parking space while somebody guarded the gear. You gotta love how so many venues who want to bring in bands regularly don’t really think about the logistics and the pain musicians have to go through to play at their establishment. (But that’s a rabbit trail we won’t go down today.)

Thankfully the busy event downtown was wrapping up shortly after sundown, so the valet lots started to free up. This was a good thing because first I had parked my car at a fast foot restaurant across the railroad tracks. I was informed by a band member that the place would tow my car if I didn’t move it, so I reluctantly relocated to a proper parking space a block away that cost me $5. Believe it or not, we all eventually had our cars parked and our gear inside the building with 30 minutes or so before downbeat. This was when I saw the “stage.”

It was roughly a 4’x8’ raised platform up against the back wall of the room. In case you’re having trouble visualizing these measurements (or you prefer the metric system - my apologies), just know that you can’t fit a drumset on this. Four feet isn’t deep enough for a stool and kick drum, nor is four feet wide enough to span from hihat to floor tom. Generally you want an 8’x8’ platform for drums… or at a minimum 6.5’x6.5’. So I knew I was going to have to make some adjustments. On top of the stress of getting into the venue and finding a comically tiny “stage,” there was already a group of patrons heckling us, wanting to sit in when we started playing. They were loud, obnoxious, and one in particular was really wanting to play the drums. These guys were loud in an already noisy environment, and this was the kind of loud that makes your blood pressure rise. But I had to stay calm and focused and figure out how in the world I was basically going to set my kit up on a tabletop.

After experimenting with various configurations, I couldn’t find any possible way to fit a kick drum, throne, and hihats onto the platform. Because of the direction I needed to face, I couldn’t squeeze my hats in because of a chain-link fence protecting some neon lights on the wall (#trendydecor). Evidently they’d had drummers bust out their neons in the past. What I needed this evening was my cajon, but I unfortunately didn’t think to bring it. It would have solved all my problems since I could then essentially sit on my kick drum.

Sometimes I do envy short people. Whenever I’m on a plane or playing drums in a small venue, I envy the guy who’s 5’6”. My 6’4” lankiness doesn’t fit comfortably into a lot of spaces. So this Friday night I was going to have to sacrifice something. There was no way I could get all the components of my kit up there. I tried sacrificing the floor tom, but I still couldn’t fit the hihats. I tried pushing the kick almost over the edge so I could get the hihats in place, but it didn’t work. I tried positioning my hats almost behind my snare to squeeze them in… but I couldn’t get my foot on the pedal. I was going to have to do the last thing I’ve ever wanted to do on ANY gig. I was going to have to play without hihats.

I ended up using a kick, snare, floor tom, and ride cymbal (positioned over the kick drum where the rack tom would be). I had to pull a Keith Moon and just forget the hats. Unfortunately we weren’t really playing any The Who tunes this night. Rather, we were playing a lot of blues, funk, and acoustic rock that needed hihat action. Oh well…

I could tell you all the details about musically coping without hihats, but that’s not really the point of this story. I managed alright. I played on the rims a bunch, and I stayed hyper aware of what part of the ride I was hitting. I could at least move around on the ride for different sounds throughout the night. I think this did make me think outside the box and come up with different-sounding parts for a lot of songs. The funny thing was, a couple of guys in the band didn’t even notice I was going hat-less until well into the set. Certain songs didn’t necessarily need hihat as much as others.

But my point here is… There’s more to being a drummer than being able to play stuff. Dealing with the stress of chaotic logistics, a terribly awkward setup, and slightly intoxicated hecklers making noise was truly the harder part of the night. That’s not something we drum teachers tend to teach very often. Drumming schools and drumming lessons and drumming channels on YouTube generally teach you how to play the instrument - and that’s fine. But there are other skills you’ve gotta have under your belt to really succeed in a lot of real world situations when you leave your practice room.

Learning licks didn’t prepare me for this gig. Spending hours to get that “perfect” snare sound didn’t prepare me for this gig. Practicing my kick doubles didn’t prepare me for this gig. And mastering the hihat CERTAINLY didn’t prepare me for this gig! (haha). Some things must be learned on the job.

But I tell you this story for the same reason I’d tell my younger self this story. In case you’re relatively new to drumming or gigging, I’m sharing with you what I’d tell younger Stephen when he was in high school. There are a few important things to remember that are true for most all of life:

Be patient when things don’t go your way.

Be kind to others even when they drive you nuts.

Know that the gig’s not about you, and ultimately it doesn’t matter if your hats have to stay in the bag. Nobody else really cares.

Relax, and stop being anxious about stuff you don’t need to stress about.

By the way, this story wouldn’t be complete without a super low-quality, badly-lit, washed-out photo from the gig. Maybe you can see everything I’ve been talking about. :)

Thanks for reading as always, and God Bless.

Stephen