[drumming diary] Support Local Music, Hug A Soundman

It seems that every time I want to write something over here, I have to preface it with a comment on how long it's been since I updated the drumming diary. It's not like I'm not playing.

Anyway, it's even more ironic that the last entry in this space was about how soundchecks at Cubby Bear are important, because after that first effort with the Paramours, our experience has been exactly the opposite. We've gone with just the line check twice since then, and felt pretty good about it.

In what may or may not be a coincidence, we set up in front of the main riser both times, despite a big hug from the monitor guy when I first got there in a misguided effort to get me to use the headliner's drum kit. Not gonna happen, as a general rule. It's not that I can't play on someone else's stuff, it's just that I much prefer playing on my own drums 99% of the time. James, who was mixing front-of-house, commented on the kit-sharing thing later, but then followed by saying it didn't matter so much with us because we're so easy to deal with.

Which brings us to one of the golden rules of playing live. If you focus on balancing your sound on stage, as a band, it makes the soundman's job that much easier, and then they'll like you a lot and say nice things about you to the people running the club. As a point of contrast, James came over to me during the headliner to assure me that we sounded better in the room than they did, mostly as a result of said headliners being really young and overly inclined to just turn everything up to 11 on stage.

Getting the sound crew on our side was important, as the final count of passes -- which I apparently distributed online in such a way that they took up four sheets of printer paper -- was dismal. But everybody at the bar likes us a lot, so it's not going to hurt the relationship or preclude future gigs, which is good. The set itself was okay, I guess. Nothing like the major "Roxanne" meltdown we had last time, but the pacing was a little weird again.

I still don't understand the lackluster turnout. Were we hit that hard by the Stones and Germanfest? Am I actually inspiring people to stay away when I try harder to promote? That's something I recognize when other people do it, so I wouldn't rule it out. This band continues to be better at playing than promoting, but as the new site grows, maybe that will change.