Sunday night Bethany and I went out with my friends Matt and Amanda over to the UNC University Center Ballroom to go see Better Than Ezra. I’m a pretty casual Better than Ezra fan. I remember when they first came out with "Deluxe" when I was like 14, and have kept up with all of their hits over the years. I have their Greatest Hits CD as well as 4 other BTE CD’s, but I never explicitly sought out their music, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but their show was freakin’ awesome!
First off, it was amazing just how intimate this concert was. This event was put on by the UNC Student Government (or Programming Committee or something), and really wasn’t well-advertised. I don’t think any of the radio stations really knew about it, and my friend Matt only found out about it while he was randomly checking their web site. The UNC ballroom was small, and they actually sectioned off the ballroom to make it even smaller. I’m not a very good judge of the number of people, but I can’t say that there were more than 300 – so this was a really intimate concert, and I was only about 10-15 feet away from the band! The only time I’ve been closer to an artist was when I went to go see John Ondrasik from Five For Fighting at an acoustic show.. The set-list was excellent, they played all of songs we were hoping to play. They were really funny, very good spirited and the show was simply a lot of fun!
However, the night had the potential to go south pretty early, when this hard rock band from Fort Collins took the stage to open. I guess they had won Battle of the Bands at UNC earlier this year, but from the sounds of things it didn’t sound like the event was very competitive. This band just wasn’t very good. The sound was just very young and inexperienced, and it was hard to swallow because the guys were just arrogant in their stage presence. As I watched this band I paid close attention to the drummer (as I typically do) and through (a possibly unfair) critical eye I reached the conclusion that he is a poser drummer. He also had some really bad problems technique-wise: his left hand was gripping the stick like a club and when he hit the drum he basically used all of his arm, a little write, but no finger – which means that your stick isn’t bouncing. When you don’t capitalize on your stick bounces you find yourself working twice as hard, you’re hitting the drum way too hard to get the volume you’d like, and I’m convinced you’re cutting the life if your drum heads in half. On top of that this guy had his drums positioned really strangely which resulted in some really bad technique, especially in his bass drum foot, ultimately causing some phasing issues with the band. But above all of the technique problems, which could be fixed, I concluded this guy is a poser drummer, which I’m not so sure about…
What is a poser drummer? In my mind it’s a drummer that’s more concerned about their stage presence and "looking cool" more than they actually care about drumming. It is important for a drummer to have a good stage presence and allow their joy and passion to be conveyed to the people watching them, but when it interferes with your playing ability or technique, then we have a problem.
Some things that Poser Drummers do…
Stick Twirling – This by far is my biggest pet peeve, but it is also a bit "controversial" in the drum world. I read "Drum!" magazine off and on and it seems right now there’s a big discussion about whether or not it’s a worthwhile skill to have. My personal take: The time you spent on learning how to do your little stick twirl, you could have actually improved your technique and playing. Everyone has a limited amount of practice time, and you should make the most of it. There are a few drummers that are an exception, but most of us have room to improve on the set. Go be a baton twirler on your own time.
Having a microphone when you don’t sing – There’s a reason why most of us are playing drum set, and it’s the very same reason we shouldn’t have a microphone in front of us. You especially should never have a mic if you’re using it to talk to the crowd between songs. You’re too far back for people to see you talking so when you do open you’re mouth most people are just too busy looking around rather than listening to what you’re saying. Besides that, drummers can’t sing. Unless you’re one of the few exceptions like Don Henley, Phil Collins or Carter Beauford, then lose the mic.
Singing the words to your own songs (while playing without the mic). I can understand the motive for this, especially if you took part in writing the songs, but don’t do the lead singer’s job for them. There is an exception if you want to sing a line to yourself here and there, and this may just be a personal thing for me – but if you’re band is not big enough to have the crowds singing the words back to you, you shouldn’t sing the words to yourself…
Repeatedly hitting two crash cymbals at the same time. There are a few big moments in the songs that may require you to hit both cymbals, maybe at the beginning of a hard-core opening, but here is no excuse for you to hit BOTH crash cymbals that have basically the same tone… Whenever I see this I just think "how over the top".
Breaking new sticks/heads in one show. One of the questions that bugs me most is when people ask "How many sticks have you broken?", like it is some sort of bragging right. When you’re playing a marching snare you eat through your sticks like a wood chuck, but that’s because you’re slamming the rims every other note – drum set is completely different… I’ve broken sticks on the drum set before, but it’s after weeks of use (and you usually have a sense at the beginning of the show that it’s going to break). I just can’t stand when people have these relatively good-conditioned sticks and they’re broken in half before the end of the show. It’s not a sign you’re tough – it’s a sign that you play too hard and probably have some major technique problems…
So that’s the beginning of my drummer "poser" list… These are just from the top of my head, but I would be welcome to hear any that you may have. You don’t have to be a musical person to identify "poser" signs. Just think back to when you were watching an inexperienced drummer and he did something that made you think "how stupid!"…
Current Song – Collective Soul – Satellite (From the Ground Up EP)