Steve's gig last night...

[jonthibault]

For those of you who are interested, Steve played a gig last night with a rock band at this club in Hollywood, and his playing was insane. Absolutely insane. Imagine the deepest pocket-playing, but with constant Stewart Copeland high-hat flurries and Vinnie phrasing. Just disgusting. I love the guy, but sometimes he makes me want to quit.

You rock, Steve.

[PocketPlayer]

Dude
Next time let us LA loungers know in advance- another plug for T-Shirts!
[img]cool.gif[/img]

[Steve Holmes]

I posted it as news a couple days before the gign and removed the day after. I'll continue to plug some of them. The rock ones it's hard to get people out in LA on weeknights so the more the merrier =)
Playing rock in LA can be a bummer because most of the sound men wouldnt know a good drum sound if it bit them in the ass. Weckl really has the right system down, HE is his sound man essentially, he just sends a stereo signal to the board. He realizes how important your sound is and has total control of his, instead of being at the mercy of Bob the sound guy at Club X who thinks as long as the kick and snare are up everythings cool.
*sigh*

[PocketPlayer]

Right on Steve...hey keep on posting the gigs. Weeknights are OK if I or some others have a little time to adjust schedules. It might be good to have a drummer in the audience to give feedback on the sound or even help out if needed. I'm sure jonthibault was all you needed on the last one, but the more drummers the better I always say!
I agree on having as much control as possible in YOUR sound as opposed to some soundhead who isn't passionate about YOUR sound, YOUR music, or YOUR dedication to play music at the highest possible level.

[mja61]

Steve, good point about the importance of a good house mix (in addition to a good monitor mix). It's not too often that I hear a decent drum sound anywhere, even with some high-budget acts! I think Weckl has become quite an authority on good drum sound, but I noticed something odd about his sound when I saw him with DWB earlier this year.

I kept moving through the club trying to get a better view. I noticed that his stereo house mix was panned from the drummer's perspective, i.e. the floor toms were in the right channel, and the percussion in the left channel (for Dave's kit), which is how he usually records. I found it uncomfortable to listen to it that way, and it seemed to be more noticeable at certain spots in the room. In other words, I think he should have swapped L & R channels for the house mix.

For example, a floor tom note was seemingly coming from two directions: the left of the stage and the right speaker. I suppose this is more apparent in a smaller club, where you can hear the drums both with and without the PA, as opposed to an "arena" situation where you're basically only listening through the PA.

I guess I'll have to throw in one more comment as long as we're on the subject. I was disappointed in his cymbal sound that night. I don't know if it was a sound system issue or just the sound of his new Sabians, but they didn't really cut through at all. They were almost buried by everything else in the overall mix.

No disrespect meant to Dave, because I still think he's got one of (if not THE) best sounds out there, both live and in the studio.

[FuseU1]

I enjoyed Steve's soundbytes of his own play'g @ his site [HOD]. Very nice play'g - & attention 2 the pocket. I also noticed the 'Vinnie-esque-ish-ness' [?!] in his play'g; NOT a rip-off of, just simply the "spice"/touch of a player/idol who has influenced your play'g over a period of time of listen'g to him/her. & after all, what drummers in their right minds DON'T listen to Vinnie from time-to-time [awa all the other greats]. He certainly has influenced my approach to the kit [I just eventually want to have the total command VC has!!] I'm tryin to get around to [hopefully, eventually] gettin up a site of my own [altho HOD & Robertopeland's Drumland r doin a great job as it is!] Anyway, nice play'g, & good 'luck' 2 u, Steve, & all the other drummers out there in musicland, from FL!

[FuseU1]

Sorry - btw - all those comments about the "house sound guy" - 'no truer words were ever spoken' ["I FEEL YOUR PAIN, brother Steven - Amen, yay-yess"] - & Weckl has THE ULTIMATE solution [control-freak's answer to weed'g out the 'unhip middleman' - well, maybe not really "control-freak," but in this case one has 2 b]....

[Steve Holmes]

mja61, I don't mind saying that in my opinion the Sabians are definitely lacking compared to the Zildjians. Wether Dave or anyone else is playing them for that matter.

[XNavyDrummer]

Steve, definitely keep posting your gigs. It'd be great to hang out with you and some of the other HOD crew.

I've got to second the frustration about the drums in house mix. It'd be great to have the Weckl mic/mixer set-up and just send a line or two to the front of house board. Of course you would still need to go out front and hear what's actually coming through the system. The sound can still get trashed going through the FOH mixer.