A week and a half ago, my buddy Mac (Poison Jams) hit me up asking if I wanted to play drums for a hip hop house show. I was kind of on the fence about it, given that we hardly had any time to learn/practice anything, but in our usual “fuck it” fashion, we decided to just go for it.
Three days ago (two days before the show), I saw one of the homedwellers posting on Facebook asking if anyone had a spare PA to use (yikes). So of course, I ended up backing them up with some speaks, cables, and mics. I was happy to do it, but also curious about why technicalities were an issue 48 hours before the event. No biggie!
It was just me drumming over the beats, and Mac and our friend Scott rapping. It is really fucking hard to play to pre-recorded music/beats without a metronome, although it ended up okay and the energy in the room was fantastic. I was playing one of the band’s kits, and wearing headphones, so I had little idea what I or either vocalist sounded like in the room. I hate that. But apparently, the sound wasn’t so bad for the most part.
Sometimes it’s good to take a chance and play a wildly under-rehearsed set, sometimes it’s really, really not. This was an example of the former, I do believe.
Shots of the other groups: