Relief After Playing 40+ New Songs For The First Time As A Fill-In Drummer On 28 Hour's Notice With 4 Pro Musicians I've Never Played With Before

V is for Victory.

S is for the stage lights that cast this pic in neon green before I tried to salvage it.

Cliff Notes: the 3 hour show and experience was a big success. I did as well as I thought I could do. Whiskey helped for the second and third sets, thanks to a generous bartender. The band was happy and said that I saved their ass. I had a lot of fun and got to feel the thrill of rocking out live again.

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Backstory If You Missed It:

On Friday afternoon, I got a "I got a question for ya" text, which turned out to be a Hail Mary request to see if I could bail a country rock band out of jam. Their drummer broke his elbow that day and they had 3 sets to play at a big casino on Saturday night.

After taking 30 minutes to think about it, and making sure I could do it, I agreed. Nonstop listening/brainwashing of the mostly country music setlist on Spotify then commenced...

I chose not to try to make complicated song notes or put too much pressure on myself. The strategy was to absorb what I could, as most are easy songs to play, and make mental notes of anything complicated I'd need to be alert for. I just wanted to have fun and feel the thrill of playing live again for the first time in about 2.5 years.

I got picked up on Saturday afternoon, bringing only my cymbals, one cymbal stand, and my bass drum pedal. Thankfully the band had a brand new drum set I could use since my acoustic set is at a friend's place in another state.

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Here was my setup for the night with the stage lights creating some ambiance.

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First Set:

This lasted for over an hour. I did ok, but it took me a while to loosen up. I didn't have anything to drink before because our quick sound check went directly into opening up. I barely drink when I play, but wasn't expecting this instant start. Given the foreignness and unfamiliarity of all of this, I could've used two drinks first.

I'll concede that I was playing "shy" and not commanding on the set like I usually am. We played many of the songs I was least familiar with, so that impeded my confidence for the first 20 minutes or so. There was a decent crowd and a few people were dancing. There weren't any significant mess ups a crowd would be able to spot, and we ended every song together thanks to one of the guys turning around with signals or mouthed instructions I was able to pick up easily.

I made it through all of the songs ok, with plenty of high points, but I knew I left a lot of performance and showmanship on the back burner with a conservative approach to feel things out. By the end, I started rocking more and they gave me a surprise solo I did good enough on, given the shock of everyone turning to me and mouthing "solo...go..."

I was relieved when this set finished. I survived the first gauntlet.

Second Set:

After the first set, I went up to the bar, and the first thing the bartender said when she walked up to me was: "Are you single," and "Do you have any kids?" Shocked, I answered and was given a double Jack on the rocks with a smile. She was trying to set me up with her friend over her shoulder, but I went back to the group to get their feedback. It was nice to be the drummer on stage, but I had a job to do.

The second set was simply amazing. It was such a rush.

When we finished, everyone came up to me and gave me high fives. The energy was still swelling. We played Clapton's Wonderful Tonight to perfection, other songs I was confident on, and a medley I had no idea about.

The medley turned into a surprise jam where a Swedish electric guitar player played the theme for STAR WARS, SUPER MARIO, TOP GUN, and the State Farm Insurance jingle. I was in heaven for this 15-20 min mashup, literally laughing at the curveballs they were throwing at me and smiling when not laughing. I rocked it with complete confidence, more commanding fills that turned some heads, and team energy was through the roof. We played tight as a unit for this round.

When the set ended, I was actually sad. The bass player accidentally wound it down prematurely, but it was still awesome. Lots of good feedback after this one and great memories. The medley was one of the most fun jams I've ever played because of the situation and relief of hearing the fun themes out of the blue. I've covered Super Mario before for a Steemit post, so it was second-natured.

Third Set:

I went to get "one" more drink, but the bartender filled the entire tumbler up with whiskey and only a little ice. Oh well, it was free and I was having fun. Our last set was solid and we played some requests. Fortunately, they were easy enough for me to play through. We ended on a song we already played earlier, but the requestor put money down for us... It was Wagon Wheel, a gentle song I really didn't want to end on.

Again, I was loose and in command on this. I even started driving the songs in my direction a bit, and the band followed. We played No Diggity, which was a lot of fun and easy for me to take over. It may have been in the second or this third set, but I also played around with half and double-time feel changes everyone intuitively followed me on. This was fun and is one of my favorite signature things to do to keep things dynamic. The lead guitar was exceptional with the changes and his solos overall. It was a joy playing with him.

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Feedback:

After the gig, I ran into a guy who was dancing a lot with his wife who said he comes to that bar all the time and we were the best country band he's seen there. I told him about how I got involved the day before, never played any of those songs before (except Mario), and he couldn't believe it. He kept laughing and made me go up to his wife to tell her that. They said they couldn't tell, and especially as dancers, they never felt that the beat was off track. This felt good. While my standards are very high, I passed with regular listeners.

Overall, I'm glad I took a leap of faith to do this, skipped a major league ball game and went with the flow. I fell back on all of my years of playing, versus being cerebral about it, and it worked out. The guys were happy, so I'll likely get another chance to play with them in the future since they have a lot of gigs and their main drummer has a broken elbow. They have another drummer, but I'll probably be his backup. It's all good. It's a bonus and a blessing to get the shortcut in line to start gigging again, especially for a band based in my city with regular shows and songs I can eventually play with my eyes closed.

Also, I really want to play that amazing medley again...

Afterwards:

We stayed over at a nearby motel and I got dropped off to spend the day/night at @blewitt's house, which I'll write about later. Chris thought he could make the show, which would've been great for video and pics, but it didn't pan out. He'll have to live with that guilt for a while, especially since I went to his house for Easter, and stayed over to meet his family/tour his comic shop...

Thanks for all of your support - and please blame @blewitt for there being no video,
@steemmatt

This was my original post with the songs I had to cram, not including many that were thrown at me by request, or in the Easter Egg medleys...

^{See what I did there?}