The Graceful Departure

It'll be hard to accomplish. The useless cockbreath AV tech, who unchecked jealousy and ego started this, will still be there for the remainder of my employment, albeit only in passing due to shift change. The AV tech that I'll be working with for the rest of the week is a much better tech, and a bigger man than Cockbreath McPothead. He'd also shown some concerns that I'd played too hard, until I'd noticed and shown to him that the TD-20 kick-drum pad had been set up improperly, with the pad's anchoring spurs not set at the same height. It'll take some explaining to him that I won't be coming back to the Atlantis after Sunday. Ever.

So what will I do in the interim? I've removed all my equipment from the stage area. Gone is my $400 wireless headset microphone, my high-tech Easton AHEAD alloy drumsticks, my comfortable drum throne, my pedals, my repair kit, even my monitoring headphones. Why bother with it all? The drums themselves have been turned down to virtually zero, and I walk into the building with only a single pair of cheap generic 7AN sticks. I play so lightly that I doubt anybody can hear anything. With the band's sequences including full drum tracks, the tourists really can't tell the difference. I've even toyed with the idea of simply shutting off the drum controller, and just spend the night tapping pads and hoping I'm not doing permanent damage to my back because of the nice but backrest-free throne. Why bother with the risk of damaging my own equipment? Just the barest necessities will do. Now if I could only find my hair trimmer.....

I will simply do my job for the last five nights, just with the barest minimum of effort. I still have my courier route, and a second part-time job will suffice. I'll find an original band somewhere along the line, and play because I want to rather than playing because I have to just to keep the lights on and the rent paid. And I'll play before audiences that actually want to see me and whatever band I'm in play, rather than some anonymous amalgamation of drunken tourists who keep screaming out requests for songs I've never played before, some I'd never even heard of before.

I think this blog will help me keep my hand in the game as it were, allowing my fellow musicians around the country to gripe, complain, and more importantly, organize. We can only stand up to shitty venues, companies, and people if we stand up together.