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Evgeny
08-28-2007, 07:38 AM
Hi everybody, haven't been here for some time :chug:

last week crazy thing happened. Imagine - late night, I have a call to my mobile phone. A girl I know says that there's a band coming from Germany to play big biker fest open air fest here (headlining), but their drummer suddenly is in hospital, and it ruins everything. She asks if I can help. At first, I go literally crazy - I never heard what they play at all, and I have to play full 13 songs set after less than 48 hours!

well, I go to their website (www.dezperadoz.com) and listen to samples. music looks not so hard to play, but anyway, I have to learn a bunch of music in a day! I am not a professional session player, I am just playing with my band and generally I learn a song for some months before I play it at the show.

well, it turns out I cannot advice no one who will do it better than me. So - I accept this invitation. she also says there's another drummer working upon this (I know him, he often helps me as technician - but I also know he plays even worse than me, and doesn't read music. So I decide to learn the whole set although she says we can divide the songs between us)

in the friday morning I have the cd's and setlist. I spent all my working day at office listening and making charts. I have no time to go to my base with the drums, but it's even better, as I just have time to briefly write down the songs on paper.

well, at saturday morning we go to rehearse with the Dezperadoz. they are really friendly persons and very positive.
after the first 2 songs, which were the hardest ones for me, as always when you begin something (First Blood and Dust of History) Alex (leader of the band) says that now he's sure we'll do the show ok and he is really happy.

We rehearse the first part of set quite ok, and another drummer goes to play the second part. but - he's got no charts, he doesn't know the songs good, and he's got no good feel.. so they ask if I play the whole set maybe. (hint: now you see how important charts can be?) so i go back to the drums, and we do all other songs.

the whole rehearsal took about 4-5 hours. we just nail down the last song, and it's time to move to the festival site. would be good to play the whole set from beginning to end - but we just have no time for that.

you may wonder what is that band? it's a band of Alex Kraft, who played in SODOM some time ago and plays with Tom Angelripper in his beer-songs band ONKEL TOM. Dezperadoz play a mix of country/western with metal. they even cover Rawhide (I know this song from Blues Brothers).

http://polyrhythm.ru/pics/dezperadoz/DSCN1119.jpg

so we are at the hotel, I have some hours before the show starts and listen to songs again, after rehearsing, which helps a bit. Note that I have to play with a minidisk, which plays some effects and orchestration and click to my headphones

http://polyrhythm.ru/pics/dezperadoz/DSCN1121.jpg

these are my charts. a bit wild, but I was doing them in a hurry, two were done in a car even, with shaking hands.

(to be continued)

Evgeny
08-28-2007, 07:46 AM
so we are on stage. I put the charts onto floor tom. It's winding, and I fear they might fly away :0 I also had to ask the lightman to keep the light upon the drumset, as I cannot play without charts.

http://polyrhythm.ru/forums/uploads/post-1-1188220832.jpg

very brief soundcheck and the show starts. intro played, I start the first song - and imagine that, monitors are so loud that I barely hear the click!
I play somehow to it though, and get the volume better on the next song. It doesn't all go fine, I have some mistakes, but at least I try to play with a drive.

http://polyrhythm.ru/pics/dezperadoz/DSCN1143.jpg

http://polyrhythm.ru/pics/dezperadoz/DSCN1147.jpg

http://polyrhythm.ru/pics/dezperadoz/DSC00629.jpg

Evgeny
08-28-2007, 07:48 AM
the strip girls are local btw :) and I have found out that it looks much better from the drumseat

so - it's like a 1,5 hours of hard work and we are done.

http://polyrhythm.ru/pics/dezperadoz/DSC00696.jpg

http://polyrhythm.ru/pics/dezperadoz/DSCN1184.jpg

Evgeny
08-28-2007, 07:49 AM
myspace.com/dezperadoz features some nice tracks off their last album - give it a try. I really enjoyed the music, both playing and listening.

and now I own the most weird souvenir. I asked the guys to sign the CD for me, and they demended that I sign it too! so now I have the CD with my own autograph! weird

spirit
08-28-2007, 07:49 AM
Jameson whiskey! Nice.

Oh, the gig...

That's awesome, man, glad you pulled it off. That sounds like it was a hell of a lot of fun, and you've got a cool souvenir!

the_pure_drummer
08-28-2007, 07:51 AM
Crazy man. Sounds like hella hardwork and fun!

Evgeny
08-28-2007, 07:53 AM
huh, actually I have recovered from all that only yesterday... really hard, but I think if someone calls me next time, i'll sure agree, as it was really refreshing, and a lot of FUN.

BummerJonny
08-28-2007, 07:58 AM
/r/ more pix of the girls?

highonthedownlow@googlemail.com

Evgeny
08-28-2007, 08:00 AM
hahaha... they were dressing and undressing at the same hotel room while i was listening to songs, so after a while I decided to go away, as it was too hard to concentrate :)

http://polyrhythm.ru/pics/dezperadoz/DSCN1142.jpg

dairyairman
08-28-2007, 11:35 AM
haha! great story! actually, at a show like that with go go girls in leather bikinis, no one's really paying all that much attention to the drummer anyway. but i'd still be freaking out if i were in your shoes with only 48 hours to learn a full set for a festival show. i'm sure i'd be writing charts and taping them to the floor tom too.

Evgeny
08-28-2007, 02:17 PM
>at a show like that with go go girls in leather bikinis, no one's really paying all that much attention to the drummer anyway

no no, the girls were only on one song at the end actually.
and I saw my mission as only making the songs sound right and not to mess up the band. give a listen to the band, they are not afraid of really tight metal and the guys are very good technically.

Felk
08-30-2007, 10:24 AM
That must have been both hard and fun at the same time!
i enjoyed the songs on myspace, specially the vocals!

Btw, this kind of thing should land you some other "fill-ins" spots most likely, since you did well in only 48hrs =D
Congrats!!

ringworm
08-30-2007, 11:00 AM
man, i am waiting for something like that to happen to me :)
especially if they bring strippers :naughty:


great stuff & I am glad it all worked out for ya, and I hope it brings you more luck or gigs in the future

Massik Kretal
08-30-2007, 11:16 AM
Nice to hear. I wish I got an offer like that. Sounds pretty awesome.

dairyairman
08-30-2007, 01:23 PM
you never know what might come from this. they may eventually decide to take you on full time if their current drummer doesn't work out for some reason. or maybe one of the guys might ask you to perform in some other side project. doing what you did is the best way to make a name for yourself.

Evgeny
08-30-2007, 03:27 PM
interesting fact: leader of the band Alex Kraft was auditioning for Ozzy in 1996, but then Zakk Wylde came back. :0

Evgeny
08-30-2007, 03:32 PM
you never know what might come from this. they may eventually decide to take you on full time if their current drummer doesn't work out for some reason. or maybe one of the guys might ask you to perform in some other side project. doing what you did is the best way to make a name for yourself.

..or in the similar situation someone might call again :smoke:

Ellx
08-31-2007, 11:43 PM
woah, nice.