Summer of Live Music

I can honestly say that I've seen more live music this summer than ever before in my life. Ever since I've gotten back into music and drums I've been trying to make time to go see live performances for ideas and inspiration.

It's amazing how much there is out there to learn and I have no idea how it all works. Everything from how a song is created to playing it live. I'm so inexperienced. How do you decide the grooves, I'm guessing it's just a matter of experience, drawing from that and inspirations of other drummers and sounds. And there is so much to playing it live...

I saw Rush and STP at Summerfest. Both were great concerts. Surprisingly, I liked Rush even more than STP. I hadn't listened to Rush in years and years. The sound was great, the songs were great, and the performance was great.

That leads me to sound... Wow, what a difference that makes in performances. I've seen some bands live that sound great, others that sound simply ruined the performance. How sad when the drummer worked so hard, I could see the licks, yet you couldn't hear them or the mix was just way off. So much to learn.

Besides the big headliners I watched at least twenty other bands at Summerfest. Everything from the Zydico exerience to thrash speed metal and plain unintelligible screaming. :) Are you ready for the silver pants??? Candlebox was awesome, probably my favorite. And to believe I didn't have any of their CDs. I went and purchased their new one and the best of and have been listening to it continuously.

I was talking to the guys at Guitar Center and found out they were playing live that night. I went, and it was great. The venue has an open jam once a week where a variety of bands play 3 or so songs each. It's great. I went again last night and just loved the small group. It would seem like a great place to test your band. Hopefully some day...

Another only-three-hours-of-sleep night and I'm off tonight after work to see Blues Traveller, Collective Soul and Live. And I'm loving it!