back.... again.... actually?

Hello, I haven't posted in a bazillion years, I think it's been since 2013 or 2014. I was an old old old RMMP poster as a teenager in the late 90's and early 2000's, who more or less abandoned the hobby for 15/20 years but always kept my drums and gear (mostly vintage Ludwigs and a few other things over those years). I posted a little bit in 2013 or so when I had the bug again, but nothing came of that (and I lost a 21" A Sweet ride somehow in the process =\ )

I'm now 43, and I have finally "gotten a gig" hahaha.

In 2019 or so, I transferred locations at work, and met another guy a couple years younger than me who played guitar, who happened to know the one genre of music I liked to play on drums was; primarily surf/instrumental rock. We jammed once or twice, but nothing happened. We reconnected a year or two later, jamming periodically. We've been playing consisistently for a bit since then, and a few months ago he brought his guitar playing kid into the fold as a bass player, to the point he wanted to try to gig with this situation. As a surf/punk/instrumental trio. On his side, he is playing in another band, but we played a little backyard show for his birthday in January, which went well for our trio, and with him playing in two bands in that one night. The singer from his other band got a pretty decent clip of us playing Dick Dale's 'Shake N' Stomp', which I may have watched over 100 times by now.

Long story short, due to the connections with his other band, we seem to be playing at least 2 dates at a small little punk club in Anaheim, once in March and once in April right now. I'm a little nervous but of course excited, hoping we parlay this into other little shows. I'm honestly content to play surf rock to older people on Sunday afternoons in bars haha. and my main aspiration is to play Huntington Beach Pier's Surfin' Sundays, where througought the summer every few Sundays they get 5/6 Surf Bands to play from 11am-6pm. Bunch of opportunities to meet other bands, which could be cool. We've tried to attend just as watchers these last two summers, and that's fun all on it's own.

I've been bringing cymbals and a snare and a stand to our practices where he has a Ludwig beginner kit setup, where his kid and his friends sometimes also play. I set it up as a 12-16-22 and bring a snare, lately my 1967 Ludwig Supra I've had since those early RMMP days. And either an 20" 70's A Sizzle ride or 2000's 20
K Pre Aged Dry Light Ride, with a crash that's either a Sabian AA 17" medium-thin (brilliant) or 18" K Dark Crash (80's/90's) or an 18" 2000's K Medium Thin Dark Crash. I used my 80's A New Beats on our little backyard gig. Sabian B8 hats on the practice kit which are totally fine.

If anyone's stayed aboard long enough to care about the kit, haha............. it's at least unique. Don't remember if I mentioned it in my earlier and limited posts as a poster here, but it's a ~late 60's Yamaha 12-14-20 beginner kit, in kind of a semi-faded light/mint blue zebra stripe wrap. I believe Yamaha called them 'dragoon' wraps; gold, blue, maybe also white were available back then? But at the time Yamaha wasn't super established and IIRC were about the same quality as 'Majestic' and other Sears catalog 'Stensil' kits. All 3 are 6-lug drums, and I don't use the Snare, but either way, it's a sweet little vintage Yamaha kit, which sounds fine with Remo Ambs everywhere and Evans Emad on the kick batter. Definitely served our one little backard gig well and it recorded well with audio gear on phone video haha.

For these two gigs, I'm still paring out whether I should use the Yamaha kit (which TBH is a perfect little 'garage surf band/surf rock' kit in that wrap) or try to step it up to my vintage Ludwigs, Champagne sparkle, 12-14-20 sizes as well. Both are well used enough and not pristine that I'm not *terribly* worried about damage, but... there's always that 'who knows what can happen' factor.

I have a bit of time before these little shows and I'm excited about them. A Saturday night in March and a Thursday in April. who knows what happens, hahahaha.....

Awesome! Good story - thanks for sharing.

If it were me, I'd use the Yamaha kit for an outside gig and the champagne sparkle kit under stage lights. But if it's a bright, sunny day...

Either way you can't lose. Have fun and report back with all the gory details of the gigs.

Welcome back to the drumming tribe!

great story, and welcome back!!!! I actually play in a surfy/punky/60's bubble gum pop inspired band!!

I agree with @Smoke about the set usage

will be cool to hear and see some video from the shows!!

I went to our little insta account, and I actually saw that we have another clip that I'd never seen before. Of a song called Jack The Ripper. two clips of us from our little January show can be seen on insta @_paleo_man

we're still kinda working out the name, it was The Paleomen, and we are billed at at least one of the shows as "Paleoman" but we may still change this I guess haha. but there's 2 clips there, check 'em out; me on the Yamahas on a cool So Cal January night =)

here's the pics from my personal insta I posted of my kit:

I'm probably getting ahead of myself, but for a lot of the time we've been practicing, i've been thinking about theoretical gear to use for shows.

other kits i have in storage that would be usable are a 50's/60's Gretsch transition era kit, blue sparkle, 12-16-22 (have the 13" tom shell from this kit somewhere to the side), which i love to death but has flanged hoops and not die cast. the bass hoops i had for it are Ludwig 22" bass hoops, that i put pink sparkle inlays in, for some reason.... it was one of the last kits i bought in my collecting days (which ended in 2005 or so) and i never got around to getting die cast hoops for it.

the other kit i'd like to use, is a 60's 13-16-20 Keystone Ludwig kit that i pieced together, and then wrapped in a dark wood veneer to look like this random kit i saw online for sale for a long time back then. since it's already not an original finish/wrap, this Ludwig kit i could consider for a re-wrap or re-veneer in the future, if we do things with this band. i'd either re-veneer it in a blond/'plain' maple veneer, or maybe go nuts and go Burgundy sparkle or WMP; all 3 options i've never had kits in before. i haven't customized any drums since 2005 or so as well... =)

as far as snares, what i've been using for practices have been my 1967 Supra (seen/heard in the insta clips), a 60's Keystone Acrolite that was kind of pieced together, a 60's Gretsch COB with Lightning throwoff, and probably my most prized snare, a nice condition 60's blue sparkle Ludwig Jazz fest. i have a good grip of others in storage i can use, mostly thinking of my 60's Gretsch Champagne Sparkle 8-lug (has modern die casts), which has IIRC a Renown throw and butt. always thought it was funny i had a perfect Gretsch snare matching my Ludwig kit, and a perfect Ludwig snare matching my Gretsch kit.

there's definitiely some fun other stuff to mention, but that's it for now.

This is Dick Dale's 'Shake 'n Stomp', live in Santa Ana CA, Jan 4 2025


edit: actually i don't know what happened, this is JAck The Ripper, not Shake N Stomp

Our first official gig is tomorrow (Saturday March 15) night at the Doll Hut in Anaheim, if anyone happens to be a So. Cal local who wants to show up =). I thought it was a $5 show but it may be $10. @830, i think we're the 2nd band up. i plan to show up at doors open @7 or a little bit later. i don't know what to expect as a gigging drummer, i just hope to show up early, kind of talk to someone inside and i hope they let me unload to some staging area before my car gets broken into and my gear stolen lol.

We should be on @830p. I'm trying not to be super nervous, i'm a tiny bit nervous but in an excited way and not an anxious way. as far as i can tell this is a typical kinda grungy punk club haha. not to disparage it, i'm obviously grateful to play =). the few times i've played live it usually ends up going better than i hope, and i usually end up having more fun than i imagine myself having in this type of scenario. i'm fairly confident as far as my parts; our originals are still developing but i'm mostly comfortable there; the other half of our set are 60/70 year old surf covers that i myself have played since i started playing drums in 1998.

i think in front of people i kind of default to a 'play it safe, play something less easy to mess up, don't try to try something new and experimental and just get through the song' mindset, but at the same time i try to let spontaneity take hold as well. weirdly the two clips we have of us seem to be some of the best we've played of those particular songs, and i hope we can match that same energy tomorrow; i know during practice we have really brilliant moments, but also minor train wrecks that we battle through, that we're glad we're practicing and not playing for people. the important thing is to avoid the train wrecks haha. our first gig is a Saturday night crowd so that should be interesting!!

thanks for reading this little journey of mine haha.

finally reporting back on the first gig. definitely a lot of little personal memories, everything generally went well. we were the 2nd band to be on, "at 830", and I arrived just after 7. they let me park right next to the building since i was so early, and the two guys watching the door were able to keep an eye on my gear just sat out in front of the place even though i mostly chilled outside at first as well. it's such an odd corner of Anaheim, slight industrial district tucked into a little corner by the 5 freeway; virtually no one was around who didn't intend on being in this little club because there was nothing else around that area.

the first band was a sort of country/folk trio, two acoustic guitars and an electric bass player; no drums. they had some audio issues with the club which put them on more like 815 which already pushed us back some, which was whatever. there's not really anyone there, maybe 5/10 people mingling around the place, half of them musicians going on later haha.

the other 2/3 of my trio shows up, and we kind of chill and watch the first band, while we kind of nervously pace waiting for our slot. about halfway through the first band's set, my guys start getting their stuff and i start unpacking mine; my stands and toms and such. I used my Yamaha kit as seen in the video above. as we're getting ready that little country trio band played Killing Moon by Echo and the Bunnymen, which was pretty rad. Since I was unpacked, i really should have leaned in the door and gave them a watch for that one, but i hung outside with my guys as we kind of chatted and stretched. but i appreciated the Echo and the Bunnymen haha.

it's about 830 when we're supposed to go on, but with the audio delay the first band is still going. no big deal, we don't mind waiting. while I'm unpacked and we're kind of waiting around, I see some guy talking to the bass player in our band. the guy walks over to me and i'm like crap, am i supposed to know this guy? he looks like he knows me? what?? haha. but he introduces himself and tbh i forget his name and all but he's some young local guy who tells me that basically he sees a drum set and he wants to talk to me; apparently there's no drummers around; he's "not trying to poach me but do i want to play drums for him??" haha. so apparently there's this shortage of drummers around, lol, in Orange County CA, which has almost always been kind of a music center of sorts for a lot of people. i said there must not be a lot of guys willing the lug gear around for stuff if that was the case. since being in this one band is already kind of a lot of effort starting out, i can't of course try to extend to another band or guy, but i just thought that was funny to find out. i should have at least talked to that guy after to see what he thought haha.

the first band eventually ends; time is a little bit of a blur but I think we were on @ about 855 or 9, once we counted off that first song i kind of lost track of time. there may have been a couple more people there by the time we played but i feel we immediately grasped a better/bigger/crazier energy than the first band; our opening song is like 2 bars of a guitar riff before i come in with 4 huge crashes and we go off. we played give or take a half hour; since we had to set up somewhat quick, couldn't play any songs or sound-check or anything i ended up being able to hear ~most~ of what went on; but i definitely mis-heard some parts and didn't play right a couple times; nothing noticeable to the audience but we weren't perfect.

i had an old old buddy show up with his wife, and there was a guitar player from our guitar player's other band and at least one other dude from a local band that i recognized from our backyard-birthday thing we played in January, so we had a couple supporters there. we seemed to get a pretty good crowd response, from the people that were there (there was some maybe dozen there when we started and at least a couple came through the doors (nodding in rock-approval) as we were playing, so i think it could have been around ~20 people haha). it doesn't seem like a big crowd for a Saturday night, but the place was tiny, and i did feel we did pull a good energy pretty much right from the start. it seemed like a couple people took some videos, i hope to eventually see those. i did get one picture from my buddy who showed up (shown below).

we had no trainwrecks or major disasters; a couple weird little flubs on my end because i couldn't hear 100% on our quick-no-sound-check setup, and i think the other guys had a minor flub or two as well but again nothing disastrous. from what i remember the place cleared a little when we were breaking down and the 3rd band was setting up (another drummerless guitar/bass duo), but i don't know if everyone dispersed for cig breaks or what or to the patio or what, ~930 or so on a Saturday night I can't believe we were the big act of the night haha. but I only was around for a couple songs of that 3rd band before i ended up taking off. another band was offloading while we were packing up and they at least did have drums it looked like.

now that i have a feel for this little club, our next appearance is a thursday night April 10, so if anything i expect it to be more chill. but now i'll know the place a little and i think we are actually opening then, so i'll get more time for setup and we'll probably get a sound check.

lots of nice details!!! And you also encountered the well loved gig tradition of no one actually being on time with their sets, as well as not being able to hear on stage.

now you just need to add loading down 2 flights of stairs to the small basement, and the drunk guy continually asking if he can play a song or two with you guys

Xstr8edgtnrdrmrX said:

lots of nice details!!! And you also encountered the well loved gig tradition of no one actually being on time with their sets, as well as not being able to hear on stage.

now you just need to add loading down 2 flights of stairs to the small basement, and the drunk guy continually asking if he can play a song or two with you guys

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yea, stairs will be interesting if encountered. i meant to make a comment in my recap but i'm actually a little surprised how relatively easy it was transporting my gear as a north of 40 type person, but i mean, i do a pretty standard classic 4 piece set on purpose, so only 4 bagged drums; biggest is 14x20. sticks fit in my cymbal bag easy enough (which funnily enough is a vintage ~70's i think Gretsch cymbal bag, up to 20", thin material, single zipper so the whole thing is very light) and i just bring a ride, crash and hi hats, so relatively minimal there. and then single braced Yamaha: snare stand, hi hat, 1 convertible cymbal stand, and then a DW flat based cymbal stand. oh and throne (i still have one of those super thick pork pie percussion thrones) and Pearl Eliminator I got in like 2002 haha.

circa early ~2000's me kinda hoped to gig, so after i did that initial youthful thing of getting double braced stands because they looked cool and professional, i did end up buying single braced stuff because even back then i already hated moving around the double braced haha. so the hardware bag is the heaviest item, but it has wheels on one end, so it actually moves around easy enough. iirc, it's really a bag that you would put a golf bag in to wheel it around, that my dad got for me back then when i was first learning and playing drums.

i'm not in _great_ shape, but i'm also not totally completely out of shape, and i managed to move it all around without any real problem. to be honest, i think it was more distance getting them from the garage, through the house and into my car (can't open the garage door the way we have things set up right now in our garage), than it was getting them from my car to the stage of the place we played haha. but this has to just be a lucky situation, there will be nightmares to come, probably haha.

luggin gear up and down, and in and around places helped keep me in shape actually. I also grew up playing hockey and riding bmx and mountain bikes, so I am in decent shape for my age.

I have been gigging either large drum sets or bass guitar and large amps for 30+ years, so the weight of things was not really an issue until the last few years. I am now 55, and have had a few small health issues that have put a "freeze" on some of my heavier lifting duties. That will go away in the next few months as I recover, but I am not averse to any lifting for shows. I AM averse to loading in the heat. I hate carrying my set list in from the truck in the heat. For the most part, my metal band does not play out much in the summer time, so most of my heavier lifting is eliminated. My country/jazz band plays more in the summer, and that is my smaller set.

2nd gig I used the Ludwigs, with Gretsch 4157 (it doesn't have the Gretch Micro strainer, it has a Ludwig P83/85 mashup throwoff haha). also used the Pearl L-arm (i got this thing in like 1999, after finding out about them somehow) which held up to a good ride banging the whole time.

we have a new clip at the _paleo_man instagram, and we recorded a bunch of it so i'll wait to see a couple more clips before I post directly.

SurfRockDrums said:

2nd gig I used the Ludwigs, with Gretsch 4157 (it doesn't have the Gretch Micro strainer, it has a Ludwig P83/85 mashup throwoff haha). also used the Pearl L-arm (i got this thing in like 1999, after finding out about them somehow) which held up to a good ride banging the whole time.

we have a new clip at the _paleo_man instagram, and we recorded a bunch of it so i'll wait to see a couple more clips before I post directly.

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man, I have a soft spot for old Ludwigs in gold, champaign, or silver sparkle!!!

here's another clip from that show; 'Bullwinkle, Pt. II'


shoot, i like the way it embedded on my last post. not sure how to get it to link like that.... oh wait all ihad to do was refresh it. yes click that it's a video haha

SurfRockDrums said:

here's another clip from that show; 'Bullwinkle, Pt. II'

View this content on Instagram

View this content on Instagram

shoot, i like the way it embedded on my last post. not sure how to get it to link like that.... oh wait all ihad to do was refresh it. yes click that it's a video haha

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love the sound!!!

is there a better place to post newer information, rather than this old introductory thread?

the PaleoMan saga continues!!

after we had those 2 gigs, a little time passed (few weeks) and playing those two shows definitely gave me the itch to play again ASAP. i had figured somewhere in between those 2 gigs we would have gotten at least 1 more (though asking/meeting people/being out there, etc). so bored at work one day, i was wanting to start planning to physically go to places (bars, basically) and introduce ourselves and see if any places wanted to have us play. after some band group chatting and discovering that's not a super efficient way to do it, i basically just started looking up 'live music venues' around me/us on Google to message. which.... makes a lot more sense haha.

over the next 2/3/4 days (and then a couple more maybe 1 week after that) I messaged a good dozen places (some through instagram, facebook, email, or their built-in comment systems), with links to our clips, our little story, etc. both unfortunately and fortunately, 2 places responded!

basically in my little story i had to say we were essentially new and had no rep, so we were in the course of building said rep. that seems to have been poison to most places because we got (virtually) no replies. however, we did get a reply from a place that was suggested by our guitar player (rather than me finding it on google), and in that big mass of messaging i sent out, i also messaged the Doll Hut, the place we had played already, saying, hey, we've played there for you guys twice, we'd love to come back for any other surf-oriented lineups in the future (as we had seen them host several shows along these lines over the last couple months).

so this is around mid May or so. a couple days after not hearing anything from anyone (though not expecting immediate replies...), i get an email from one place, Tiki Bar in Costa Mesa. they basically only ask 'how big is your 21+ following', to which i have to be honest and say our following is largely family and friends at this time, and therefore we're willing to play slow nights or open before someone else or whatever, we're not expecting a headline or main spot or anything.

i don't remember how much time passed, it was at least a couple days i think, but i got another email from the Tiki Bar place at 230am on a Friday night, they had to fill a spot in a hurry and they wanted to know if we could play May 31! i was like hell yea, i need to ask the guys to see if they can, before i say anything. i tell them i'll get back to them as soon as possible later that day/morning/afternoon once i hear from the other guys. i checked the guitar player's other band's schedule and they didn't have a show, so i figured hell yes we should be able to do this..... then the following morning, the bass player says he's going to be out of town that weekend..... =( i replied thanking the place but saying we wouldn't be able to make that date. i figured that was kinda the kiss of death with that place, telling them no. so for that moment, we almost had another show.

we were now meeting for a practice the weekend this happened, a little bummed we actually had to pass on a Saturday night show. as we're preparing for practice, i actually get a reply back from The Doll Hut, asking if we can play on 6/26 and later on 8/8 when a 'scandinavian surf band' will also be playing. THIS was nuts. not only 2 shows, but one with some established foreign surf band, which sounds cool. still not even sure what band it is yet, so that's still for the future!

after these two shows are set, our guitar player gets the OK to get us on a bill with his other band for June 29, a Sunday, at a bar in Fullerton! so a new venue, and it's just a couple miles from our usual Doll Hut show. so now we have two shows within a couple days in late June (26th and 29th) and a show in August!

and also around the time of accepting this 3rd gig, i get an early AM email from Tiki Bar; now they want to see if we can play June 12, a Thursday night. which we can do! so now we have 4 shows!! this is the reason i said earlier it's fortunate we didn't get a bunch of responses from a bunch of places; if we had gotten responses and accepted shows, even 2, 3, 4 more, we'd almost be drowning in gigs and pressure which would not be a cool thing! haha.

we may also play a bonus party/show type thing around July 4th but that would be fun/no pressure at all. but essentially with July off that may be when I start looking for other shows. we want to kind of be a summer thing but i think it's important to keep playing a show now and then in the fall etc. so hopefully we find more for August, and beyond.

if anyone here's around So Cal, Orange County, Costa Mesa check us out; 10 bucks, and we're actually more on toward 830pm rather than 8... we open for a band called BLAME MY YOUTH

all you have to do is get your foot in the door, be resilient to denial, and honest, and the ball will get rolling.

that sounds like the path/story that all of my original bands took trying to break on to the scene back in the day.

the hardest thing now is that there are only 5, instead of 25, places to target. So now all of the bands are cramming in to that funnel....

we definitely feel as if our foot is in the door a little bit, in almost a literally sense haha. like we're just good enough of an act to get noticed (in the right circumstances) but we have to be like 'hey, we're here!' haha.

we had our 3rd official show Thursday night, this time at a bar in Costa Mesa, that actually had a side stage section and a standing area/maybe dancing area. first show since April 15. i had been telling several people for the last week or two, old friends, old co-workers, old roommates; 9 of the people i told about the show actually came, haha... i think at our showtime there were maybe like 40 total people around? of course not super huge but definitely our biggest show, and definitely one where several people i know came to see "my band" haha. (not that i think of it as my band, but from a practical/narrative standpoint, i say that haha)

then, the show happened.......

j/k, it went mostly OK; we did have two or three times where the guitar cut out on us mid-song. we were mic'd up with the places' PA system or whatever, they had a sound guy and everything. it was random and kind of 'act of god'-ish, what happens happens. which is kinda funny because i thought before the show about that 'nightmare gig' scenario that some people have, thinking it's got to happen to us at some point. this is the closest so far, but ultimately i guess it wasn't that bad. but at the same time, again, i kind of couldn't hear the guitar at some times, so there were some times i was guessing and kind of floating in nowhere, and praying that it made sense. for example there were definitely songs we have that we absolutely nail, that i managed to mess up a little bit, or not play as well as i usually do. i never really felt comfortable with all the little angles and such on my kit, i should have spent a couple more minutes setting up; there was one point during one song where my hands/arms just stopped doing things they needed for a climactic moment of a song; i definitely noticed and felt it; not sure anyone else did?

let me start a little earlier: i got there a little after doors opened at 7. i find the stage area and there's dudes setting up their kit on the riser that's on the stage; i'm wondering if there was another opening band slated for before us, turns out it's the main band just setting up their kit. there was also some confusion because i asked when they were going on and they said 830, which was when we were told we were going on. turns out the guy i was emailing to get this spot, 'may' have been the owner, who wasn't even there that night lol. so literally everyone there including the people who worked there were like 'we don't know what's going on or who's going on when', which was weird. but eventually we made it clear we were told we were at 830, and since no one of authority was around, we got to go on at 830 because 'it's the sound guy's call'. he was a chill guy who had no problem with anything going on, really.

the other band offered for me to play on their kit (looked like modern/recent ludwigs, classic 4-piece in a modern black/grey oyster (pale imitation of the 60's oysters), which in hindsight might have been a better move... but i had brought all my gear with 100% expectation i would be using it, and i didn't want to waste the effort (plus the kit is kind of part of our or at least my aesthetic) so i set up my kit kind of in the middle of the stage, but in effect eliminating the front of the stage and separating the bass and guitar. normally we do it this way but they also have room to walk in front of me; this time that wasn't possible. this also put me on the stage where i think the singer would be of that kind of band, so i was lit up; my hat was soaked through with sweat halfway through the show haha.

i used my 60's Yamaha mint-stripe kit, looked rad under the stage lights. the other drummer thought the kit was cool. he asked if it was a 'made in japan' kit, which it was, and people are always blown away when it's actual 60's Yamaha's haha (the only others to escape that era well were Tama and Pearl, iirc). also 2003~ish 20" Pre Aged Dry Light Ride, late 80's era 18" K Dark Crash, 80's 14" A New Beats; also used my 67 Ludwig Supraphonic. we wore hawaiian shirts, which are borderline the uniform for surf bands; but we wore them because the Tiki theme of the bar haha. normally we just wear whatever. mine happened to particularly match the kit haha.

ultimately, it was fun. one of my buddies got a couple clips and a couple pics. there are some others that i think got some stuff but i haven't hounded them for it yet hahaha. everyone i invited said we sounded great and everything was good haha. that's mostly expected, but that's good to hear at least. maybe the most discerning people might have picked up on our flaws, but the 'general audience' liked us, which i think is what counts!

aww boo, the clips of :13 and :17 are too long for this forum? later for these...

(photo credits of Paleoman on stage to @that_one_nerd117 on Instagram)

SurfRockDrums said:

i used my 60's Yamaha mint-stripe kit, looked rad under the stage lights

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You ain't kiddin'--they look great.