Rhythm ≠ Responsibility

One of the bands I'm in - the younger one , no name yet - has been looking for a drummer. I know, I know. Drummers are notoriously untrustworthy, flaky, (insert unstable adjective here), so don't tell me you're going to complain about them. Well, I'm nothing if not predictable. But, actually, I'm not going to specifically complain about drummers. I've been playing music and hanging around with them for more than 30 years at this point. One of my best friends in high school, and the drummer in a number of my first failed bands then, was the living epitome of the flaky drummer. Great guy, but you, literally, could not believe a word that came out of his mouth. "I'll be there at 3:00." Look for him at 6:30 - two days later. "It cost me two grand for the "racing" transmission in my Camaro." He went to Ammco and they screwed it up, cause he only had $300, so now he has to downshift an automatic to 1st gear at a red light. So, I'm well aware of the lies that drummers tell.

Now, don't get me wrong. Not all drummers are problematic. The drummer in my other band - the older one, the one with a name - is, on the drummer scale of problems, a dream come true. Yeah, he's usually a few minutes late for practice - a few MINUTES - not a few days. And he STILL has my Kids are Alright DVD... but he's not going anywhere with it. And actually, I'm not centering my venom on drummers today as such, either. It's just drummers that have precipitated this.

We've run a couple of ads for drummers for this newer band. And gotten a modicum of responses - but for this town, and for what we're doing, that's pretty good. Now, there was a drummer, supposedly a very good one, attached to the project when I joined up. But, even before the first practice, he'd bowed out due to work commitments. Again, not unexpected as we're all workaday guys (or I would be if I could get a freakin' job), so this is only meant to be a part-time thing anyway. Anyway, we ran the ad and we got a couple more replies. And the ones who didn't fall off the edge of the planet after the first or second e-mail, were all gung-ho right up until the day before the practice where we were to audition them. And then, SUDDENLY, they realize they have other commitments in their lives and can't give up the time for a band. Which I'd have no problem with in a general situation. But, they had these same commitments a week or two before when we'd started talking to them. And as I've said, I'm not specifically attacking drummers. I've had this same thing happen with other bands, with players of other instruments. It's not just endemic to the folks who pound on skins (or, more accurately these days, plastic).

My main point of irritation here, is the general lack of responsibility of ANYONE who would do something like this. Perhaps it's literally the case of "your eyes being too big for your stomach", as my mother used to say. Which meant, in case you don't speak West Virginian, that the food was too inviting and you ate much more than your digestive tract could assimilate. Maybe these guys see the potential of a band that is exactly the description of what they'd always wanted in a band. Somehow I have doubts about that, but still. Maybe they're so excited that they might get into a band of (theoretically) like-minded folks, that they somehow forgot that they go out of town every three days on business or they have to be in another state everyday at 2:30 to pick the kids up from school or whatever their excuse is.

I don't ask for much. I simply want a grown man (or woman, although female drummers are few and far between) to have enough responsibility to understand their commitments and be able to imagine how a few hours of new dedication will fit into them. Is that too much to ask? Ba-duh-bump! (Thanks Ringo...)