A Year in the Drop Daddies

It’s been a very busy year. I haven’t had much time for making videos and posting blog updates.  Here’s why:

About a year ago, I started up a band – the Drop Daddies – with some of the other Dad’s at our kids’ elementary school.  Originally, the idea was just to get together on weekends to play some music and have fun.  Almost immediately however, a friend invited us to play at her 2012 end-of-the-world party.   That humble little gig by the Christmas tree kicked off a very busy year for the band.  So far, we’ve learned 60+ songs and played at least a dozen gigs- bars, an auction, carnivals, and parties large and small.

A few observations – each of which should be its own blog post, but I’ll collect them here for now and maybe expand on them later:

• Playing covers is a blast.  In my other bands back in the 90’s, we only played original tunes.  It was stressful- no one knew our music, and it was really hard to make a connection with the audience.   In contrast, playing covers of well-known songs is so satisfying.  We get to borrow a bit of the greatness of the original artists- the audience already has a connection to the songs.  They’re excited when we start playing a song they know, they’re singing along and dancing- and feeding energy back to the band.  It’s a great feeling. Not only that, I’m challenged as a player to accommodate different styles and techniques in each song.
• This may be obvious, but the more songs you learn, the easier it is to learn new songs.  Especially if you’re playing from the standard rock/blues canon, you can really begin to see how musician’s repeat themselves, or repeat each other- borrowing and extending licks, etc
• Mixing live sound is really difficult!  Trying to produce a clear mix, with everything at the right levels, while avoiding feedback and muddiness- it seems impossible and can be totally frustrating!   It’s a rare gig when everything sounds great.
• Complexity kills!  This is a mantra often associated with software development, but it applies equally well in many other situations.   Rather than taking multiple guitars, I try to just take just one guitar (my Les Paul), and avoid playing in alternate tunings or with capos, and I just play acoustic parts on my electric.   My pedalboard has indeed grown too complex, and something smaller and simpler would be better.  But playing covers demands a fairly wide variety of sounds- I haven’t quite found an ideal balance of simplicity and flexibility on the pedalboard yet.
• Learning to play the songs, and learning to perform them live is two completely different skillsets.  Biggest challenges:
  • smooth transitions between songs.   Too much noodling, and “what should we play next?” can really kill the vibe
  • staying focused while also rocking out.  Those horrifying moments on stage when mid-way through an awesome guitar solo, looking down and realizing that my mind has drifted and I’m lost.  This never happens during practice! The trick is to be able to recover without going completely off the rails.
• It would be reaaaaallllly challenging to make a living as a working musician.