Playing drums in a band - Can 37 year old dude still learn new tricks?

I had payed drums just a little bit for a few months when I was 10 years old. So when my colleagues starting a band asked me in March this year if I'd like to come and play drums in the band, I wasn't sure how that would work out. Anyway I said I can give it a shot. I also told them to give me a boot if I wasn't learning. Luckily there is a band training room available for bands of Nokia Oulu music club, a music club for Nokia employees, with some PA equipment and drums included. So we started practicing during March trying different songs. After a few practices I started to feel like, yeah I can manage this. The first song we learnt was Paranoid. For along time it was our warmup song. We had practices once a week from late March to late June. During July we really didn't practice as all the band members were on holidays.

Early August there was an email from the music club president telling about Muterock event in September 24 and asking bands to enroll. After thinking and discussing about it for a week or so we decided to enroll. The band's working name had been Sun Faded, but we now changed it to The Misplaced at this point. At that moment we had probably only like 4 songs that we were able to handle decently. And we had our first own song cooking as well.

Now that we had a tangible goal the motivation to practice was really high. But still we had problems in getting all the band members to participate all the rehearsals, it's pretty damn difficult to match the calendars of 4 family guys. So we were making progress in learning the songs we had chosen, but really when it turned to September, it felt like there's too little time. I don't have drums at home at all so I could only practice when we had the band practice. That wasn't making me any more confident with the upcoming gig, but on the other hand I didn't want to spend big money on drums before I would see how the gig goes and do I feel like I want to continue the hobby after that.

Early September I was able to lure my dear colleague to create a logo for the band. Once I got that, I set up a fan shop for the band. It was part of the scheme to keep having something to tell our friends in Facebook, you know, to keep them hooked :-)

So the big day eventually was two days ago, The Misplaced gave it's first gig ever at the Muterock event with four other bands. There was a lot of people there in the small pub called Ykän Pub as friends of the player's of the five bands were there supporting. We were playing third, and I can tell you it was a long time to wait for one and half hours+. I was pretty nervous but couldn't even drink much alcohol to relax my nerves before the gig as I was sure I would blew it if I got drunk at all. So after Crimsonics and Embe Brothers it was finally our turn. Man I was nervous and excited. I was sure I'm going to drop the stick from my right hand at some point (that happens to me every now and then). And there was this one point in Lil' Devil I was sure I'm gonna play wrong. And I only figured out how to play one part of Hide Your Scars the day before the gig. Hence I was sure I wouldn't remember it from the excitement.

Due to fear of dropping the stick and overall excitement I was squeezing the stick in my right hand so tightly that after two songs my arm was cramping. I was sure I'm not gonna make it to the end through all the nine songs. I had to change my grip of the stick to hammer style every now and then to give the cramping muscles a little break. And between the songs I tried stretching and massaging. It all helped enough to get me through the gig. It was really hot there so when we finished off with our own song Biker, my t-shirt was all sweaty. And I was so happy, bathing in endorphin. And seeing the glowing happy faces of my band mates, it was clear we want more of this drug.

It wouldn't have been as nice without the support of other bands and having my wife, brother and a lot of friends and colleagues in the audience. Thank you all for your support!

I guess it's time for me to then buy the electric drum kit so I can start practicing at home.

The songs we played and comments on how it went from my perspective:

* Don't believe a word - Thin Lizzy (this went pretty well, I only missed some of the fills)

* Lil' Devil - The Cult (a small error exactly where I was expecting it to happen, but I think not too many noticed anything)

* Hide Your Scars - Doom Unit (this went very well)

* Mama Said - Metallica (small problems in remembering every small detail, but overall ok)

* Sex On Fire - Kings Of Leon (This worked otherwise really well, I only forgot how to end it nicely)

* Under The Bridge - Red Hot Chili Peppers (Again problems in remembering when the song ends and thus missed the ending fill)

* Lithium - Nirvana (rock, no problems)

* Rebell Yell - Billy Idol (this was heavily altered version of the original and we nailed it, it was amazing)

* Biker - The Misplaced (I was a bit too hasty in one of the switches between parts, but still a good performance).

Pics and Video from the gig will be available through our Facebook page shortly.