Audio of My Recent Gig, Def Leppard's Rick Allen, Black Keys Cancel US Tour
Known primarily for his playing with the seminal rock band, Allen's Raven Drum Foundation is doing incredible work for first responders and trauma survivors.
My crazy gig schedule has slowed down a little so I’m getting caught up on Infectious Tunes.
Three items of note:
I’m trying a little bit of a different format to feel things out. Let me know what you think of having a few items covered (like I’m doing below) instead of focusing on one subject, and
I’ve noticed on Substack a lot of pieces I read are, well, really long. I’m like 99.9% of the country and I’m busy so my time is limited. Sometimes I scan the first few paragraphs of the article and the last few paragraphs and then I’m gone. When I write for my magazine gig my editors ask me to keep my articles to around 600 - 700 words. Now I know why. I’m going to try and do that here so I can get you to the point and not hold you up any longer than need be.
Welcome to the new subscribers! Great having you here and thank you so much for your patience and for sticking around! I hope you’ll help me spread the word on Infectious Tunes and share my work.
If you’re intersted in hearing a warm-up show I played with a great local band Cosmic Superheros this past Friday evening (5/24/24) at a little venue in downtown Raleigh check out the audio track below.
A few show notes:
This opens with a quick soundcheck jam then a break before we launch into the set.
The drummer for the second band of the evening was nice enough to allow me the use of his very nice Pork Pie drums so I didn’t have to lug mine in and out. I brought my bass drum pedal, stick bag, my tactile monitoring seat from Porter and Davies and a secondary auxiliary Ludwig Supraphonic snare I like to use. Always interesting to play somebody else’s set up.
The drums were un-mic’ed so the audio is from the stage mics, which actually didn’t come out too terrible.
We did not use in-ears, which I’m accustomed to, and there was only one stage monitor so it was difficult to hear anything other than the guitar.
By the time we hit the last 2 tunes I was just getting used to the drum set up, my hands were warmed up and I was starting to hit my stride, then we were done.
I had some flubs, missed some breaks, but seeing as how I did this on one quick rehearsal and from listening to the band’s tracks off Spotify, it was still a lot of fun to play the show. And isn’t that what it should be about? Fun? Thanks for listening!
Rick Allen’s Raven Drum Foundation
Def Leppard’s Pyromania peaked on Billboard’s Top 200 charts in 1983 and has now reentered the Top 200 charts for the first time in over 6 years with the 40th anniversary deluxe reissue.
This reminded me of the opportunity I had several years ago to work with Def Leppard drummer and founding member, Rick Allen, while I was serving a term on the executive board of the Percussion Marketing Council (playdrums.com). The PMC is the organization that’s responsible for International Drum Month (IDM) held each year in the month of May. Rick was kind enough to donate his time to give a few free drum lessons to a lucky winner of a contest we were running for IDM that year.
Millions know Rick from his work with Def Leppard but have no idea about Rick and his wife Lauren’s work through their Raven Drum Foundation.
Rick joined Def Leppard in 1978 at just 15 years old and made headlines in 1984 when he was involved in a terrible car accident that caused him to lose his left arm. In what would be a career ending outcome for most drummers, Rick quickly bounced back and rejoined the band with the aid of electronic percussion and foot triggers that allow him to play the parts of each song with his left foot in place of his left arm.
As a professional drummer Rick has always been inspirational to me however, meeting Rick in person and hearing him talk about the foundation cemented my admiration for not only Rick as a musician, but as a human being.
Rick and Lauren turned up at the playdrums.com press conference to announce Rick as our celebrity artist for that year’s IDM contest, but Rick quickly turned the attention away from himself and Def Leppard to focus on Raven Drum Foundation and all of the first responders that have suffered through crises.
Per the Raven Drum Foundation’s website, “Founded in 2001, Raven Drum Foundation’s approach was born from the idea that unconditional love and support is the most powerful healer and that each of us is responsible for our own health and soul growth through dark and challenging times. Raven Drum Foundation engages drumming as a tool for healing, allowing participants to use rhythm, mindfulness, and energy-medicine techniques as an avenue for connection, and supports complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) programs for trauma recovery.”
Please check out Raven Drum Foundation and all the great work they are doing.
Black Keys Postpone US Dates
Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney of the band Black Keys were planning to tour in support of their latest album, Ohio Players, but have announced that their upcoming North American run has been postponed amid reports of slow ticket sales.
In a post shared on their social media outlets, a rep for The Black Keys said: Following the recent run of shows in the UK & Europe, including stops at iconic venues like Brixton Academy and the Zenith in Paris, we have decided to make some changes to the North American leg of the International Players Tour that will enable us to offer a similarly exciting, intimate experience for both fans and the band, and will be announcing a revised set of dates shortly.
The tour, was scheduled to start later this year in September with shows scheduled at arenas across the U.S. through November 12th when the tour was set to wrap at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit.
The band posted a statement saying, “Thank you for your understanding and apologies for the surprise change… We’re pretty sure everyone is going to be excited when you see what we have in mind though, and look forward to seeing everyone soon,”.
Fans who did purchase tickets will receive a refund and will be offered a chance to secure passes for the rescheduled tour when it goes on sale.
That’s it for today but I’m working on a couple of podcast episodes and a few other odds n’ ends. Would love to hear from you so leave a comment or join the chat.
