off to FIMAV

I’m leaving for Victoriaville tomorrow, and tonight I’m packing up my gear. I was so sure I was bringing the spiffy new Yamahas (check the geek page for details), but after using my Rideaus in rehearsals with Mike Whitla’s Rock N’ Rainbow band for the last two weeks, I’ve settled on them for Friday’s show.

The Rideaus are 60s Japanese drums made from wood that could best be described as “mystery meat”. The hardware is flimsy and somewhat decayed, but with decent heads, these drums have a tone all to themselves. In addition, owing to the generally crap nature of the shells, the drums don’t project a lot and are very easily controllable in a variety of acoustic environments. Since I have no idea what to expect at FIMAV in terms of hall acoustics or sound system support, I think the safe bet is the quieter, dead-er sounding drums so that in the event we are playing almost 100% acoustically, I’m going to be able to behave.

I’m going to bring the Yamaha 40th birch snare and maybe a 10″ Sonor Jungle snare too. For cymbals, PAISTE of course. I’m playing my own concoction of 8″ Micro Bell hihats (Accent bottom, 602 Bell top), and a few different 18″ cymbals (I’m bringing a few options to try out in the space when I get there: 18″ Sound Formula Full Crash, 18″ Traditional Extra-Thin and an 18″ Traditional Thin Crash) and most likely a 19″ 2002 Thin Crash.

There’s a percussion component to this gig too, I’m taking a few cowbells, an LP jam block (blue), a wooden guiro-type thing that looks like a frog, some finger cymbals, tibetan prayer cymbals, a Vietnamese 10″ gong, and some shakers.

I’m not sure what kind of internet access I will have, but I am going to take pics and video while I’m there.

talk to you soon!