Tour Diary: Dealing With Adversity on Stage

We played to our biggest crowd ever – approx.. 18,000-20,000 people. Literally twice as big as last year, which was then our biggest.

We felt good, I was psyched and feeling good.

Long story short, I broke both snare drums and had to play half the set using the lid of a case in place of a snare drum.

I had a choice, I could feel terrible and sulk the rest of the set and the day, or I could laugh at the situation and do my best and move on.

We got away with it. I could tell from the audience response.

I noticed it a couple weeks prior, they looked old. But I’d put them to the test at a couple gigs. But this was a big outdoor stage and I could play without holding back. I probably hold back at 90% of our shows, outside the Enmore or an outdoor festival, or The Star in Sydney. Even then, if the guys have trouble with monitors or it’s a short stage and I’m close to Tom & Marcus, I dial it back a bit.

First song was feeling good – I felt the snare loosen and saw it buckle and pop out. This had me worried – never mind, replace the snare.

Furnace did a good job bantering with the crowd.

Unfortunately by the time we hit Mr Brightside it had popped out again.

Before the show Rick had come up to me saying he loved my energy on the drums. That meant a lot. Now I was looking at him laughing at the destruction of 2 snare drums in 10minutes. I’m sure that’s not quite what he meant.

The stage crew reskinned one of the drums and it lasted through Don’t stop me now until it popped out and broke again.

I was at a loss so I flipped the snare around and played the batter head. Years ago I had been sold a batter head by an ignorant music store employee who sold it to an equally ignorant young me. I remember it lasting about 4 hours so I felt OK. This head lasted four hits.

So I tried with the other one and held back, just playing along the rim. That got me another four minutes.

I was pretty lost when one of the crew appeared side of kit with a snare drum case – OMG maybe the other band has agreed to lend me one, or they found another one?

Nope – they gave me the lid of the case. Haha OK well…Genius idea in fact. I hit it, hard and it made a cracking sound. Close enough.

Peering out at our sound guy Gav, I saw him fiddle a few knobs.

Of course trying to get a decent sound out of a snare drum lid means hitting hard, so I broke a stick fairly quickly. Then I broke another soon after. Luckily I had brought 10 pairs with me, so managed to make it through the rest of the set with another 2 sticks.

Digby came up and laughed at me and it reassured me everyone was having fun and doing their best to perform. The crowd was the most responsive we’ve had in a while and even cheering after the drum lid solo in ‘Shout’. I replaced the iconic drum fills in Bohemian Rhapsody with floor tom fills and tried to double every ‘snare’ build with as much kick and floor as I could for maximise power and vibe.

Post show Gav came up to me and pretended to throttle me – haha. I gave him a hug. Listening back you could tell it wasn’t a snare but it wasn’t…bad…

Writing a blog like this is a self indulgence, but maybe sharing these little stories could help a future Mike Solo prepare for a future gear fail and still enjoy the show. On paper, having no snare drum playing in front of 20,000 people seems like a recipe for long term sullenness. But honestly, I feel OK about it now.

Stuart came up and asked me if it ruined the show for me. Great question. No it did not. I felt disappointed for sure, but I still had a great time and we got a great response. I think if I’d seen the crowd die as a result then yeah it would have ruined it for me. But we pushed through and tried not to let that happen and it worked. At the end of the day you just have to prepare well, do your best and that’s it. I prepared with 2 snare drums – having just 1 would have been a whole lot worse.

By the way did I mention I also broke the hihat stand? Yes, had a second one ready to go…

It’s also a lesson in relying on others – I definitely would not have thought to play a drum lid. Maybe I would have gone to the cowbell, which would have been fine but definitely noticeable not a snare.

Anyway, 3 snares in future for sure, plus one of them at least being a steel snare. And I’ll have the snare case handy side of stage too just in “case.”…