sevver,
Congrats on your first successful gig!! I remember my first gig. I was brand new at drum playing and bought a cheap set of Pearl drums. With these drums I also got a cheap drum throne (seat). Before playing that night a rather large man was helping me tune my drums. We played for a bit and in the middle of Rocky Top my throne broke and I hit the floor. The whole night was a comedy of errors so I ended laughing my head off about it. I wish I had that on video because it looked like someone opened a trap door and POOF I was gone!!
SeanB,
So you want to be a drummer? I will tell you from experience it is a lot of fun, but a lot of work too, and typically more expensive than other instruments. Unless you go with electronics. A decent set of electronics can run $1000 and a top of the line set of Roland Vdrums are around $5000. Acoustic sets can run anywhere from the cheapie $400 set to as much as you want to spend..several thousand dollars (like my set of DW's).
If you do get in a band you are usually the first one there and the last one to leave. Guitar players have their amp in one hand and guitar in the other (usually, unless they are playing through stacks and have a hundred effect pedals!!) so they can setup rather quickly.
The band I am in now, I usually use my electronics (it's just easier and I'm pretty lazy), but for our shows this year (we have one this Saturday night and we do a BIG 4th of July show with fireworks and everything) I am using my DW acoustic kit. I bought mics and all because these are outdoor events. So now instead of a quick setup and 2 channels on the mixing board I am doing a major setup with mics being submixed, having to deal with the tuning of the drums, and hoping it all sounds good, there is a lot more on my plate. I just wanted to play my acoustic drums this time, because they play better than my electronic set. It's more trouble, but worth it!!
Y'all pray for us!!
JD