World Party - The Shows

[DRWM]

Nice drums Chris!

Thanks for sharing your experience with us.

[KEW]

He often starts...." 1....2...." and just as you are keyed up for 1,2,3,4, he stops to check something on his guitar and the whole process has to start again. He doesn't shout a count in positively either, as I would. The last thing I said to him before we hit the stage last night was; please give me a two bar count into the opening song, as I have a half bar intro fill to lead into the song. So what does he do? No "1....2....", just the single bar 1,2,3,4 and everyone else comes in, leaving me stranded.  ???

Ive just been through a streak of bandleaders/guitarist who do this.  Some mumble the count and others just start a song expecting me and everyone else to recognize the riff and jump in.  Ive had no luck trying to explain that the drums often come in before the down beat.  I just do my best and try to make it sound as if I heard the whole count off.  Ive wanted to rant on the forum about this for a while but I thought it was just the guys I was working with.  I just signed on as drummer/music director for a Tina Turner Legends type show and one of the reasons I took the gig was so Ill finally be back in control of the count and the tempos.  
Keep the updates comming.

[Chris Whitten]

1999 posts yay, sorry lol.

Too busy posting to stop by the Roxy?  :'(

;)

[Chris Whitten]

;D I will be at the San Diego gig (Solana Beach) with my Canon and Mega-lens tomorrow.

Scott,
You'll be my first Cafe victim.  ;D

Some places we've played have been negative about photography (pardon the pun). I know the World Party team don't mind.
I hope you don't have a problem getting your camera equipment in.
If so, try and get a message to me.
CW

[scottboundy]

YEAH BABY! ;D

I just got in from the World Party show at the Belly Up in Solana Beach, California with our man, Chris Whitten on drums.

WOW! What a great show. I met Chris before the show and we chatted a bit and he grabs a 10" Evans G2 Coated, signs it and sticks it in my paw. Shhhwwinnng. (Funny thing, I play Evans Coated G2s and my 10" got a big scratch on it, so I really needed one â€" Is it cool to play autographed-by-stars drum heads?) :o I also met his stunning better-half. Both were some of the nicest and charming folks Ive ever met. :)

There was a good crowd and the band seemed to be having a blast. I had heard that the LA show had some media big-wigs so the boys were more "behaved". But they seemed to all cut lose in funky-town San Diego and put on an awesome show. That energy enlivened the crowd. It was amazing.

Chris is a killer drummer. That man is a human metronome with feel. Many of his beats were simple but ohhhhh so tasty. He played about every groove out there â€" disco, funk, country, rock, and blues and just nailed it all. (And it was good to see even pros drop sticks â€" twice). 8)

His fills were open and airy and you felt the ONE all the way through. Yadda yadda…what did you expect from a pro? But what was really cool... here is a guy at the top of his game after playing with the likes of Paul McCartney and Dire Straits and touring the world. One might think that a drummer could become jaded or burned out. Not CW. He looked like an ecstatic high-school-er in a battle-of-the-bands. Mr. Whitten was having blast.

It was a great night watching, listening and learning from THE master at work. If you have a chance to see World Party, do it!

Thanks for the great evening CW. Rock on, bud. ;D

Aka
Scott

See more photos:
http://www.bowmanarchery.us/cw/

[Stewart Manley]

Great photos, Scott!

[felix]

Very nice kit Chris.  I love it.

Hope to say hi next friday at the H.O.B. you might be pretty jammed up for time and all.  No biggie.

I think we are going to be trying to party in the "foundations" room- which is the she she bar where the corporate wanna-be's buy in to take their customers.  My friend has a membership there (and I wish I did myself).  I'll have my DC shirt on  :-\ (maybe)  ;D But we have only general admission to see the show. 

Hope to see you then! 
W.H.

[Mister Acrolite]

Great write-up and killer photos - thanks for posting that!

[DFresh]

lovin' it

[felix]

yeah, totally great photos.

[byronand]

Scott, fantastic write-up and photos, THANKS!

Those N&C drums look gorgeous! I'll bet they sound great from out front.

CW, how's set-up and tear-down going? It's gotta be tiresome, but I hope it's going smoothly.

How's it going on the bus... how are you passing the long hours on the highway?

[ritchet]

Chris,
Are you taking the bus accross country or do you get to fly?  (To Chicago after tonights show). I look forward to the show in Columbus next Saturday. My 14 year old daughter asked me (out of the blue) if I would take her to the show. I hope it's not too adult oriented.

[scottboundy]

Chris was concerned about how the drums sounded in the audience and asked me to check it out. SO here goes.

I hung out at various spots in the audience to get a good listen to the drums. The snare sounded great â€" full bodied and cutting. The kick was booming with some attack and mixed well. The cymbals and HH were fine, clean and clear.

But the toms? Well…they did not sound good to me. I am not sure if it was the micing or the lack of resonant heads but they were dead from all points in the room (except one). I would describe it as "barkie" or "croaking". There was a lot of attack (mostly) and a thud (and not a very deep thud). What was more concerning is that on single-stroke tom runs (yep, he did a few)  8) I could not discern much note variation between the sizes. Chris could have just stayed on any tom and got the job done for that matter.

However, when I crawled up by the mixing board at the side of the stage (pushy photographer that I am) I could THEN hear a very nice tone (albeit a short one) from the toms. I was about 15 feet from the kit and below them so the bottoms were well exposed to me. At this point I was out of the PA Blast and Monitor push.

There was a ton of sounds generated on that stage from a variety of instruments and there is only so much sonic space. Try as they did, those toms got their little butts kicked in that maelstrom in their current config.  :o


Personally, I think the toms could use resonant heads to give them a nice (longer) fundamental tone and "ooooommmmmmhhhhh" after the attack and perhaps better focused micing on EACH tom to gather that individual sonic magic. This would give them at least a fighting chance.

There ya have it. :)

sb

[byronand]

Hey Scott, another interesting post, thanks.

That's a real shame that the toms aren't sounding great. I'd try micing from the bottom, rather than from the top. It might not work, but I think micing from below -- after the shells had a chance to shape and focus the sound waves -- would result in a good, powerful push of air. Just like we mic the bassdrum from the front, rather than at the beater.

Might not work-out, but it'd be worth a try wouldn't it?

[dizz]

Hey Chris

Thanks for the great thread.  Like felix said, this is one of the best threads I've read.  Thanks for bringing it all home to everyone. 

Your drums look absolutely gorgeous. 

I look forward to your future reports :) 

[Chris Whitten]

Yeah, first off, nice photos!!!!
Love it.
Well, I'm red faced and blushing from Scott's description.  ;)
Thanks for all the very kind words there dude.  8)
Here's the real story.
It was a bit of a disaster gig.
I broke a stick on the first song.
I dropped two sticks later in the show.....first time in ages.
The bass amp packed up three times during the show, plus Karl's guitar packed up a couple of times and he broke a string in the middle of a song.
We tried to rise above it. At one point, out of frustration Karl started thrashing his electric. I started a kind of heavy metal shuffle and everyone joined in.  ;D Karl sang his song 'Private Revolution' over the top of the jam. Nathan, our newbie bass player, didn't know where he was or what was happening.
In the end it all turned out great.
Sorry to say, it was the smallest crowd we've played to as yet.
On the other hand they were incredibly enthusiastic.
We did about four encores.
After the third, I removed my earplugs, our guitar tech started breaking down the amps and the house music went on.
But that only met with even louder chanting for more.
Incredible.
So we ran on and did another couple of songs.
Good for Solano Beach.  :)
It was great meeting Scott. What a guy and thanks for taking such amazing photographs.
I'll show the other guys once we have tonight's show out of the way.
After tonight we have the 1,000 mile bus ride to Boulder.  :-\
Aaaargh!
And my 'better half' is heading home to Sydney too.  :'(

[Chris Whitten]

CW, how's set-up and tear-down going? It's gotta be tiresome
How's it going on the bus... how are you passing the long hours on the highway?

All I can say is I'm doing two jobs and pretty knackered all the time.

[Chris Whitten]

Personally, I think the toms could use resonant heads to give them a nice (longer) fundamental tone and "ooooommmmmmhhhhh" after the attack and perhaps better focused micing on EACH tom to gather that individual sonic magic.

I'm not really going for a long tone on these toms.
I think they would benefit from close micing though. We're playing 'rock' clubs and the kit is receiving a jazz treatment from our sound guy. You wont hear the detail in the toms, when they are unmiced (to a degree) and competing with miced kick and snare.
We have a new soundman coming aboard in Chicago, so perhaps they'll get a better crack of the whip from then on.

[Gregg Rivers]

I'll loan you my sound guy Chris. He was M.E. for INXS on their final tour!  ;) I love the way he mixes my kit.

[scottboundy]

Chris --

Since you are showing the photos to the band, I added a few more. I have HIGH RESOLUTIONS version of all of them and a ton more (I took over 200). If  your PR folks want any, I will send them to them.