A member of a band who is not the drummer, but is playing drums… I know some are thinking of Paul McCartney, and I could see both sides. He does play drums on some songs, so you can decide for yourself. I would rather see a video of a guy live, even if they aren’t great, it’s nice to see what they can do outside of their regular instrument.
Preferably live video, because one can do many takes, splicing, etc., in a studio with the finished (and corrected) audio with video not in sync.
I wish I had video of this one epic dog-wrestle. The pack was running around in the shop and chasing each other and play fighting. They ended up on the drum riser, and two of them were faced off. One of them was laying down a killer beat with their tail on the bass drum, and another was doing cymbal fills. They kept better time than I could!
No video but I had a friend who was a music major who told me of a jazz improv class he once took with about 15 musicians but no drummer. To make do, everyone had to take a turn as the percussionist du jour by working a snare drum / ride cymbal set up. It wasn’t a problem and it reinforced the necessity to keep time. He said most of the students kept things straightforward and simple but others couldn’t resist trying to add some flash and occasional fills. He said whenever that happened, without fail, every student in the class would all lay eyes on that person and glare with the message, “OK, fancy pants but you better not throw the time off.”
Hah, I was saying that in my head before you even got to the punchline. It’s fun to mock lame drummers, but it’s a really important job and not an easy one either.
I can’t find any video at the moment but many years ago I saw Todd Rundgren’s Utopia in concert and they did the instrument switch several times during the show.
(Is @gaffa still around? I believe he used to videotape bands for a living, and was also a Todd Rundgren fan. Maybe he’s got something…)
(Replying, Quoting, especially to multiple people is very confusing on this new format - the automated responses wouldn’t let me do it all in one after I posted a previous video —)
No video seems to exist unfortunately, but here is audio of the Grateful Dead all playing the wrong instruments on Promised Land on April Fools Day, 1980. Guitarist Jerry Garcia and keyboard player Brett Mydland were “playing” the drums. (Drummer Mickey Hart was on rhythm guitar and vocals, drummer Bill Kreutzmann was on bass, bassist Phil Lesh was on lead guitar, and guitarist Bob Weir was on keyboards.)
