For the love of music, drums and life-long friendships, Part Two: 1987 - Spring 2025.
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| Gig Ready! Saturday 06-07-2025. |
So this is part two, and today I’m listening to Dire Straits’ first album, which is also one of my very favorite albums, which came out in 1978. By this time, disco had become machine-like, studio sanitized and sterile, and we were ready for something new. Here comes Dire Straits, and they were a real band, writing their own songs, and playing their own instruments, very much like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones of old. Hallelujah, “real” music was reborn!
So, if you are reading this without having read part one, I’m the quintessential musical hobbyist, spending much more money on drums and other equipment than I ever made playing gigs, but I love playing, and hopefully I’ll keep playing for a long time! I love drums, and I’ve owned a bunch of kits over the years, so this is a story of playing drums in bands, and also enjoying music in general.
Also, I’m a firm believer that the drums are an ensemble instrument, made to be used in a band setting. I love live music, and I love playing live, which never fails to excite me. I know that in this day and age thousands of drummers make a living posting covers on YouTube, with them playing along with some drum track, but to me that’s not what it is about; we become our best when we play with other musicians, especially when we have a chance to play with people who are better than us (and in my case, that’s pretty much everybody, ha, ha, ha!) If I’m the best player in the band, then we probably don’t sound very good!
Nevertheless, this story starts by me not playing at all, since by 1987 (when I sold my most beloved Gretsch kit) my wife and I had decided to open a franchise (a Little Professor Book Center, which we opened in 1988 in Poway CA), which pretty consumed all my time until 1990, when we unfortunately closed the store (bankruptcy is not pretty, believe me…). Also in the summer of 1990, I went back to school parttime during the evenings pursuing a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering, which kept me super busy until December 1996, when I finally finished. During this time, I pretty much just listened to whatever was playing on the radio, and during weekend study sessions I would listen to classical music; Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven and Handel. To this day, my clock radio is set to classical music, and whenever I drive around, I usually listen to either our local jazz station (KKJZ out of my alma mater Cal State Long Beach) or our local classical station (KUSC out of the University of Southern California).
In 1997, I started my professional career as an engineer, and I was also working parttime at Home Depot at night and during the weekends, which allowed us to save some money, and rebuild our finances, so not much time for playing! I stayed at Home Depot as a part-time employee through May 2001, and in 2001 I also started working on an MBA at Cal State Fullerton, so my time was pretty much spoken for by career activities.
However, even though I was not actively playing, I couldn’t help myself from buying drums.
Around 1994(ish), I bought a Slingerland kit with concert toms; 22” x 14” bass drum, and 12”, 13” and 15” concert toms. They were originally white, but I had them recovered by Orange County Drums and Percussion in Laguna Hills in a psychedelic blue. I later donated this kit to my kid’s school, Vista Verde K through 8 in Irvine, but I still have the 15” Rims tom mount, which is at the bottom of my drummer’s case of miscellaneous stands and stuff (from what I understand, most drummers have a cache of old stands and hardware, so I’m not alone in saving old stuff. You never know when you might need something!).
Around 1996(ish), I bought a Pearl Prestige Session drum kit, a special order from West Coast Drum Center in Santa Ana: 22” x 16” bass drum, 10” x 10” rack tom, and 14” x 14” floor tom, in a reddish mahogany color, not unlike the old Gretsch kit. I think I bought this kit to reward myself after 6.5 years in night school, going to Irvine Valley College and Cal State Long Beach! At some point, I had bought a Gretsch chrome over brass 10 lug snare, which matched great with the Pearl kit. I collected some cymbals here and there, like the 18” Ufip ping ride I still use, and a 16” Zildjian medium thin crash that I traded for all my old vinyl, sometime in 1993(ish); I still play the 16” medium thin crash. The kit sat in its cases in a closet, patiently waiting. A while later I added a Pearl Prestige Session 12” x 10” rack tom, to fill out the kit. The 12” x 10” tom was the same color but a different badge, so I switched the badge from the bass drum, so that the toms would have matching badges (silly, I agree). So if you ever run across a Pearl Prestige Session with a different badge on the bass drum, it is probably my old kit!
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| My Pearl Prestige Session drum kit, set up for a picture. This was probably taken around 2002-2003; on occasion I would take it out of the cases, set it up, play for a few minutes, then back in their cases they went! |
Eventually I sold the Pearl Session in 2013(ish) to a woman drummer who wanted a really good looking but affordable kit; I think I sold it for $400… Like many of my old kits, I wish I never sold the Pearl Session kit, it was a pretty cool custom kit, but where are you going to store them all? I also sold the Gretsch snare for quite a bit more than I had paid for it, but I still regret it!
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| My Pearl Prestige Session drum kit, complete with upgraded tom holders. This picture was probably taken around 2013; the drums are set up right handed for the Craigslist ad. |
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| My Gretsch chrome over brass 10 lug snare, complete with die-cast hoops. I think I bought it for $100, and later sold it for $175, but I still regret it! |
Later I added a 24”x16” Pearl Masters bass drum, which kinda matched the Pearl Prestige Session, but I never played it. It sat in its case in my closet for a few years before I sold it.
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| My un-played Pearl Masters 24” bass drum, which I later sold. |
Around 1998, I bought what would become my workhorse drum kit; a Japan-made Yamaha Birch Custom Absolute; 10”x9”, 12”x10”, 14”x12” and a 22”x16”, in a lovely plum color from Guitar Center in Fountain Valley, CA. Even though I don’t remember the date, I sure remember the occasion; Guitar Center was having a tent sale, either on memorial day or labor day, and Kathy and I showed up around 8AM to check it out. The Yamaha’s were stacked outside, and I couldn’t stop drooling over the kit. Against all odds (we didn’t have much money at the time), Kathy said “do you want them?”. I couldn’t believe my ears, and of course I said yes!!!! I literally ran into the store to get a sales associate, and the rest is history. I played that kit constantly from around 2010 through 2014; I must have used it on a hundred gigs! This is the time I fell in love with the Yamaha modular tom holder, which I used on several other kits.
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| My favorite drumkit so far; my Japan-made Yamaha Birch Custom Absolutes in a plum color, complete with Rims mounts for the toms, and a collection of Zildjian, Sabian, Ufip and Paiste cymbals. This picture was taken in the fall of 2009, playing with the early incarnation of AlterEgo. |
Around 2000, we had moved in to our townhome in Irvine, and since it had a walk-in closet, I decided to make that into my little practice hangout. Mind you, I was not playing with anybody seriously, but I did do a couple of jams with this guitarist blues player I met at Home Depot. I found a brand new Pearl Forum bop kit with 10”, 12”, 14” toms, a 18” bass drum and a 13” metal snare for some two hundred and sixty-nine dollars! I couldn’t resist, and that became my practice kit for a long time, with new heads of course! Eventually I had to upgrade the tom holders to the standard Pearl stuff, and later I added a 13” matching mounted tom, but this kit got played a lot! I even played the kit for a couple of gigs, just for fun.
Around 2004-2005, I also stared to collect the odd Pearl Export drums, getting them from Ebay. I don’t really remember what compelled me to start this little collection, but they ended up at Emile’s house as a practice kit before I sold them, probably around 2012.
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| My little odd collection of Pearl Export drums; 10”x8”, 13”x10” and 20”x16 with black hardware. I played this as yet another practice kit. Eventually I added another bass drum tom mount, so that I could hang more stuff from the bass drum! |
So, at around 2003-2004, I had decided that I wanted to start a band and start playing again, and I had this idea that I would like to play a gig around my 50th birthday, August 17, 2005. I hadn’t played with a band in a long time, not since Zane in Zane in 1987, so after about an 18 year drumming hiatus, in around 2005 I started jamming with my buddy Randall Danta at AcuFocus, where we both worked. Randall played guitar and sang, and eventually we got a little band together, and we called ourselves “BandAid”, since one of our members was Dr. Robert Amster, playing bass. We rounded out the band with Dr. Michael Rugg on guitar, who was a lecturer at University of California, Irvine (UCI). We practiced at my house in Irvine, and, even though we did not play a gig by my 50th birthday, in 2006 we did play a few gigs at the British and Dominion social club in Garden Grove and at UCI, playing mostly 60s and 70s hits (Fortunate Son and Lying Eyes (sung by yours truly) were some of the songs we played). Since I had decided to put the band together, and I knew that rehearsing and playing out required a PA, I also bought a little Yamaha PA, consisting of a EMX66M powered mixer in a custom travel case, and a pair of S115 15” passive speakers, and again, for better or for worse, I became the PA guy! This became the seed that eventually grew into a crazy Carvin/Yamaha PA, complete with front-of-house speakers, subwoofer, and at one point four monitors! If you’re a drummer, you gotta have a pickup truck!
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| Yamaha EMX66M 600 watt powered mixer, that I bought in 2005 and sold in around 2010, to be replaced by a Carvin 12 channel mixer, and at one point 3 Carvin amps, all housed in a 12 space rack case, weighing in at around 100 lbs. Ouch! |
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| Yamaha S115 15” passive speakers, these furry little friends weigh in at 61 lbs, unpowered… |
A little note about being the drummer, the PA guy, and the sound tech. Just so you know, this is a thankless job, and don’t expect a lot of appreciation, BUT it may give you an edge of other drummers, if your aim is to play gigs, as long as you don’t mind being the first one to show up at the gig, and being the last one to leave… Usually the monitors are too loud, or not loud enough… Singers are truly a special bunch… You can check out my take on being the PA guy here:
With BandAid, I used my Pearl Prestige Session, along with the Gretsch snare, if I remember correctly. The Yamaha Birch Customs were safely tucked away in a closed somewhere… By around late 2006, BandAid disbanded (probably because we were all too busy, especially Dr. Robert and Dr. Michael), but no hard feelings, and we had a good time while it lasted!
In May of 2008, I sat in on drums with the Deacons, a local country band, when we did a concert in the park gig in Anaheim, CA. We practiced 3-4 times, and the gig was super fun, but again, I was just filling in.
However, in May of 2009, I hooked up with my dear friend Emile “Joe” Pinsonneault, and this started a musical friendship that has lasted to this day. Emile, being the consummate historian, has recorded pretty much everything that we did together in various bands, and his stuff can be found on YouTube at @joepinsonneault7388.
Also, for my own little YouTube channel, @peterlindwall8875, I’ve borrowed heavily from Emile’s great store of videos, and he deserves a great thanks for being a great musician and great friend.
Emile, being a stickler for detail, has put together this little timeline of events, and how the first incarnation of AlterEgo was born:
AlterEgo Timeline (according to Emile):
May 12th, 2009 – Peter and I meet in my Design Control Class [at Edwards Lifesciences]. When students are asked to introduce themselves and name a hobby, Peter says he a drummer and I tell him I play guitar.
May 13th, 2009 – I send Peter my Myspace link. Peter is duly impressed and suggests a “jam” at his house with another Jon Ewing (another guy at work who plays bass).
June 25th, 2009 – Emile and Peter jam after having a couple of bassist flakes. Decide to form a band. Ad is placed in Craigs List.
July 9th, 2009 – Al Chavez auditions (along with Bobby on Bass from Rancho Cucamongas). Al is offered vocalist slot and tells us to go ahead and listen to some more singers as he’s finishing up a project.
July 16th, 2009 – Joe Dolce auditions on bass. The day after we call Joe and offer the bass slot and he accepts. Two other bass player auditions are cancelled.
July 23rd, 2009 – [Dr.] Howard Fishbein stops by and plays a little acoustic piano with us and is offered keyboard slot. Vocalist Robert Dunn is a no show.
July 30th - Audition A M for vocalist guitarist slot. Howard Fishbein joins for first official rehearsal. Al is good but somewhat "quirky".
August 2nd, 2009 – I call Al Chavez back and tell him about current line-up. He agrees to come check it out.
August 6th, 2009 – Paul auditions as vocalist. Band likes him and he loves us but we still want to check out Al.
August 19th, 2009 – Al auditions and the chemistry is evident.
August 22nd, 2009 – After a few days consideration, Al decides to accept the slot.
September 2nd, 2009 – First official rehearsal with full band.
October 17th, 2009 – Band plays 1st gig at pool party for housing development association in Irvine.
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| October 17th, 2009: What Emile calls the pre gig, AlterEgo in Irvine: Emile P, myself, Joe D, Al C and Dr. Howard. At this time, I decided to start playing the Yamaha Birch Customs, which has seen a lot of gigs! You can also see my Yamaha Mixer to the left, and it appears that by this time I had added two Yamaha monitors. |
October 23rd, 2009 – After 8 full band rehearsals (and one pre gig), band plays the Brit Club
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| The first incarnation of AlterEgo at the British and Dominion Social Club in Garden Grove, CA, also known as the Brit Club, where I had previously played with BandAid. We played there a few times, so I don’t know if this is a picture from our first gig, but you get the idea. The Brit Club was an interesting place; presumably you needed to be a member and have a pass word to get in, but if you told them that you were with the band, or there to see a band, they would let you in. They had a good size stage and a large separate room for the stage and a pub in the back, where the local British expats would loiter. A cool place for a new band to get their feet wet! |
Emile, Al, Dr. Howard and myself have played off and on in various bands and incarnations ever since, and we have remained good friends. Also, ever since 2010, Dr. Howard is also my Primary Physician, so he knows more about me than anybody else!!!!
One of AlterEgo’s high energy Brit Club gigs (probably the first one) have been immortalized by Emile:
We played a bunch of songs which became part of the forever repertoire of AlterEgo, and many of these songs I still play; You May Be Right, 25 Miles, Get Ready, Born To Be Wild, I’m a Believer, Soul Man, Taking Care of Business, Evil Woman, Let It Be, Addicted to Love, Spooky, Get Back, Gotta Get You Into My Life (or GGYIML as we call it) and Breakdown. Whenever we get back with Dr. Howard for one of his pickup gigs, we always dust off these songs, and the audience still love them! Also, by having a bunch of songs that you have played in the past in your back pocket, it allows you to sit in with other bands, and also for the occasional jam. So, the more songs you know, the more of an opportunity you have to play! Also, in listening to that recording now, I realize that the Yamaha PA actually did a pretty good job, given that we were playing pretty loud!
In early 2010, Joe Dolce decided to leave AlterEgo, and he was replaced by our good buddy Eddie Gomez, who was a retired cop out of San Diego. Eddie, who was ever the police officer even in retirement, always carried and at our first rehearsal he took his piece out and put it on his vibrating bass amp. We all went “Dude! Please put that thing away!” and after that he never showed his piece again, but I’m sure he still carried! Unfortunately, Eddie passed away a few years back, and he was taken way too early. RIP our brother Eddie! Here is a little video of our first gig with brother Eddie, at the Orange County Fair in Costa Mesa, CA, in the summer of 2010:
Also, toward the later part of 2010, Kia Hamm joined us on vocals, and the first gig with Kia has been immortalized:
The line up with Emile P on guitar, Al C on vocals and sax, Kia on vocals, Eddie G on bass and vocals, Dr. Howard on keys and myself on drums was kinda the core of AlterEgo, and we actually did a bunch of gigs in 2011, 2012. One of the most fun gigs was at Mozambique in Laguna Beach, recorded on April 30, 2011:
In this lineup, we probably played some 30-40 gigs; bars, restaurants, summer-in-the-park concerts, benefits, private parties, the occasional wedding and three gigs at the Elks Lodge in Mission Viejo, where Eddie G was a member. We also played for the Heart Walk, where we played in front of some 15,000 walking people, who saw us for all of 20 seconds, as they turned around to go back to where they started. We had been placed at the end of the run way at the old Marine Air Station, and the walkers walked up and down the runway. A super fun time! Below is a little video that Emile found in his library of videos, playing at the Renaissance in Dana Point, CA, probably sometime in 2011:
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| The classic AlterEgo lineup at Dr. Howard’s 60th birthday in September 2011, taking a stage bow after a gig at The Galaxy in Santa Ana, CA. From left; Emile P, undersigned, Al C, Kia H, Eddie G and Dr. Howard F. |
In 2011, another musical happening took place; I, with the help of my son Michael, built my little drum practice studio in the garage, a 6.5’ by 6.5’ by 7’ tall plywood box, which houses my practice kit, and allows me to practice without disturbing the neighbors too much. I kinda started with my half-studio that I built in our master bedroom (around 2009?), which was part of the closet, part of the bedroom. Not very well soundproofed, the whole house vibrated when I practiced, especially playing along with Blood Sugar Sex Magic, which was my prime practice record at the time. No, I’m no Chad Smith by a long shot, but if you wanna play along with a record and get a good workout, that record is the ticket! So, again in 2011, I decided to tear down my bedroom half-studio, and build something semi-permanent where I could practice without driving my family crazy, so out in the garage I went, and with 2”x3” studs, various pieces of plywood and OSB sheeting, isolated with fiberglass insulation, and dressed on the inside with old carpets, for even more soundproofing! So, this is what has become the Drum Cave (in the winter) and the Drum Sauna (in the summer). Currently, I try to get out there some four to five hours per week, to blow out the cobwebs! When we moved from Irivine to San Clemente in 2021, we took down the Drum Cave panel by panel and again with Michael’s help, we rebuilt the Drum Cave in the garage in San Clemente (for a little tour you can go to:
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| Welcome to the San Clemente Drum Cave, complete with the fish chair I got from Dr. Fishbein when he cleaned out his storage space in Irvine! |
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| My old Yamaha Stage Customs, that I use as a four-piece practice kit, and the massive Tommy Lee cowbell. Still holding up! |
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However, being that AlterEgo was a cover band, by 2012, Emile left the band to pursue his own music (he is a very prolific song writer). He was replaced by Dr. Howard’s good friend Lee Offenhouer on guitar, and a while later Kia left to move to somewhere in the Midwest, and Kia was replaced by Candy Daviner on vocals. Later another of Dr. Howard’s friends, Christy Coffey who had (and still does) played with the Shenanigans’ Band, a local Orange County bar and party band, joined AlterEgo on vocals. Eddie G took over the management of the band, and we continued to play bars, clubs and wherever we could play, and we even did a gig at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano with this lineup.
During this time, even though the PA had grown (by now it pretty much filled up the back of my pickup; a 12 channel Carvin mixer, three Carvin amps and an electronic crossover in a 12 rack space cabinet, my Yamaha S115 speakers, four Yamaha monitors, and a giant Carvin bass horn that I used as a subwoofer, in addition to a Carvin 12 channel powered mixer, which I used for a backup; I still use the Carvin 12 channel powered mixer, plus all the stands and cables), I had started to think about getting a smaller kit for clubs and bars, and I came across a Mapex Pro M “Micro” short stack kit, which kinda looked like the kit below:
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| A Mapex Pro M “Micro” short stack kit. My kit was very similar, but it was a green lacquer kit. When West Coast Drum Center was up and running, they had two of these kits in their teaching studios. Cool sizes; 10”x5” and 12”x6” mounted tom, a 14”x7” hanging tom, a 13”x5” snare, and a 20”x16” bass drum. On my kit, I replaced the clunky Mapex tom holder with a Yamaha modular tom holder, and I also used the Rims mounts for the toms. I had bought the kit, complete with hardware, for $350! I bought some soft cases; the 10” and 12” toms fit in one case, and the 13” snare and 14” hanging tom fit in another, so transport was pretty easy! Nevertheless, I could never get a satisfactory sound out of the 14” hanging tom, and I later sold the kit (and regretted it of course!). |
Nevertheless, since I was still schlepping the PA and I still needed a pickup truck, it really didn’t matter if I had a smaller kit… So, the Mapex went back on Craigslist, and I sold it pretty much right away. In the clip below, you can see the Mapex around 3:50, and later on you can also see the kit:
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| A stock photo of a Yamaha Stage Custom Birch in red; 10” and 12” mounted toms, the wonderful Yamaha modular tom holder, 14” floor tom, a 14” snare and 20” bass drum. I still think this kit is one of the best values out there for drums; the Yamaha overall quality, birch shells, great lacquer finishes and solid hardware makes this a great beginner and semi-pro gigging kit. I still have mine that I bought in 2012(ish) as a practice kit in my garage practice studio. This kit you see here sells for $895 (in June of 2025), so I think this is still a great value. |
However (and here we go again), by 2013 Al C and I left AlterEgo, and rejoined with Emile P, along with Asha Marathe on vocals and Joe Mazzarella on bass. We were both a bit tired of predominantly playing the same old songs; like Al said “I don’t ever wanna play Brown Eyed Girl ever again!”. Emile, Asha, Joe M and myself all worked at Edwards Lifesciences in Irvine at the time, so for a while we became the unofficial Edwards band. Since we all worked in the medical device field (Al C works for Masimo, who makes Pulse Oximeters), we called ourselves “Not For Human Use”, since that’s the labeling we put on medical device products that are used for testing. We put together a new repertoire (even though we kept 25 Miles and Road House Blues), geared for Asha’s and Al’s vocals: Bang a Gong, Can’t Get Enough of Your Love, Chain of Fools, Come Together, Day Tripper, Hella Good, Should I stay or Should I Go, Take a Little Piece of My Heart, and a bunch of other songs. We played a bunch of gigs; anything from dive bars to corporate gigs, and we had a great time! Asha, being quite a bit younger than the rest of us old dogs brought a breath of fresh air, and she is a great singer!
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| Not for Human Use, circa 2013. Joe Mazzarella, myself, Asha Marathe, Al Chavez and Emile Pinsonneault. |
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| Not For Human Use flyer for our gig at Cooks Corner which is a biker bar in Trabuco Canyon, CA, January 04, 2014. |
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| Not For Human Use, playing at an Edwards Lifesciences function, 2014(ish). |
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| Not For Human Use, playing at an Edwards Lifesciences function, 2014(ish). |
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| Joe Mazzarella on bass, playing with Not For Human Use. |
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| Emile P, Asha M and Al C; Not For Human Use, 2014(ish). |
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| Yours truly, playing with Not For Human Use at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano, CA in 2014. Still playing my Yamaha Birch Custom Absolutes! |
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| Not For Human Use at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano, CA in 2014. Joe M, myself, Al C, Asha M and Emile P. |
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| Not For Human Use at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano, CA in 2014. Joe M, myself, Al C, Asha M and Emile P. What a great gig! |
My dear friend Emile has documented Not For Human Use in a bunch of videos:
09-14-2013: NFHU Live at Malones:
04-03-2014: NFHU Live at the Coach House:
07-19-2014: NFHU Live at the Coach House:
Not For Human Use (the Movie) – Part 1 (a mixture of rehearsals and gigs)
Not For Human Use (the Movie) Part 2 (a mixture of rehearsals and gigs)
As far as drums goes, around 2014-2015 I bought a used four-piece DW kit for $1,100, complete with Protection Racket soft cases, 10”x8”, 12”x9”, 14”x11” (fast toms) and a 22”x18” bass drum. This black badge kit had been born in 2001 and came with its fair share of battle scars, but I spend some time covering up the most egregious flaws, took it all apart, polished the chrome, added a Yamaha modular tom holder (which would drive DW snobs crazy), and this became my gigging kit. BTW, even though the DW was retired back in 2017, today I still use the DW kit on gigs, currently playing it as a four-piece, complete with a DW 13”x5” snare.
Also in November 2014 and again in November 2015 (again, if my memory serves me), I had the good fortune to sit in with Christy Coffey’s band The Shenanigans, when their drummer took off for a couple of extended vacations. As is the case with The Shenanigans, we did bars, clubs and restaurants, and it is always fun to play with Christy and Ken Dills, the Shenanigans’ long time guitar player. Playing with the Shenanigans’ as a fill-in player consist of a few rehearsals, then it is off to the club to play, often by the seat of one’s pants, but it sharpens ones listening skills! I remember playing both my Yamaha Stage Customs and my DW kit with The Shenanigans, so 2014-2015 is probably correct. BTW, The Shenanigans with Christy and Ken are still going strong, doing gigs all over Orange County, and they also do a country thing; “Christy and the Costal Cowboys”, complete with cowboy hats and boots!
Alas, all good things must come to an end, and around fall 2015 Not For Human Use disbanded. I had started to work parttime at Cal State Fullerton as an adjunct professor, teaching one night per week, and doing administrative work on the weekends, so my time was limited. A shame really; we had a good chemistry, and all of our gigs were fun, but in retrospect it seems like, according to my good friend Joe Mazzarella “any and all bands is/are just five minutes away from breaking apart”, and, given my experience with musicians, I think he is correct. And for hobby bands, I think that we all have other commitments; work, families, careers, etc. which ultimately take over. Also, in my experience, if you can get three years out of any band, then you have had a great run! So, we went our separate ways for a while, but in 2016, Emile, Al and myself reformed AlterEgo, and again started practicing at Emile’s house, this time with Emile’s friend Rob Laviano on keys, Felix Libovner on bass and again Candy Daviner (and occasionally Kia Hamm) on vocals.
We had a good run, playing a few gigs here and there, and we did one really fun gig at Masino’s summer party (this time featuring Kia on vocals, and me playing my DW kit), where Emile used the video to make a promo video:
And here comes yet another “however”; however, in early 2017 I quit AlterEgo. I was simply too busy working at my day job at Edwards and teaching at Cal State Fullerton, and since we only practiced once every two weeks (due to my schedule), I never felt that we got tight. In my opinion, unless you are either a professional, or play a lot of gigs, you need to practice at least once per week, but again, that’s my opinion. I even packed away my practice kit, and in the fall of 2017 turned the drum cave into a storage space for car parts, since we had bought an old Jeep Grand Wagoneer to restore. Fortunately, Emile, Al, Candy, Rob and Felix continued, and I was replaced by Emile’s neighbor Terry Meikle on drums. Nevertheless, in a gesture of good will, I left my Yamaha Stage Customs at Emile’s house, where they had become a fixture as a general practice kit, and I also left my Carvin 12-channel powered mixer and Yamaha monitors for Emile to use whenever they did gigs. I didn’t play (neither practiced or played gigs) for about two years, and later it showed in my rusty playing when I did pick it up again in 2019-2020. Nevertheless, in the spirit of lifelong friendships, in July 2023, we got together at Emile's house for a little AlterEgo reunion, which was recorded by our dear friend Emile:
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| AlterEgo Reunion, July 2023: Clockwise from bottom left; Emile Pinsonneault on guitar and vocals; Joe Mazzarella on bass; Rob Laviano on keyboards; myself on drums and Al Chavez on vocals and sax. |
Here are a few videos from our little reunion:
Also in 2017, after having been schlepping around the PA for over a decade, I decided to sell my big PA, especially since being the PA guy is one of the most thankless jobs in the band. Singers, next to key board players, are notoriously difficult to please, even if they show up with a microphone in their back pockets 10 minutes before the gig, after me spending 1.5 hours having set up the whole rig (yes, I'm venting). “I can’t hear myself” is usually followed by “now it is too loud!”. Eddie Van Halen called it Lead Singer Disease, or LSD. However, and this is my own observation; if your lead singer don’t have an ego, you don’t have a lead singer! Meaning; being the lead singer is a tough job, because you are the front of the band, and if the lead singer don’t have a strong stage personality, the band suffers…
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| 2017: The Carvin / Yamaha PA is up for sale… I had just put a re-coned 18” speaker in the sub, after having blown out the speaker at a gig… I eventually ended up getting $1,300 for the whole PA, after having the Craigslist ad up for months… There is no market for used electronics, especially old analog stuff! |
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| The heart of the PA, a 12 channel Carvin mixer, a dbx electronic cross over, a Carvin four channel amp for the front-of-house and monitors, and a separate Carvin amp for the sub-woofer. The setup sounded great, and we had plenty of power! By this time, I had switched out the 12-space tour case for a 10-space tour case, coupled with lightweight amps, so at least I could lift it myself! However, the case was pretty flimsy, so I reinforced it with a piece of plywood! |
This is the Craigslist add for the PA:
“Carvin 12-channel PA system with two monitor channels, in 10-space rack case, all speaker cables, and all the accessories. 1,300 watts to FOH, another 300 watts to each monitor. Mike out the whole band, or use it as a DJ rig. Wake up the neighbors! Super clean sound, everything works great, no dead channels. I’ve used it to mike out a six-piece band with keys, vocals, sax, guitar, bass and bass-drum, no problem. This is a complete PA. Add your monitors for a killer working band PA. Comes complete with the following:
Carvin RX1200 12-channel mixer with two independent monitor channels
DBX 223XS 2-channel electronic crossover
Carvin 2004L 4-channel amp, 300 watts x 4 (this one is brand new) amp to drive Left and Right FOH, and channel 3 and 4 to drive the two monitor channels
Carvin DCM1000L, 1,000 Watt (4 Ohms) amp to drive the sub
Two Yamaha S112V Club-Series 12” speakers, complete with stands
One Carvin RL 118 18” cast frame sub, just re-coned by Speaker Repair Pros in Garden Grove
One Yamaha Club Series 12” monitor speaker
No-Name 10-space rack case. With the amps and the mixer, you can still lift this one yourself
Five Speakon-1/4” 12-Gague speaker cables, one is brand new, all are 50’
Four mike stands and an SKB rolling stand case
Five mic cables
A bunch of 16-gauge and 14-gauge 1/4” x 1/4” speaker cables, 25’
Two mics; one Carvin bass drum mic, the other one a cheap Sure SM48
A case for the cables
Note: I will not separate, the PA will be sold complete with all the cables and stuff”
Fast forward to 2019; Emile called me and said that he was moving back to Florida, and that they needed Emile’s man cave emptied of music stuff, so I picked up my Yamaha Stage Customs, the Carvin mixer and the Yamaha monitors, and dragged it all back to my house in Irvine (later, Covid would put a stop to Emile’s plans, at least temporarily). I turned the drum cave back into a practice space, and equipped it with my Yamaha Stage Customs (which is still my practice kit), and started practicing a bit again.
Now, we all know what happened in March of 2020; the dreaded Covid 19 struck, and pretty much nobody was playing, neither practicing with a band or playing gigs. I continued to practice a bit on my own, but in late August of 2020, after my prostate procedure, I suffered a superficial blood clot in my left calf. An outcome of my blood clot was that I got pretty scared of using my left leg for playing drums (which, being a lefty, is the bass drum leg), and I stopped playing for a while. Even though I had started practicing my drums in 2019 after a two year hiatus (and my usual practice session is at least an hour), after the blood clot in late August 2020, I was afraid that if I moved my left leg too much, maybe the clot would come back. However, in the fall of 2020, I slowly started practicing again, playing along with AC/DC (Black Ice and Rock or Bust), and I would play maybe three songs into the albums, for a 15 minute practice session. For those of you that are familiar with the albums, Phil Rudd’s driving playing is perfect if you wanna build up your playing stamina, and slowly I stared to add songs to the practice routine, slowly building it up to my usual one-hour practice sessions. In December of 2021, I played a pick-up gig with Dr. Howard and the reformed Dr. Howard and AlterEgo(ish), playing for some 2 hours straight, so I’m no longer worried about my left leg! Talking about that Christmas gig, Dr. Howard had put together a seven-piece band that consisted of Ken Dills, who I had played with in The Shenanigans; Christy Coffey, who I had played with in AlterEgo and The Shenanigans; Joe Mazzarella, who I had played with in Not For Human Use; Al Chavez, who I had played with in AlterEgo (in many of its incarnations) and also Not For Human Use; Lee Offenhauer, who I had played with in AlterEgo, and last but not least Dr. Howard Fishbein, who was of course a member of AlterEgo, and was also a member of The Shenanigans, when I filled in for their drummer in 2014-2015. So, if you wanna play gigs, it helps to have a great network, and don’t burn any musical bridges!!!!!!
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| Holly’s Christmas Party in Irvine, CA, December 2021; Dr. Howard and AlterEgo(ish) providing the entertainment. Ken Dills (with the back against the camera), Christy Coffey, Joe Mazzarella, and Al Chavez. |
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| Holly’s Christmas Party in Irvine, CA, December 2021; Dr. Howard and AlterEgo(ish) providing the entertainment. Christy Coffey, Al Chavez, Joe Mazzarella, myself (hidden by Joe, but you can see my Yamaha Birch Custom Absolutes), Lee Offenhauer and Dr. Howard Fishbein. |
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| Holly’s Christmas Party in Irvine, CA, December 2021; Dr. Howard and AlterEgo(ish) providing the entertainment. Al Chavez and Dr. Howard Fishbein on the keyboards. |
I played with Dr. Howard and AlterEgo(ish) several times since then, and if I remember correctly, we played in August of 2022, 2023 and 2024, all gigs ad Holly’s house in Irvine. A super fun gig, and it is always fun to see everybody again! Here is a little clip from August 2024, featuring Dr. Howard Fishbein, Ken Dills, Christy Coffey, myself, Joe Mazzarella, Lee Offenhauer and Howie Kerr on saxophone and vocals (Howie passed away not too long after this gig, RIP Howie!):
Also in 2021, I made what I thought was a great purchase, a Taye Tourpro five-piece drum kit for 350 bucks! In my mind, Taye is one of the most underrated drums; this was a great looking and well-made kit, and I proceed to take the whole thing apart, clean the whole kit, polish all the chrome, put it back together, and then I sold it for $300! I’m a lousy business man, that’s for sure! Only issue with Taye is the funky bass drum mounted tom holder, which is unusual. Anyway, whomever bought the kit got a great kit, and I hope he still enjoys it!
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| My Taye Tourpro drum kit that I bought and sold in 2021. At least it kept me busy for a while, taking the whole thing apart, cleaning it up, and then putting it back together again! |
Furthermore in 2021, my friend Jerry Jordan at our mutual employer Edwards Lifesciences approached me to join his Edwards band, The Heartbeats. We practiced a fair amount, and we did several gigs, both at Edwards and elsewhere, and it was always a bunch of fun!
But again, it was hard to work around everybody’s schedules, especially later when we had six people in the band, so we put the project on hold in October of 2024. Here is a little clip from one of our gigs at Edwards Lifesciences, where I’m playing my British-made Premiers, and toward the end of the video we are playing “Don’t Stop Believing” where I’m playing open-handed (it took a good while to learn how to play this). This clip features Brett Williams on keys and vocals; Kim Donegan on vocals, Jerry Jordan on bass and vocals, Frank Rork on guitar, Richard White on guitar and yours truly on the drums, all of us from Edwards Lifesciences:
Playing with The Heartbeats and shlepping my drums to practice (we practiced at Edwards) made me think of buying a smaller kit for practice, so I found a really cool little Sonor AQX Jungle kit at Walmart for some $500 bucks brand new:
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| Sonor AQX Jungle four-piece: 10”x7” rack tom, 13”x12” floor tom, 16”x15” bass drum complete with a riser, and a 13”x6” snare, all in covered poplar. A great little kit! |
It was soooo exciting to get a new little kit; it came delivered in one box, and as soon it was delivered I proceeded to put it all together. For the price, it is a really well-made kit, with Sonor’s signature heavy duty hardware, and I would recommend this kit to anybody looking for a little practice kit that you can fit in the trunk, and also bring to small club gigs. Unfortunately for me, I could never get a good sound out of the 16” bass drum (probably due to my poor technique) even with new heads, so the next day I returned the kit to Walmart. That was the shortest time I’ve ever owned a kit!
Nevertheless, my quest for a smaller kit did not end; I had seen the PDP New Yorker, in a 10”, 13”, 18” and 13” snare configuration, but by 2022, PDP were no longer making that configuration, instead they had switched out the 18” bass drum for a 16” bass drum in their New Yorker kit. However, I found a used PDP New Yorker in the old 18” configuration, so after driving for about an hour and a half and paying some 350 bucks, I was the proud owner of a PDP New Yorker kit!
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| My PDP New Yorker kit; 10” rack tom, 13” floor tom, 18”x14” bass drum. I usually play the kit with my DW snare, in this case with a towel on top for muffling. Also, I use Remo Mflr rings on the 10” and 13”, to lower the sound, and as you can imagine, the bass drum is stuffed with foam. Great little kit for practice and quiet gigs! |
So, fast forward to 2023, when my neighbor Kent Richards came knocking on my door; he had heard that I played drums, and their band Smack Dab was in need of a drummer. So, after sending over a list of 25 songs that I never heard before, I did a quick listen to the new songs, got the lay of the land, and we started practicing. Mind you Smack Dab had been playing together for about a year before, so they knew their stuff pretty well, but I was the new kid in the band! Smack Dab is a breath of fresh air, since, with the exception of a few songs, our whole repertoire is new for me, which has forced me to practice quite a bit! Let me tell you, we are never too old to learn new songs! We practice at the Blasmo Music Studio Oasis (or “The Mo” for short), in Laguna Hills, CA. Blasmo, which is an acronym for “Billiards Lounge Artist Sanctuary Musical Oasis” is a “private non-profit members only cooperative and home to the OCMN Orange County Musicians Network which connects musicians with bands and bands with venues throughout greater Orange County. Members enjoy a clubhouse with a relaxing atmosphere featuring a large plug and play performance sound stage with top back line amenities.” In addition to practicing at The Mo, we also do gigs there, such as the Christmas parties and Halloween parties.
Here is a clip from us doing a little gig at The Mo:
In addition to my own woodshedding, we practice as a band some 6 times per month, and we play gigs wherever we can:
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| Smack Dab playing at Durty Nelly’s in Costa Mesa, CA, in summer of 2024. Smack Dab, from left: Lloyd Brown, lead vocals and guitar; myself playing my PDP New Yorker kit; Allison Friedman, lead vocals; Marc Repaire, lead guitar and vocals and Kent Richards, bass and vocals. |
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| Smack Dab playing at a private Halloween party in San Clemente, CA, November 2024. We did this as a four-piece, since Lloyd had broken his collar bone not long before the gig. |
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| Smack Dab: Lloyd Brown on lead vocals and guitar; Marc Repaire on lead guitar and vocals, myself, Allision Friedman on lead vocals and guitar, and my neighbor Kent Richards on bass and vocals. |
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| Smack Dab playing a corporate event in May, 2025. For this gig, I’m using my old DW kit, which is still holding up beautifully. |
Here are a couple of clips from the Glidewell event:
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| Smack Dab, back at the world famous Rib Joint in Dana Point, CA. |
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| I’m gig ready! May 2025; I’m playing my old trusted DW kit as a four-piece. One less tom to drag around, especially since I’m still schlepping the PA (although a bit smaller than the PA I sold in 2017)!!!!! |
So, that kinda closes out this chapter; I hope that you have enjoyed reading about my love for music, and my hobby as a rock-n-roll band drummer. I can’t think of a better hobby, especially since it brings people together, and hopefully I’ll have a bunch more years of playing with bands, getting to know people, and playing new songs (which forces me to practice!). So far, I’ve enjoyed every gig I ever played, and I can’t wait for the next gig!
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