Posting 06-Mar-2012

We had a fun weekend.  I never would have imagined that my stay in Africa would have included playing drums in a band at a bar!  One of my favorite hobbies is the drums, inspired heavily by my brother Dave.  He is one of my favorite drumming idols, and he would have been proud to see me up there, the highlight of the night for the 20 drunken men in the audience.

Our little African Band

My friend Nate got hooked up with Kalvin, a fun guy who  lives out in a rural part of town and happens to have a little “studio” in his backyard with some decent amps, drums, PA and a mixer board.  We got invited to come out one night and became an instant hit among his 5 or 6 drinking buddies.

Next thing we know we are invited to play at a dive bar down the street.  We don’t know any songs and have never practiced together, but I guess it was tolerable and some people even got up and danced a bit.

JM on drums

Carol was most gracious with her continued enthusiastic screaming and leading the few dancing fools to help keep us encouraged, and with a night of free drinks and free grilled beef, we just couldn’t have had too much more fun!

This was the 2nd set of drums that I had the good fortune of coming up across in my 5 months here.  The first set, was quite small, rickety and really not at all fun to play on, even for the 30 seconds or so that I tried.   This last set, pictured above, was actually pretty good considering….

When the first of the two very old, very worn, taped up drum sticks gave up the ghost at the start of the night, a quick replacement was found.

African Drum Sticks

Yes, that is a tree branch.  Very recently hacked off a nearby tree.  However, it did get us through the rest of the night…. and even a primitive drum solo.  I’m hoping someone back home will send me some real sticks soon!

So the night was fun, but what really made it all great was our ever devoted and loyal fan club!

Our Band Fan Club

Thank You and Goodnight Southern Africa!