Is a terrible drum fill better than a perfect one? Heard one live in Austin that split the room
Saw a local band at a dive bar off of 6th Street last Saturday. Drummer threw in this sloppy, off-time fill that should have ruined the song, but half the crowd cheered and the other half groaned. I've been debating myself since: does a bad beat become good when it's unexpected, or does it just stay bad? Curious where the line is for you guys, especially if you've heard a trainwreck that somehow worked.
Read a thing a while back where some music writer talked about how mistakes can be the best part of a live show because they prove nothing is faked. There's a clip of Keith Moon from some 70s show where he totally loses the beat for a second and comes back harder than ever, and people still bring it up 50 years later. A clean fill is forgettable, but a messy one that still lands? That's a moment. Problem is when the drummer just can't play and the whole song falls apart, that's not charm, that's a trainwreck with no payoff. Austin crowds are weird too, half of them are musicians so they hear every flub and the other half are just there to drink and yell. Sounds like your guy walked that line just right, sloppy but on purpose or at least lucky enough to recover fast.