Travels of Note: Music Minus One: The Show Must Go On

While I was eating lunch I got the terrible news. Our drummer Francois’ father was rushed to the hospital with pneumonia and Francois was leaving the ship the next day to go see him. As a terrible thing that this was, it was also bad for the band because we would be without a drummer for an indefinite amount of time. With him gone we were not able to do many of the shows that we were scheduled to do this cruise.

For the rehearsal for the show that final night, our band manager Monty asked if I could make a rehearsal the next day at noon to try a new drummer. The cruise director David found a Filipino cabin steward who also plays drums on the side and we were going to give him a whack at the set for the Diva’s show. Monty said it might be a quick rehearsal because if this guy doesn’t get it by the first song, we’re going to just drop him and cancel the show. They gave the guy the video of the performance and gave him one night to learn the 10 songs.

The next morning the bass player and I were getting our haircut and I asked him “What are the odds do you think that this guy will be able to do the set?” He quickly replied (partially joking) “probably about 8%”. We laughed and knew that was probably going to be the case. We had our reserves about this guy as he had tried the previous day to play through another guest entertainer’s show and basically bombed it. With only 24 hours to learn a set, even professionals would have a hard time learning the songs let alone an amateur drummer who works full time during the day.

We get to the rehearsal at noon and while setting up, this short, skinny Filipino guy, still in his steward uniform approaches nervously to the stage. Monty walks up to him and asks if he had a chance to learn the songs. He replied by shaking his head up and down rapidly. The guy’s name was Aria and he spoke almost no English. Monty tried to speak slowly so he could understand him and asked him to sit behind the drummer’s chair. I said hello to him as we walked by me and he said hello back and sat down behind the drum kit and grabbed the drumsticks.

We started the first tune River Deep-Mountain High. Monty counted it off and we began. He played very timidly and barely hit the drums with any force. However he kept good time and only made a few minor mistakes. When we finished we looked around and Monty seemed content with his performance so we moved on to the next one. Through out the set he played with good time and learned most of the set very well with only a few mistakes along the way. After we were finished we knew that we could make the show work with him. Monty told him that he played fine and that he just needs to hit the drums with more confidence and clean up the few mistakes that he made. We thanked him and we scheduled one more rehearsal later that day at 4:30pm.

We got together at 4:30 and ran through the set one more time and he played more or less the same as before: playing timid and a few minor mistakes. After we finished running through the set, we thanked him and told him once again to just hit the drums a little harder and with more confidence and the show will go just fine.

The show started at 8:30pm and I got to the stage at about 8pm to warm up. Aria showed up shortly after with the wrong colored shirt on and looked extremely nervous. I asked him how he was doing and he said, “I am SO nervous!” I told him not to worry because the lights are so bright on the stage, he wont be able to see anyone in the audience. He then said, “I’m not nervous about the audience, I’m nervous to be playing with YOU guys! The orchestra!” I laughed and felt a little flattered at the same time. I told him not to worry and he’ll do just fine. Monty came over and explained that we had to play the cruise director on to the stage so he can announce the show. He needed to do a drum roll and play 8 bars of ‘Hold on I’m Coming’ to play the cruise director on. After Monty explained it to him, I tried rehearsing it with him unamplified for a few minutes so he could get use to the idea.

The lights on the stage blacked out and Aria played a quiet little drum roll on the floor tom. Monty counted off Hold on I’m Coming and Aria missed the first bar. He caught on to the second and played the rest fine but it put the band off to a shaky start. After the cruise director announced the show, Monty gave the count off for River Deep-Mountain High and we were off. Aria finally started hitting the drums with power and confidence. The show was actually working. He played the show with a few (new) mistakes but still kept good time and kept the show moving forward.

By the end of the show, the audience gave a huge round of applause and we knew we were in the clear. After the curtains drew, we high fived Aria and told him he did a good job. He apologized profusely for his mistakes during the set and we laughed and told him not to worry about it. I told him “we make mistakes all the time!” and he had a good laugh about that. He looked at me and said, “feel my hands. They’re so cold!” He grabbed my wrist and indeed his hands were freezing from nervousness. Monty told him to go rest because we had one more final set at 10:15pm. Aria then replied, “ I can’t, I have to go back to work between sets”, Monty’s eyebrows rose suddenly. “You mean your boss didn’t give you the night off?!” Monty exclaimed. Aria laughed and shook his head and said “No”. We were shocked but also admired his work ethic.

We met backstage at 10pm for the 10:15pm set and did the same thing again. During this second set I thought to myself he must be really excited to be doing this. He probably works 6-8 hours a day with no days off and minimal pay and gets no time to play drums. He is thousands of miles away from his home, family and his drum set and finally, with one unfortunate mishap, he gets his one shot. He has an opportunity to play with professional musicians and do something that he loves: playing the drums. Against all odds, he busts his ass and learns a whole hour set overnight and steps it up to play on the main stage under the sound and lights to strut his stuff. It was pretty inspirational, almost like a musical version of the movie Rocky (but in this version he wins!).

We finish the show with out a hitch and the cruise director after the show makes a special announcement. He tells the story of our drummer leaving and the amazing tale of us acquiring a new drummer from an unlikely place at an unlikely time. He learns the songs overnight and gets to play on the main stage with the Ocean Princess Orchestra. The cruise director asks him to stand up. He rises from his drum throne and the spot light shines on his face. The audience gives him a thunderous round of applause and for a moment for this meek man, he wasn’t just another nameless Filipino cabin steward, he was Aria, the rock star.