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Editorials

WHAT IS IT WITH DRUMMERS WEARING BASKETBALL JERSEYS?

 Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010 at 11:00am by

danny careymike portnoy

Why is it that drummers have a habit of wearing basketball jerseys on stage? Tool’s Daney Carey constantly rocks his Lakers jersey (though dude, whatup with the t-shirt underneath? that’s like wearing socks with sandals.), and Dream Theater’s Mike Portnoy is rarely seen on stage without a jersey of some kind (though to be fair, he also sports baseball and hockey jerseys). But it was actually this video of Vince Neil’s solo band drummer Zoltan Chaney doing his usual crazy routine that got me thinking.

Think about the utter ridiculousness of a guitarist or bass player wearing a basketball jersey as their stage outfit… they’d be laughed off the stage. Or the frat-boy posturing of someone like Fred Durst or the guy from Hed(p.e.) jumping around the front of the stage in his Celtics get-up… they’re proverbial laughing stocks anyway. Of course, there’s UYI-era Axl Rose at the height of high fashion in his famous red football jersey and high-tops outfit. Yet it’s completely common, normal and acceptable for drummers to wear basketball jerseys on stage. Why?

Is it the comfort? The pure athleticism of being a metal drummer is certainly demanding, and I’ve known drummers to be completely soaked in sweat from head to toe after a performance. But I’d think a plain old cotton t-shirt with the sleeves cut off would absorb the sweat way better than the mesh of a jersey, and I’d think it would be more comfortable / less itchy to boot. And it would be no more restricting in terms of freedom of movement. Or what about one of those wetsuit thingies Morgan Rose wears? At least that’s somewhat practical.

So, why the basketball jerseys for drummers? Do drummers just love basketball more than your average guitar player? Someone please explain.

-VN

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  • Random

    #1: sleeveless shirt allow for drummers to have a shirt on and not sweat to hell at the same time
    #2: How often can anyone remember wtf the drummer was wearing during a bands set anyways? It’s not that i don’t pay attention to the drummer, but i’m watching his technique, not his shirt.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Ross-King/585314817 Ross King

      This

    • Steve O

      +1, sleeveless shirts allow you to move a bit more freely and jerseys are probably the most common form of that.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jason-John-Crispen/100000169530540 Jason John Crispen

    corey glover used to wear that bodyglove wet suit thing on stage. i used to think that was badass when i was a kid. haha

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  • orbital

    breathable materal with no sleaves. pretty straight forward, no? The other alternative is no shirt. Can we expect a post on the merits of that in the near future Captain Obvious?

    • Trux

      This !

      • Uglymicrowave

        agreed! fucking breathable material and no sleeves…it’s a fucking no brainer…how is this even a post?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Alejandro-Aldana/683878171 Alejandro Aldana

    while you’re at it why not comment on drummers that don’t wear shoes onstage too.

    • http://myspace.com/wearecarnevil AEnema175

      I do both things, every so far is right about the mesh material, and for the shoes thing. I like to feel the pedal that i’m playing, cause if i have shoes i am just blindly hitting the pedal and have to use mostly brute force to keep it going. where as if i have no shoes i can use the bounce off the drum to do the work for me.

      • bretton

        also, with shoes on, my feet become too big to do a heel-toe

  • bucketochicken

    I can think of at least one non-drummer from a *very* highly regarded-by-MetalSucks-creators band who tends to sport (ha!) a hoopyball jersey on stage….

    • moldytoast

      shadows fall?

      • Anthony

        Has to be. I mean, it’d be much more tolerable if Brian Fair wasn’t a Celtics fan, but whatever.

        At least it’s a Larry Bird jersey he usually wears on stage.

  • Noel

    as a drummer myself, i can say ive been asked similar questions. at shows, i wear normal band t shirts, but i wear nylon basketball shorts. my band mates made fun of me years ago, but they realized how comfortable they are when playing. personally, whnever i see metal or rock drummers wearing big black jeans while playing, i chuckle cuz dudes gonna getting some kinda rash…

  • mat

    1. basketball is the greatest sport ever !!!
    2. carey plays basketball , he was very good in highschool

    • narcopolypse

      1. Wasn’t Carey at the pick-up game that killed Ted Demme, the guy who directed Blow?

      2. A friend of mine works for a venue that had Dream Theater a few years ago. Venue mgmt ignored the DT rider and didn’t provide Portnoy with a authentic jersey from the local NBA team. So there was a big delay while a runner went out to get one, and the dumbshit comes back with an abnormally large jersey of one of the team’s worst players. Totally off the clearance rack. And who says people in the live music industry are retarded?

  • Slaughterhouse

    “Think about the utter ridiculousness of a guitarist or bass player wearing a basketball jersey as their stage outfit”

    I’ve seen Kerry King where Oakland Raiders jerseys (I know its a football Jersey, but still) a shit ton of times…That statement is fail as Slayer fucking rips

    • yetzer hara

      anyone who ever saw machine head back in the day saw robb flynn in jerseys… both basketball and football jerseys.

  • Gecko

    Slow news day much? Yeah dude, it’s strictly a comfort/breathability issue. Mesh jerseys help your body stay cool (which is why all my old hockey jerseys from my playing days are vented on the sides), and no sleeves give your arms less constriction. A lot of drummmers I’ve played with also wear basketball shorts and no shirt for the same reason. Me though, I’m a bass player…no shirtless antics for me, thank you.

    • Random

      …. I BELIEVE THAT IS KNOWN AS FREEBALLIN’

      • orbital

        win!

  • GoingDeaf?

    Basketball jerseys are designed specifically for athletic activity, so no, a sleeveless cotton T isn’t better. Also, who cares? Better than Matt Pike in no shirt!

  • tyler09

    I was at a Powerman 5000 show and the drummer for the opening band wore a Kevin Garnett jersey, and had a cadillac hood ornament on his bass drum.

  • rickC

    I saw on a DVD that it is in Portnoy’s show rider that he gets a jersey from whatever city he’s playing in that night. i.e he wore a maple leafs jersey last time i saw him in toronto.

  • Glorious Johnson

    this is a really dumb post, for someone who lives in humid ass NY, it should be obvious the advantage of mesh/no shirts. i could give a shit if people think i look like an asshole as long as im not sweating at full capacity

  • Harro

    Way more wear a normal t-shirt. You’re picking up on the exceptions, not the rule. It’s not a conspiracy. Newsflash: different people feel comfortable in different types of clothing. We have to wear the (metal) uniform all the time?!

  • Fufkin

    Three drummers is hardly a trend. Really slow news / anything day?

  • M.

    no one mentions how Mårten Hagström of Meshuggah wears hockey jerseys…
    http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/252/12636781.jpg

    or Brock Lindow of 36 Crazyfists, he sometimes wears Alaska basketball jerseys.

    • Anthony

      Brock wears anything that has to do with Alaska. When I saw them on the In Flames tour a couple of years ago, He started the set wearing a hoodie that said “Alaska” on it, then have way through the set, took it off while still wearing a tshirt that said “Alaska” on it.

  • joshkid

    well Jeff Hanneman always wears a football jersey…but he’s allowed to because he’s in:
    FUCKING SLAYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • M’Kay

    I’m a drummer, and yeah, the jersey helps for mobility more than anything else. However, they are not that good for absorbing the sweat.

    Real bands wear hockey jerseys (Meshuggah videos for NMCC…)

    Also Carey is 6’5″, so the B-Ball jersey is acceptable.

  • Anthony

    “though dude, whatup with the t-shirt underneath? that’s like wearing socks with sandals”

    Well he doesn’t seem to be playing in that picture, and if you’re wearing a jersey just for show, it’s better to wear a goddamn tshirt underneath than pretend that you’re that actual player.

  • Howard K

    Dino, the drummer for GG Allin’s Murder Junkies, doesn’t wear any clothing on stage. He claims that chafing from his clothes bothered him too much while he plays.

  • http://myspace.com/inbetweenjobs SKLives

    Dont for get Sammy Watson too…He wear his almost ritualistic-ly

  • http://rich0376@yahoo.com Rich0376

    It’s NOT just drummers!! I saw ANTHRAX back in 1993 on the ‘Sound of White Noise’ tour and John Bush wore a Celtics jersey for the second half of the show. I then saw them again around 1998 or 99 and Scott Ian wore a navy blue Yankees batting practice jersey for part of the show.

    Robert Trujillo frequently wears shorts and a black basketball jersey with the METALLICA logo on it. Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman have both frequently worn Raiders jersey’s or LA Kings jerseys on stage. Axl Rose has worn football and hockey jerseys on stage for years. Blackie Lawless has been wearing a Raiders jersey on stage for about the past fifteen years. Vince Neil has worn baseball jersey’s during some of is solo shows.

  • A2James

    Don’t forget all the hardcore bands like Terror, Madball, etc. who rock jerseys.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Christopher-Randish/10720102 Christopher Randish

    Yeah but as clearly stated, Tool’s drummer wears a jersey OVER a T-shirt… Defeating the purpose?

  • Alex_P

    I wish the drummer for Brutal Truth actually would wear a goddamn basketball jersey. That man does not need to go around shirtless.

    • yetzer hara

      i wish he’d wear shorts that kept his balls from hanging out too.

  • DustintheWind

    Let me preface this by saying I am a HUGE sports fan… but wearing any pro jerseys outside of an actual sporting event is retarded….unless you’re 12 years old. “I’m a 40 year old man with a 25 year old man’s name on my back!!” Gay

    • derekazduder

      THIS

  • Raoul Dukenstein

    I wonder if those jerseys helped Rob write Burning Red. Didn’t he have cornrows too?

  • ZackP

    Of all the jersey’s to wear, a basketball is by far the most breathable, and IMO most comfortable to wear. Baseball jerseys are a very tight polyester that is terrible for air flow, hockey jerseys are meant to keep heat inside so it’s a thicker material, and although football jerseys are mesh they are baggier than a basketball jersey which could get in the way of drumming.

    /clothing lesson

  • Mike B

    Really? I didn’t know the fashion police was in the metal community. I really don’t give a shit what anyone in a band wears. What really matters is the music. I rather see a band full of scrubs that fucking rock verses seeing a band full of well dressed talentless hacks.

  • frankie h

    your an idiot who cares what bands wear on stage metal and hardcore are not fassion shows who gives a fuck other than you and all the little 14 year old scene kids i hit at shows.
    your a jerk off

  • tony

    You’re obviously not a drummer or an athlete. Drummers ARE athletes douchebag! I’ve been playing 21 years and when I play, especially at a show, I play balls deep just like every drummer should. I need something that will keep me cool when I play and something sleeveless as not to impede my technique. Drumming is not just a goon hitting shit with sticks, it takes focus and finesse….not just sheer brutality and I find sleeves to be bothersome and simple cotton doesn’t soak up my sweat when I play like a mesh jersey does. Besides, any real musician isn’t gonna care about what they look like because in the end, it’s about how you sound….not about how we look. If Kim Kardashian played drums as good as she looks in a bikini, we’d all be in trouble. Stop focusing on the trivial things that don’t matter. Bottom line is, Danny Carey and Mike Portnoy are two of the best drummers in the world and you’re not so don’t talk shit. hahaha.

  • Jakes

    I saw randy from log wear one at last year’s mayhem fest (a hatebreed bball jersey i believe) and he looked fucking badass haha! little skinny dude rocking a baggy jersey.. METAL!