I can’t think of anything worse than listening to Dave Matthews Band.

I know I’m going to get plenty of hate mail for saying this (and might lose some friends who are die-hard fans), but DMB is one of the most - if not the most - overrated bands of the recent past.

Each of its albums constantly cycle one another with the same theme. I have heard the band’s records, and I can honestly say that it’s time for the band members to shut off their amps and quietly walk off stage without an encore.

But despite this intense dislike for DMB, the band has one saving grace - its magnificent percussionist, Carter Beauford. He is the only high point of the band, and without him, the group would be just another run-of-the-mill band without any uniqueness at all.

I remember reading a letter to the editor in The State News earlier this year from someone who, at one point, mentioned Dave Grohl, the drummer of ex-rock icon Nirvana. In the letter, the writer mentioned Grohl will always be remembered as just a drummer, and nothing more, despite his thriving career with other projects.

Ouch.

Nothing more than just a drummer, huh?

Try to sit here and convince me Blink 182 would have gotten as big as they are without Travis Barker, that Led Zepplin would have been anything without Jon Bonham or that Rush is anything without Neil Peart. I know I’m missing hundreds of other examples, but you get my point.

Being a drummer myself for the past eight years, the statement about Grohl killed me. But at the same time, it made me laugh. Because obviously, we are the most important part of any band - and I’m willing to defend that against anyone who tries to prove me wrong.

Drummers understand each other - there is almost an invisible aura of respect that we generate between one another. Even if we’ve never met, we still share familiar stories that are harrowing or just plain funny.

We’ve all been caught in that situation in the middle of a song, when just as we are coming out of the bridge and are ready to crack the snare with powerful authority, the drum head breaks. We’ve all accidentally had sticks slip out of our hands in back motion, and the number of times our sticks shredded during the middle of our favorite song is endless.

Guitarists? You lose a few strings, a few picks. So what did that cost you? About $10?

When we have these kinds of dilemmas, we have to fork over $15 for new heads (at the very least), $7 for a pair of new sticks, and cymbals can go as high as $300 for a good quality crash - and that’s a low estimate. We have to buy new foot pedals, stands and little things like cymbal washers, snares strings and zero rings all of the time.

All too often I hear people overlook the drummer of an outfit as just someone in the back who keeps rhythm, when in fact, the most important job of the group belongs to the guy in the back who keeps rhythm.

We work harder than anyone in the band, for sure.

While our right foot pounds on the bass drum, our left foot controls the loudness of the hi-hat, all while each arm keeps a different beat. I do all of this while constantly looking at the rest of the band to make sure they’re playing the right part, remembering the fill before the next chorus and still finding time to wink at my lady in the audience.

All guitarists have to do is strum up and down and put their fingers on a tiny fret on the neck of a guitar. They’re too busy to look at the rest of the band to make sure they’re doing everything right. I feel bad for their ladies, so next time maybe I’ll give a wink for them.

And when the guitarists screw up, it almost always sounds like it was the drummer’s fault. Worse, sometimes you string people turn around and actually look at us like it was our fault when you missed the extra beat in the chord progression.

But anyway, I guess we need guitarists, bass players and singers just as much as you string people need us.

Then again, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - string people, without us, you’re nothing.

Dan Julian is the MS&U enterprise reporter. Please tell him how wrong he is about the Dave Matthews Band at julianda@msu.edu. In return, he’ll gladly write you back and tell you you’re wrong.