Jams | my Steal Your Space book

Jam – 2012-07-03 – Carroll’s

07 Jul 2012 Leave a comment

It being the Tuesday before July 4th meant we all had the following day off from work following our Deadstein jam. This is a super-rare occurrence and one that was dreamed about by many leading up to the jam. What would we do with this additional time? Play until morning, go to Wo Hop afterwards? It turned out to be neither as all we did was to play a few minutes late realizing doing anything more was pointless and the concept of unlimited playing would remain an elusive dream.

What we did have was the band back together this week for the full six-man compliment. As far as guests we had Rob and Miriam who brought a friend of their’s, Kathy to the jam. They seemed as if they were out for a good time before the jam and they continued it in Studio 2 with Deadstein, cheering us on at the end of each song. Additionally we also had Meg Ryan and Willow take in the jam. Willow happen to have the same cassette iPhone case as me except in pink as opposed to my D90 red. That was a surprise. We also had the artist painting the wall-scape in the hallway join us for a song or two. These were our only guests and the room was feeling a bit tight filled with a spark of energy from all the on-lookers.. Ryan even came up and rocked a Victim or the Crime with us to end a set.

We didn’t have a plan for the night or setlist so we let Scott for the most part blurt out a song a we played it, at least to start. The thought of the night was to play songs for the 4th of July so we played songs of America including the Beat It on Down the Line, Bobby McGee, US Blues, Victim or the Crime, Goin Down the Road and the ending of the night leaving Texas 4th day of July with Jack Straw; experienced the Crimson White and Indigo while Standing On the Moon, and back on earth we were selling guns instead of food today while Throwing Stones. Fortunately we realized We Will Get By as we develop a Touch of Grey. Lots of thoughts about the living in America.

One grand thought about this country of ours is abundance, and that is what we have been enjoying with respect to songs in the recent past. Our consistent reach past 20 songs week after week has been the great bounty of Deadstein recently, and with all of us now settling comfortably into our roles, we do get better and better each week. I think our Big River this week was a perfect example of this as we sustained a nice lively tempo throughout that tune.

That’s all I can think of at this point as I am focused on next week when we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the 7-12-1987 Giants Stadium Dead Dylan show.

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/07-03-12/

Jam – 2012-06-27 – Carroll’s

01 Jul 2012 Leave a comment

by deadstein in Jams Tags: Carroll's, Jam, Kevin, Larry, Scott, Wikler

For another week, Deadstein was without its full compliment as Rich was out of town. This left the five of us to our own devices to move the momentum forward. Our own devices were limited to iPhones to record the jam as none of us have a simple MP3 recorder to capture the evening’s music. I captured the first 13 songs on my phone before I ran out of space, but at least it is something. As I am typing this on Sunday morning following the show, I have no idea what we played except the 13 songs listed, but I know we played several more. I don’t think we go past 20 but we probably came pretty close.

With respect to guests, we had none. We therefore welcome Lee’s key lime pie, with graham-cracker crust as the guest for the night. I think we are all together once again next week on Tuesday, with no work on Wednesday, so look for a fun on.

If you want to hear and see the first part of the night click on the links below, assuming they eventually get uploaded to YouTube.

Jam – 2012-06-19 – Carroll’s

26 Jun 2012 1 Comment

by deadstein in Jams Tags: Carroll's, Jam, Kevin, Larry, Rich, Scott, StaggerLee, Wikler

Without a plan leaves Deadstein thinking on its feet which sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t. This Tuesday night, it seemed to work for us. Scott suggested opening with the Here Comes Sunshine which made a lot of sense and that sent us down a path that got us going for the night. The Sunshine enlightened us to go for the Viola Lee and without and worry about the song we were in it and playing our hearts out of it. The cool thing about that transition was I turned to the page in Kevin’s book for him from an upside down position and turned right to the page and off we went. Remarkably, I then went to my book to turn to the Viola Lee and also turned to the page on first swipe. It was destiny in a good way. We transitioned out of the Viola Lee into a easy Bertha and before we knew it were were on our weekly Deadstein journey far away from home base.

By the time the 4th song hit some of our guests came in to watch us including Ryan Steve and Maggie and they brought a friend of theirs, Willow to experience the Deadstein experience. Scott Bayer and another couple of friends of Rich showed up by the end of the night and that was it for guests. As far a band members, all 6 of us were there this week inside Studio #2 with the refinished Piano. Scott and Lee were is reversed positions for the week, but it didn’t feel too different.

With respect to instruments, my Fuchs Fender twin I started with felt weak and under the weather. I swapped it out after the Bertha and was good to go for the rest of the jam. As soon as the amp swap was done there was no time to waste and away we continued. I selected Jack-a-Roe next which has always been tough for Deadstein but we did it early and kept up a good pace with it so that song was more enjoyable than usual.

We successfully navigated our ways through a bunch of first set songs ending the first half of the night with the One More Saturday Night which featured Ryan on drums, being thrown into the fire without any warmup. Its the best way to go forward.

The nice feature of the second set was the Miracle, Wheel, Gimme Some Loving Dear Mr. Fantasy combination. That we performed from the seat of our pants without a plan, but it felt like we had been preparing for it all along. These are rarely played songs for us and to do them where they feel good gives us a boost of confidence. I think Kevin was at the vending machine for Thrill is Gone but he was back for the closing.

Kevin always hates when we brutalize Beatles songs so he wasn’t psyched about trying the Across the Universe just before the end of the night. People we doubting if there was even a drum line to the song, but I got it going and it felt pretty natural for us to do. To close the night at song listed as #25 was the Getaway, not easy to do when you are tired after midnight, but it was a great closer and a great way to send you home stuffed from an evening of digesting unlimited Deadstein.

What a Freakstival.

To hear what we did , you can go to the MP3 links provided below:

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/06-19-12/

Jam – 2012-06-13 – Carroll’s

18 Jun 2012 Leave a comment

by deadstein in Jams Tags: Carroll's, Jam, Kevin, Larry, Rich, Scott, StaggerLee, Wikler

We finally go the entire band together for a full jam, over 20 songs once again. I think the only guest was Steve, short of that, it was just us six. We didn’t have a plan, but we weren’t taking any prisoners as we launched into a Help Slip Franklins to open. I know I messed up the Slipknot! royally, but most of it was fun. From there we played a significant night of music. Kevin asked for the Foolish heart, but it was a foolish request as we weren’t quite up to that task. nevertheless, we tried any challenge that was in front of us, which was everything.

I recall in many respects getting a nice mix of music between the instruments during som of our jams. There was some good listening and playing off of each other. That dominated much of the night and hopefully got us to play some good music, maybe the MP3s will reveal the goodness that the night felt.

Over the weekend, I saw on few minutes of a show on PBS that featured the La Floroent, across from our old stomping grounds on Ganesvoort Street. I utilized the new Google search that is incorporated as part of Deadstein.com and found a few juicy morsels of Deadstein history regarding that restaurant. We play 20 songs regularly these days,with a Florent burger, we were lucky to get 8 in for the night. You can find some good stuff with that search feature.

To hear what we did, go to the MP3 links below:

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/06-13-12/

Jam – 2012-06-04 – Carroll’s

10 Jun 2012 3 Comments

by deadstein in Jams Tags: Carroll's, Jam, Kevin, Larry, StaggerLee

With everyone having busy schedules, these week would be an impossible to one have the entire band there. We couldn’t get all 6 of us together, even 5 was tough and Core-4 wasn’t gonna happen. Having a week without a Deadstein was not an option so what were we to do? We did a Monday night jam as a Hardcore-3 with Lee. There haven’t ben too many times that jams have collapsed into a 3-man Freakshow with Kevin, me and a drummer. but this week was such a week Never-the-matter, Lee, Kevin and I were happy to give it a try. And try we did, and we didn’t shy away from the big, opening up with a Terrapin. Maybe the Terrapin was a bit much to tackle right off the bat, but it got us going and from the start we knew the jam would be far more normal than abnormal.

Something abnormal for me was breaking a B-string during Run for the Roses. It was one of the few string I have broken in my life while playing. It is a very rare occurrence. Too bad, because it was going well. We attempted the Brokedown, at the request of Lindsey, but we had a lot of trouble getting into it. The Birdsong achieved some fun to it as we explored our inner-abilities during it. We started the second set with the help on the Way, and it was a valiant effort. As we strayed into the non-Dead stuff it started well with the Let It Bleed but slowly eroded as we did some of the Who stuff. In any case, we came running through the finish line a 12 o’clock midnight and got in a really good jam. At the end of the night we were all spent fearing what a full week of work facing us after a Monday jam would bring. I know I survived as I am writing this on Sunday morning waiting for this week’s Wednesday night jam when we should have the whole band back together for the 3-ring Freakshow.

Amazingly enough, we had our Core-4 of guests including Lindsey, Steve and Meg Ryan and they hung for most of the night. I think Lee gave Maggie and Ryan a ride home to NJ at the end. Without Rich being there we didn’t have an MP3 recorder but I did capture a few moments on my iPhone4S as a security camera on Lee. Nevertheless, you do get the flavor of the night.

In the world, we lost Doc Watson this week and his soothing soulful music will be missed.

Terrapin Station
Run for the Roses (cut)
Althea
Brokedown Palace
Gomorrah
Birdsong
Looks like rain
Positively Fourth Street
Deal
Help on the Way
Slipknot
Franklin’s Tower
Feel like a stranger
Black Peter
Let it Bleed
Eminence front
Where Not Going To Take It
I’m free
Queen Jane Approximately

Jam – 2012-05-29 – Carroll’s

01 Jun 2012 Leave a comment

by deadstein in Jams Tags: Carroll's, Jam, Kevin, Larry, Rich, StaggerLee, Wikler

This week Scott was on vacation in Sedona and we decided to let Lee earn his stripes and drum solo for Deadstein. Other than Scott being away the rest of us were there to support Lee’s effort. I selected a setlist based on song Lee requested and had a nice night of music set for us to play. We began from a Dead start and entered into a mini Jerry Garcia Band set in the middle of the first set. The second set was filled with a bunch of individual songs. While for the most part the night was filled with individual, non-jammy songs, when we had an opportunity to jam we took it and it made for some very gratifying moments.

The night started a bit weak as Kevin as having bi-amp issues but once we got into the GarBand mode, it propelled us to comfort. Carroll’s set up two drum kits by accident, so Lee seized the opportunity and grabbed all he could from the unused kit and created one giant dream-kit. I have to say the drumming was good all night long. We had the smaller Mackie PA, but I don’t think it was too much of an issue. As far as guests we had Steve and Lindsey and Scott Bayer showed up at then end of the night. A good night that felt like a Monday but was actually a Tuesday. Next week may be tough to assemble so we have to hold on a find out what is our future. Stay tuned and freak out.

To hear what we did, go to the MP3s below:

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/05-28-12/