It was one of the biggest nights of Deadstein ever. We had lots of everything. To start with Scott was on vacation in Hawaii so that enticed us haul Coffee-Boy’s ass in and sit him down on a drum throne. On his coattails came the contingent of other Baysiders including Mitch who was slinging his new Epiphone 335 (”Dot”) as well as his new Canon 5D DSLR, both being quite impressive. If he only purchased the Gibson 335 and a shitty camera in 10 years his guitar would be worth what his new camera is worth instead of vice-versa. In any case, a guitar can’t record memories and won’t make Mitch money the way a camera can.
To continues, we had Bayside Al on guitar and Bayside Russell on the other drumset. Finally, Alan Wikler was able to make it in time from his Florida trip and also made the jam. This left us with a whole bunch of bunches including 2 Alans, 4 guitarists, 2 drummers, 2 DSLR cameras and a whole bunch of sound. The wall of sound wasn’t enough to describe the music. We should have called it the “Room of Sound.” Ironic, as Coffee pointed out, was the fact that in this whole big room of musicians there wasn’t a sip of alcohol anywhere to be found. That was until Adam showed up who was accompanied by a slim silver flask of high quality Scotch.
Sensing the density of the aura before me, and the pre-song sounds in the room sounding like a 100-piece orchestra warming and tuning up I decided to call for the Dark Star opener which got us sounding and jamming for a while until I wrestled down the mess and brought it into a Feel Like a Stranger. The whole trip was a long one and definitely set us on the path that was our jam for the evening.
Our only guests for the night were Bayside acquaintance, Adam who was using this opportunity to have some fun away from his family. Pretty cool how Adam has seen us at a Short Hills gig since he is friends with those guys and in addition, he is also friends with John and Mitchell Spitz. It’s a small freaky world. He really seemed to have a good time relaxing in the Deadstein spirit of Hanukkahs past. In addition, their friend Jason with long, curly, brown locks was also there.
I can’t say there was a first set, vs. a second set, all I know is that the nigh ended about 30 minutes early as Coffee didn’t seem to have enough caffeine in his midst to keep the mother rolling and he was driving Rich home, not have Scott for a ride, the jam ended at 11:30, but with all the talk and post-mortem, we weren’t out any earlier and we could have gotten in a few more songs.
I also had some new equipment which was a Boss OD-20 distortion box which I enjoyed throughout the night, enabling myself to cut through the morass. I also had new strings on my Strat which also helped my tone. I liked it for the most part as I teamed up the new OD-20 with my pedal board including a compressor, chorus and Alan’s MXR envelope filter which I used and liked. I used it for the Stranger, Ramble on Rose and Catfish John. I then quieted down the masses with a less intensive Friend of the Devil which had a plethora of leads associated with it. Other items of note include mixing up the selection a bit with a surprise Walking Blues which was pretty good. We also had, in no particular order an Althea, Ramble on Rose, All Along the Watch Tower, China/Rider, Tore Up, Lovelight, Brokedown Palace and we closed with a Music Never Stopped that was initiated by Coffee Boy. It must be some of those Scottisms rubbing off on him.
To listen to the music go to the following link or click on the songs below:
http://www.deadstein.com/audio/12-23-09/
T’was a big night before Christmas and at the Deadstein jam, everything was smoking, except for a ham. Let’s try to get one more jam in for 2009 and start 2010 with a bang.
This Thursday night was a tough Deadstein to get together, but we pulled it off. With Scott no able to play and Alan on the mend, it was not easy to find people to play. Fortunately, Rich was all over it and got Bill Sloan to play drums while Bayside Mitch filled in for Alan on rhythm guitar. He was playing his nice, sweet Gibson Les Paul Studio. Short of these two guests, we had no others on this night with the exception of Scott Bayer. He brought a bag of popcorn for us to munch on and that was the beginning of the end of Kevin.
my Steal Your Space book 