Jam – 2011-10-05 – Carroll’s

07 Oct 2011 Leave a comment

by deadstein in Jams Tags: , , , , , , ,

This was another fun week with several guests in the room to enjoy us, so that always gets us inspired.  In addition to the standard-5, we had Larry Brent sitting in with us, assuming the responsibility for most of the Jerry work.  This combo has been working for us recently and tonight was no exception.  It was a big full night of music with lots of songs.

As usual, the night starts strong but wanes as we all give in to a bit of fatigue and we lose our focus.  Not a big deal because at least at some point we had some focus.  I can’t remember too much of the set or the guests as I am writing this about 10 days after the fact and we already played another jam subsequent to this one.  I do remember Michael and his entourage at the jam.  The setlist should speak for itself, because at this time I can’t speak for anything so here it is below:

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/10-05-11/

Jam – 2011-09-27 – Caroll’s

28 Sep 2011 Leave a comment

by deadstein in Jams Tags: , , , , , ,

Back at Deadstein with no guests this week and no agendas, just a night to make good music.  We did have a few guests including Rob and Miriam and a friend of theirs.  Additionally, Rich had a buddy stop by and we also had the inevitable Scott Bayer with his friend Carol live via the cell network.

I had some new stuff to deal with that made my night a fulfilling experience.  Since I ruined Alan’s MXR envelope filter 2 weeks ago, I found a Proton Envelope Filter by 3LeafAudio last week and had it delivered on Monday and ready for Tuesday’s jam.  As I was off on Monday, I had some time to set up the new effect in my effects rack and practice some new things.  I worked on Operator, New Speedway, Stranger and Brown-Eyed at home at playing them at the jam was really good.  We did Operator twice and they were both really good and the New Speedway was the best Deadstein has ever done.

In addition to the new envelope filter which I have to say was pretty darn good and solid.  It was filled with more good sounds than bad ones and handled chords with some decorum.  I added by Boss compressor to the effects tray as well as my chorus.  I didn’t use the chorus at all but I did find my compressor useful, which I had previously had trouble doing.  The use of both envelope filter and compressor really get you in touch with your touch to make both effects work properly.  I felt as if I was within their grasps throughout the night.

Coupled with all this changed effects stuff I also changed my guitar from my 1979 Stratocaster to my mid 2000 Epiphone Les Paul Standard.  I have never been comfortable with the Les Paul but I’ve been playing with it more at home and I changed the strings this weekend, lowered in the action and intonated it.  This all lead to my best use of the Les Paul to date.  I really enjoyed it during the night, the touch, the action and the sound.

I think as a band we played better than usual this night.  Our first set was really solid.  Our only great faux pas was the Help -> Slip -> Estimated and some (Kevin and Scott) slipped into Estimated without the knot!  That hurt that segment of the night, but short of that we did pretty well.  We had lots of meaty songs starting with the Stranger Shakedown, very few blues, ended the first set with the Playing à Morning Dew that was one of our better Dews.

For the second set we picked up the playing following the Uncle John’s we dished out.  I had some nice feeling leads during the Looks Like Rain and the While My Guitar Gently Weeps.  I totally flubbed the Help on the Way lead.  You can get them all, but I got enough, more Ying than Yoink.  Next week promises to deliver even more Ying, so stay tuned.

To hear what we played go to:

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/09-27-11/

Jam – 2011-09-19 – Carroll’s

21 Sep 2011 4 Comments

by deadstein in Jams Tags: , , , , , , ,

This was a nice week of Deadstein where we were able to play once again with Andy Trister.  We are pretty comfortable these days with our 5-man arrangement with e on lead and Alan playing rhythm, so Trister playing with us sends us back to days of lore, when I had Bob on my mind.  This is a challenge for us as I traditionally hand off all the Jerry part to Andy when he is there leaving Alan and I to fend for the rhythm spectrum.  I think there is enough spectrum there for the two of us to coexist without stepping on each other’s signals and I think we achieve that this week.

Playing Bob is once again a very comfortable thing for me to do compared to  having the responsibility to play Jerry leads, so I found myself in a good zone during this jam, which I am sure helped contribute toward the goodness of the jam.

You know it is a good jam and a fun one when Andy finishes playing theBrokedownPalaceto end the night and says, “Damn that was the best Brokedown you guys have played and this is too much fun to leave.”  As such, he ended up playing an addition 3 or 4 songs and then he parted ways with us.  It just goes to show how when you try and make good music, the music is good.  It’s self fulfilling in so many respects especially verbally.  As a matter of fact, that may be the only respect, but I digress.

It was an especially rewarding and satisfactory evening because from the beginning it did feel as if it was to be such.  We were bickering at the beginning about when or when not to invite guests, playing for a keyboard last week that we did have to elevate to the of having to pay for it and other issues.  They excellent music and attitude during the playing itself, made all that other nonsense trivial compared to the reason we get together anyway, so G-d bless us all and pray for more ying than yoink.

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/09-19-11/

Jam – 2011-09-14 – Carroll’s

15 Sep 2011 3 Comments

by deadstein in Jams Tags: , , , , , ,

I was at dog camp last week and missed the Deadstein jam.  It was probably a Brotpen dominated night.  This week the tide turned as Brotpen was sick and unable to attend.  Marty Goodman filled in on the keys so we kind of had that covered.  It was Scott’s birthday earlier in the week so it should have been his turn and obligation to call the setlist.  Unfortunately the stars didn’t quite align to achieve that.  First of all, Marty’s repertoire favors the simple songs, as he calls them, and I was on the waning side of a cold I picked up at dog camp.  With the prospects of having to sing every song for the night while being as sick as I was; well let’s just say it wasn’t going to be pretty.

In the end, it was a challenging night.  I was coughing between every verse, I think we lost Kevin sooner than usual and Marty  didn’t quite know every thing we played.  My head was swimming in it’s own mucus.  Thank G-d I think Scott seemed to be on his game and leading us more so than usual.  It was a big help.

I was able to borrow an MP3 recorder to capture the night so I do have MP3s to listen to, so check them out if you must.  The recorder at least worked. By the way, the orange poster for the Nov 4, 1981 JGB Concert at the Albany Palace Theater was from my first show.  I was just searching the web for an image to place up for this weeks jam posting and stumbled upon this thing.  It popped out in my mind as hung in my freshman dorm-suite.  It’s a pretty cool memory.

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/09-14-11/

Jam – 2011-09-08 – Carroll’s

11 Sep 2011 2 Comments

by deadstein in Jams Tags: , , , , ,

As written by Alan:

This was another difficult week to schedule and was almost cancncelled at the last moment but as always we found a way to make it happen. With The Gind at doggie camp (with his dogs), we were short a lead guitarist. Although we have a strong bench of past and temp lead guitarists to call upon, all were otherwise engaged. Al D. was in town but his appearence, and our fate,  was contingent on the weather, as he had tickets for an outdoor event. The weather held up, which is more than I can say for our luck.

Despite some understandable hesitency on Alan’s part to play the “Jerry” role, on Kevin’s encouragement he stepped up to the plate and a revised “Core Four” jammed. All concerns about this makeshift quartet vanished with the warm-up opener Tore Up, which sounded like…Deadstein. To see if we could go beyond the simple 1-4-5 blues/rock format, we did a stand-alone Scarlet Begonias, which again was a success. Other first set tunes included And it Stoned Me, and a number of Pigpen songs, not only for their simplicity but because it was Pigpen’s birthday. To celebrate the end of several consecutive days or rain we played Here Comes Sunshine, a good bookend to the Looks Like Rain we played weeks earlier before Hurricane Irynne.

The centerpiece of the second set was a heavy jam of Dark Star, The Other One, and Caution (Do Not Step on the Tracks), which was a Deadstein first. It was a lucky unplanned occurance that developed out of a rhythm created by Alan’s digital delay repeat. The soporific slow Friend of the Devil was a bad choice for 11:30 PM. The Gind would have known better. His absence was felt thoughout the night, not just for the leads, but for his leadership and song choice. We have learned to use more eye contact to cue changes so there were surprisingly few crossed signals on leads between me an Rich, who also deserves kudos for singing all of the songs. Kevin and Scott both made it past the finish line on two (or is that four) feet. Our only guest was Scott Bayer, who appeared mid-Dark Star and left some welcome food and left. if not for the food we would not have been sure his appearence was just our imagination.

We look forward to Larry’s return next week for a “Full Five” (or more) jam.

To hear the MP3s from this week, click the links below:

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/09-08-11

 

 

Jam – 2011-08-29 – Carroll’s

30 Aug 2011 Leave a comment

by deadstein in Jams Tags: , , , , , ,

Monday was the only night we could get together this week for a jam.  We collectively decided it was best the ruin the rest of the week in order to get the jam in on Monday.  From the perspective of a jam, I think it is helpful in that we are well rested from the weekend and ready to put forth a good effort.

We didn’t have a theme for this week but Kevin kept asking for songs that were indicative of a great Dead show that you would go to.  I started the evening’s song list as such with the Stranger opener and the night had a lot of promise.  The Stranger was hot and well done and set us in the right direction.  Speaking of which, the Love Each Other fell right in line thereafter.  I kept us moving going right into a Minglewood out of the Love Each Other.  Trying to keep us moving forward with momentum.

It took us a while to eventually veer from this concept but eventually we did with the closing of the first set with a Good Night Irene.  While Hurricane Irene from the weekend was a non-event for the most of us, I was still out of electricity as I came to the jam.  By about 8:30 I received word that I finally had power back after about a week ad a half, and it was Good Night Irene.

Rob and Miriam commented how that one started terribly, but by the end of the song they were amazed how much fun it was and how good it was.  Scott Bayer showed up later in the night so he and Rob and Miriam were our only guests.  Rob and Miriam seemed to really like the Loose Lucy we gave them.  Seem to hit a chord within them.

Second set was surprisingly strong for a second set.  We closed with a few Beatles songs prior to finishing the night with a Brokedown in the modern key.  It is a little more fun playing in G rather than F.  Just my two cents.

As I am in dog camp next week and will have a week off, I sure everyone will hold the reigns of the Ying-Yoink experience so I am expecting a full report.

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