It was Tuesday night and all of Deadstein, including Donna D, were scheduled to jam for the night. A major departure from all the guests we had the previous week. Kevin was back from vacation and ready to go after missing a week. Alan on the other hand, was scheduled to play but had to cancel at the last moment. This left Rich to his own devices to try to find a replacement for Alan, come hell or high water. Trister almost was able to make it, but in the end couldn’t join us. This left Fred to fill in for Alan, or me, or both, who knows. Fred showed up by the 3rd or 4th song and played with us for the rest of the night. Our only other guest was Steve who enjoyed most of the jam with us.Carroll’s had the studio set up for a session and they needed to perform a quick turn around on for the morning, so the PA was set up in a strange way and squealed throughout the evening, never giving us a strong reliable PA system.
At the beginning of the night there were only five of us there but I decided to go with a traditional Feel Like a Stranger Grateful Dead opening. I think it felt a bit hollow to begin with but by the end of the song it felt good and comfortable. I tried adjust the PA a bit during the beginning of the second song and for the most part missed out on the opening segments of the Loser, only getting back in position to play the lead. We played a mellow C.C. Rider as the 3rd song trying to keep the legitimacy of the setlist and that is when Donna joined us ready for a fun night of music.
Donna was there for only a song or two until Fred sauntered in with his rig while we were completing the Cats Down Under the Stars. While Rich desired to wait for Fred to play that song, I jumped in and grabbed the Cats Down by the horns and rocked it. It was a good time to do that song while we still had only 1 guitar player. I was looking to work on classic Donna songs, but she insisted on testing her by introducing new songs that she didn’t know. We obliged her and kept her on her toes with a wide variety of new songs.
I recall an Estimated that was good and some ever improving Looks Like Rains and Passengers. Tough to remember too much a week after the melee especially without the aid of the MP3s. Until we can listen to them, all we can do is play and freak out.
my Steal Your Space book 