With Labor Day behind us, Deadstein forges ahead into autumn with a little momentum from all the songs we played during the summer months. This week found us with everyone present and accounted for and ready to go. Little did we realize that Lee’s birthday was coming up within the week and Scott’s is following closely on its heals. With this in mind we slowly transitioned from having no plan for the evening to it being a Lee than and then a drummer’s birthday show. This came with the requisite responsibility to select the setlist which Lee and Scott essentially did for the majority of the night. The final result was a strong night containing 23 songs and good ones at that.
In comparison to last week, this week I was feeling good and playing well. I replaced those rusty strings on my Strat for the first time in a couple of months and they were shining. When I went to the store to buy strings I also picked up a cheap MXR 90 Phaser which produces a sound close to that which Jerry used on a few songs like Waiting for a Miracle and If I Had the World to Give. This gave me the incentive to practice during the week at home playing the If I Had the World to Give and getting it set for Deadstein to try again. I feel as if we are on the cusp of getting this song under our belts so I had hope with my additional work on it, we could send it from the C list to the B list.
The room was sounding good I think as I was able to hear the vocals and Rich’s Piano easily from the PA system. This always helps us play well and the recordings kind of provide that nice balance. Of course, we all could and should play more within ourselves, formulating a strong foundation before losing patience and control and heading out to the races like Tasmanian Devils leaving the songs we are trying to play as road kill in Deadstein’s wake.
Steve and Lindsey were our only early in the night guests and they got to experience Deadstein butchering their wedding song, If I Had the World to Give. They left for the second set and we were by ourselves until 5-7 people came in during our St. Stephen butchering and watched us from then through the end of the night. Finally, Scott Bayer came in and left pretty quickly after he was denied an opportunity to play bongos with us.
The first set was pretty long, 13 songs in total, and it started with an aggressive Deep Elem Blues and ended with an aggressive Deal. In between there was lots of sweet stuff in between, kind of like a Double Stuff Oreo. Built To Last was the night’s only extreme reach beyond our grasp, so therefore the other 20 or so songs were fun. The middle of the first set is where we were the strongest but for the most part the night was good.
With Scott singing the Box of Rain, Deadstein ended its long night just after midnight. For me the night would just begin for I was successful in keeping the news away from my ears about the Giant game as the reigning Superbowl champions were opening the 2012 football season on a Wednesday night just a few miles west of us at Giants Stadium. I recorded the game and was intending to go home and hopefully watch a Giant’s victory.
On the way home I finally stopped at a halal food truck on Tenth Ave. on the way to the Lincoln Tunnel. I discussed going there with Lee before hand but I wasn’t sure about the safety and he asked me if the food moves. I had know idea if the food moved or not but when I passed it I saw several taxi drivers standing outside their cabs gnawing away at their giros so I decided to pull over and go in for the kill. Little did I know that this time, as should be expected, the hunter got captured by this game. I had never ventured to this type of food truck before, but nothing ventured nothing gained, so I looked over the fairly extensive menu and decided on the “Lamb” sandwich. The guy quickly prepared it for me and I got a Coke and $5 later I was in my car heading home with a “Lamb” sandwich. I just got the white sauce; no lettuce or tomato or hot sauce which was available on request. My communication with the man behind the glass was difficult at best. Squishy piping hot type of pita dough bread surrounded this “Lamb” meat that was highly spiced with little bits of onions in it. I didn’t sense any of the gamy flavor which you expect from lamb, just an overly spiced grilled meat by-product of some sort. I never really had anything like it and I can only assume it truly was grilled dog food that they serve to their non-halal brethren. I assume they save the actual grilled dog for their own. In any case, I woofed it down in the car without looking really looking at it. Amazingly, the way it was wrapped in aluminum foil it did drip one bit.
I finally got home at 1:30 and got through the Giants loss to Dallas which was pretty, but the flow of the game required me to stay up to 3:30 or so to get to the end of the game, even with fast forwarding through the commercials. With a 7:09 wake-up time, Thursday was not an easy day for me. Next week should only be better as I try a new meat by product in a wrap and the Giants go for their first win. You can see the blimp in the photo I took with my iPhone going into the jam which I can only assume was providing areal photography for the game’s broadcast. I was a really nice evening as this photos going into the jam show.
To hear what we did this week, check out the links to the MP3s below:
http://www.deadstein.com/audio/09-05-12/
A Monday night jam is always a last resort for us as it makes the rest of the week a miserable mess. Nevertheless, a Monday night jam is way better than no jam at all. We were scheduled to play with Trister but he was a no show at the last second and Alan was on the self appointed disabled list for a week. That left only the five of us to hold up the fort. It did give us a chance to catch up on some highly neglected Jerry Garcia Band music. Our only guest was Steve, MOndays are tough you know.
my Steal Your Space book 