Jam – 2012-08-29 – Carroll’s

31 Aug 2012 1 Comment

by deadstein in Jams Tags: , , , , ,

Being the end of summer it is always tricky to get a jam going and this week would prove to be such a trial.  With Scott and Kevin scheduled to be away on away vacation and bringing kids to school, it was questionable as to whether would could get a band of critical mass.  Fortunately, with Stagger Lee in the Deadstein Utility Belt, we have half of the rhythm section already there. We turned back to our SUNY Albany roots and grabbed Bill Sloan to man the bass.  You see me there at my SUNY graduation in 1985.  In the SUNY Albany days of the early 80’s, Bill was an institution on the drums at State Quad, but in the 21st century Bill has transformed into a bass playing institution.  Well maybe not an institution but he brought his convenient little effects rig in a box and covered the bass for us for the jam.

Alan additionally was not available so it left an uncore-4 of me, Rich, Lee and Bill to fill Studio 2.  We had a little help with our guests Ryan, 33-year old Maggie and Steve.  Ryan was thrown into action as he picked up the sticks with us during a That’s What Love Will Make You Do.  Short of that, Lee was all by his lonesome back there all night.

I was eager to play in this configuration to see what would materialize.   Since we were four with one guitar, Jerry Garcia was going to be the flavor of the night, more specifically; Rich was thinking a mid 1970’s version of the band.  We stuck to that for a bit but strayed when necessary.

Speaking of straying, my mind was playing right-down, left-up tricks on me all night long.  I think my fingers thought they were too confident for my minds good, and the two didn’t connect and cooperate all night long.  For the most part I was able to internalize my inner struggle and blow out some music, but if felt like an opportunity lost.  Too bad, because the room sounded good and the vibe was good.

Rich had his whole video set up charging while recording the happenings.  Hopefully, something came out good.  I’m kind of not too eager to hear or see what I did, cause it can’t be pretty.  I guess there are nights like that, but I felt like a pitcher with a spent arm just lobbing soft-balls over the plate.

I guess I will have to wait for Rich’s audio and video files, until then enjoy what you got and Freak out!  Well, lo-and-behold, there are the MP3s with some video to boot.  Three cheers for Rich.

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/08-29-12/

Jam – 2012-08-22 – Carroll’s

25 Aug 2012 1 Comment

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

The Wednesday found us all together again for a standard 6-man Deadstein jam; ’twas good to be.  Well at least that was for the the first part of the night as Alan had to tend to some family matters and wasn’t able to stay for the end of the second set.  That gave us some time to catch up on some overly neglected Jerry Garcia Band tunes.

Regarding the first set, we didn’t have an agenda for the night, so we were wondering what should we start with that has neglected itself from the starting position.  Here Comes Sunshine came to the fore and got us moving down the freaky avenue we call Deadstein.  That lead us into a rousing Viola Lee Blues which was slammed to a merciless halt when I forced us into a Me and My Uncle.  We got into the groove by the time it was time to go into the Mexicali Blues.  While maybe not one of the shining moments our lives, the Uncle Mexicali definitely grounds you back to the Grateful Dead and prepares you for the rest of the night.

When we finished the opener, Lindsey commented, wow, that was a half hour, that’s crazy.  She and Steve were our only guests for the night.  She was right it is crazy, but it does help secure the beefiness of the evening with a long, strong opener.  It was a help to me because I am on a very rusty set of string that 4 jams ago I was totally disgusted by when I took the guitar out of its bag.  Fast forward another 4 weeks, these ultra-rusty strings are even more gnarly making me want to just grab the thing and start sweating to dissolve the dry bumpy residue that I left from a week ago.  It got me in an “I don’t care, just jam and make music” type of attitude.  There will be no pussy-footing around.

The wackiness of the first set continued and we stretched the boundaries of what we do, what should be done and what goes in a first set.  This was all very good because it presented us with quite a bit of variety, but in a good way. From old to new, easy to hard, familiar to “what?” the first set song selection was one of our most interesting, ending in a weird way, on an Estimated Prophet.  Which was ultra relaxed.

Alan did join us for the Scarlet, Sugaree opener of the second set but when he got the call to duty, we headed to the GarBand.  This was all pretty good, including the long, drawn out Lucky Ol’ Sun.  This has never been a easy one for Deadstein as it usually occurs late at night and it has a tendency to put you to sleep. Fortunately we did have Lee there to keep the momentum going when Scott eventually drifted in and out of rolling ‘round heaven.

The Midnight Moonlight was a good cap for the evening; crisp and fun following the lucky ol’ dirge.   Too bad it was a couple of minutes too short, because it left us the need for one more quickie to get past the 12 o’clock finishing line.  That lead to a One More Saturday Night,  seemed to be a mistake with only one guitar.  I felt naked out there for some reason.  Whatever, the song is only 3 minutes so we grabbed it, spun it and tossed it around like a flimsy rag doll.  It was our 19th song, one short of the 20-song high water mark but a great effort nevertheless.  19 songs is nothing to sneeze at. G-d bless you.

With Kevin and Scott scheduled to be out of town, next week is looking sketchy at this point, but hope is eternal and Deadstein will hopefully rise like a phoenix.

Until that time happens, you can listen to the crap we played this week at the links provided below.

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/08-22-12/

Jam – 2012-08-16 – Carroll’s

21 Aug 2012 Leave a comment

by lgindoff in Jams Tags: , , , , , , ,

This was a very special week for us at Deadstein because Alan was out and to fill in for Alan was Tefillin Ken.  Ken has not been around Deadstein for about 10 years now and to see and jam him after all those years some of that new is old and freaky that we try to get in our Deadstein experience.

Though Ken has probably been busy with his very busy life, it seems like he managed to get some guitar practice in between all his Torah studies.  If he didn’t get any practice in than it is even that much more impressive.  Needless to say, I think Ken sounded great both on guitar and on vocals.  It was a real pleasure and it gave me and chance to use my Bob muscles.

Ken’s rendition of the Night They Drove ‘ol Dixie Down was great, more Band than GarBand, yet you can’t take the “Gar” out of Deadstein, no matter how hard you try.  Speaking of which, I did my best to get the “Gar” out of me as I attempted to learn the Beatles “And Your Bird Can Sing.”  This is a challenging song for me as it involves a long riff-line, which I couldn’t help but giving a Cassidy/Jack Straw sound to.  Some how, Ken remembered the riff from his childhood and was able to play that song with us, giving it some real support that I couldn’t provide in that song.  Since the song is under 2 minutes we tried it a few times which I was psyched about.

Speaking of support, our fan base of Meg (Maggie) Ryan and Fleetwood, Steve and Lindsey Mac were there to support us. I think we had a good jam to give them, A little more Stein than Dead then they are used.  Maggie was celebrating her pending 33rd birthday in a joyous way so Happy Birthday to Maggie!

We didn’t have much a plan for the night but we wanted to keep it kind of simple to keep the jams flowing and not running into sharp curves.  That was the reasoning behind the That’s What Love Will Make You Do to open the night.  I think that was a good decision and got us on the way.  The Dixie we discussed above, but it was a moment in the night that made us realize it was gonna be a good one.  As usual the Beat It On Down the Line was good, but getting the 18-count correct was more challenging than it should have been.  A few more Dead song followed by the GarBand Lullaby and Catfish were the end of the 1st set.

We did a couple of And Your Birds Can Sing to start the second set, first was jammy, second was more direct were fun and the Hey Pocky Way was just powerful and went to some cool places.  It may have been my highlight for the night.

At this point you would think we were setting up to poop out but nothing could be further from the truth.  We dove deep and hard into the High Time, Shakedown.  We kept going strong and hard to finalize with more good stuff including a Deadstein best Don’t Let Me Down.  Music Brokedown to close was also hot and a great way to close a great night.

I hope it’s not 10 years till Ken fills in again.  Freak out.

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

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/08-16-12/

 

 

1990-10-09 – First Deadstein Jam – MP3s Posted

11 Aug 2012 2 Comments

by deadstein in Deadstein Forums, Jams, Music Tags: , , , , , , ,

Deadstein’s first jam occurred on October 9, 1990, 22 and a half years ago.  We played at Richie Haven’s/Dennis’ rehearsal studio/home at 162 Perry Street, NY, NY.  Up to now, the music from this historic jam was only available on the few original cassette tapes that may be floating around.  I found mine floating around and decided to digitize the music, master it and post the subsequent MP3s on the original web page for this jam.  Click here to view the webpage and and read about the jam as written several years after it happened.

This first tape is a soundboard mixed for us live by Dennis in his studio.  There is so much to understand about the evolution of Deadstein by listening to this first jam.  You can hear the strong foundation that would eventually be the Deadstein sound.  In many respects, we were better back then.  We were much closer to the Grateful Dead as they were still creating music and the hope of the Grateful Dead was alive in all of us, well maybe not Dave.  It was great listening to this jam for me while making it, and it may be fun for you also.  Enjoy.

Jam – 2012-08-06 – Carroll’s

10 Aug 2012 Leave a comment

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

To accommodate Rich’s ever increasing busy schedule, Deadstein played on Monday this week, leaving a large gap, or a gultch, between this Monday jam and next week’s Thursday jam.  What this week also represented was a celebration of Alan’s birthday which is scheduled to occur on August 11; Happy Birthday Alan, Freak Out!  With that day looming, Alan had the privilege and more importantly, the obligation to select the night’s setlist as it unfurled right in front of us.

He picked a nice setlist, jam, show, to get Deadstein flowing in the right direction.  As is typical for Deadstein in 2012, we had our 2 drummer setup, including Scott and Stagger Lee.  I think Steve was our only guest for the night until Scott Bayer came later on in the evening.  He whipped out his bongo and I told him “no way” and he was soon out of the room.  No bongos and not Scott Bayer, a win-win.

Alan was under a lot of pressure to keep up the grueling pace of recent Deadstein and he did a great job of it.  We got 20 songs on tape and that with Rich missing a few of the songs at the beginning of the night.   I do not recall what we did early on, but Rich placed the Getaway –> Promised Land at the beginning of the first set, when in actuality they were played somewhere in the middle of the first set.

It was a nice long beefy first set ending right at 10pm.  We took a standard break and seem to have energy going into the 2nd set.  Alan seem to pull songs out of his ass at the last second on several occurrences to keep the set going.  When a song didn’t come to air at the end of the Eyes of the World, the second set took a nice, easy natural turn into Drums Space. This was a real good thing as it did set us up to finish the night up with gusto.  The drums space is like the 7th inning stretch of a baseball game and is a nice last final break.

The final segment of the night featured two combos; Other One à Speedway Booggie and Wharf Rat Comes a Time.  Looking at it now, it would have been cooler to put the Speedway Boogie after the Wharf Rat, but the whole thing was a lot of fun.  Playing in the Band reprise was just a quick nice capper.  Werewolve of London for the Olympics (?),, is that why it was selected, was straight on and powerful.  It was a complete evening that never died down, running the finish line like Usain Bolt in world record time.

To hear any of this gold medal playing, go to the Olympics, to hear what Deadstein did, use the links below:

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/08-06-12/


	


	

			




		
			




			
Jam – 2012-07-31 – Carroll’s
	
	
06 Aug 2012 1 Comment


			

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

	
	

		
Wow what a big month of July and what a big night to end it all, just in time to commemorate what would have been Jerry’s 70th birthday. First let me talk a little about this prolific month of July we just finished. If you count up the songs, we played 112 songs in the 5 jams in July 2012, by far, this has to be a record. We have a “take no prisoners” attitude these days, leaving nothing on the table or at least trying to get our monies worth.


The reason we chose to play on this Tuesday night instead on Jerry’s birthday on the next night was the fact that Ollablle was playing a free one-hour concert at the City Winery between 6:30 and 7:30. Perfect timing to enjoy a super-dooper cool scene filled with free phenomenal music and then take a nice easy 60-block or so trip up to Deadstein. First of all I must mention that Ollabelle has such a great positive vibe and you couple that with the same vibe provided by the City Winery and the weather and you have the makings of a perfect evening. They played an hour, there was a great crowd with lots of friends, taping, close viewing and just great music. I suggest you check out Scott’, Rich’s or my videos. What an up-lifting experience to get you psyched to play your own music.



After the Ollablle show I drove Rich and Scott up to the jam, enabling Scott to leave his car at home. By the time we got there just minutes after 8:00 o’clock, everyone was there waiting to play, including Andy Trister who accompanied us for the first half of the night during one of his all too infrequent jams with us. We played some great music during this set.


For some reason I guess like to start jams with Trister on an Uncle John’s Band, I think I hope it is at a tempo and energy level that gets us underway in a controlled manner considering we have 3 guitars in the room. Out of the Uncle John’s I tried to segue us into a Hey Pocky Way, but the train wasn’t going to that town. It was bee-lining to Aiko-Aikoville and we ended up there, which wasn’t a bad thing. As we forged through the first set most of the stuff was good and a lot of fun. I don’ think Andy wanted to leave, but a full night with him just isn’t in the cards. We formulated a nice 12-song first set with lots of good moments. I gave Stagger the Same Thing he asked for, a first for him with us. We tried the Bucket once again, but this time with Andy, it gave it a lot more legitimacy. After that the rest of the first set just kept getting better and better.


With Andy gone for the second set, we decided to get back to business and focus on Jerry’s 70th birthday. This was not until we played the I Shall be Released which we saw Ollabelle play a few hours earlier, which we have never seen them play before. They did it a lot better than we. Out of the Terrapin I entered into the Stephen without the standard intro, I thought that would get us going, and it helped, but we struggled a bit. We don’t do the Stephen enough. Our 12 o’clock quitting time reared its ugly head at the end of the Going Down the Road but that meant we were into August 1. This meant it was the big guy’s birthday, so we stayed a little later to play one additional Black Muddy River in honor of Jerry. This was 21st song capper on a long and great night, so I thought.


Since I drove Scott and Rich uptown from Ollabelle, I decided to give them a lift home, downtown, and take the Holland Tunnel home myself. We all walked to my Honda Fit parked in Scott’s secret spot on 54th street and I hit the button on my key-fab to open the trunk, but it didn’t unlock. I don’t think there is even a key hole on my trunk to manually open the truck. I used the key to enter the driver’s side and to my dismay, the car was deader than we were. Lee drove around the block to go home and saw us standing there and had jumper cables, so we tried jumping the car, but we are 4-Jews and I guess car maintenance is not in our DNA. We couldn’t get it jumped and Lee almost shocked himself to death in the process. I’m sure we did something wrong. Scott then whipped out his AAA Card and a service call from a 54th street station was dispatched. It probably took them a half hour to get there and 5 minutes to jump the car. Just after 1am, I was driving Rich and Scott downtown as my alternator was charging my battery. I was praying I didn’t stall my car out, which I didn’t. After some bad maneuvering to get out of Scott’s neighborhood to the Holland Tunnel coupled with some tunnel traffic meant I wasn’t in NJ until just before 2am and didn’t get home until around 2:45. I long happy ending to a great night, that’s what she said.


When life looks like easy street there is danger at your door.


To hear any of the music we played, go to the MP3 provided below:


http://www.deadstein.com/audio/07-31-12/


	


	

			




		
		
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