Jam – 2011-06-14 – Carroll’s

16 Jun 2011 10 Comments

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

This was another easy night getting to our studio on 55th Street.  Parking was easy and the weather was nice.  The big news of the night was Andy Trister jamming with us for the first half of the evening.  Always great to see him and to raise Deadstein’s competency.

We found a show to do for the evening and it was the big Beacon Theater show from 6-14-76.  This was a show with about 24 songs in it; big ones, small one,short ones and long ones and Deadstein decided to tackle them all.  Alan was at this show way back in the day, so the jam may have had an even more of a special feeling to him than the rest of us.  35 years ago he was at this show and we were playing it at this jam.

We knew it would be a big challenge to get through it and it was.  Likewise, it was a risk to play this setlist with Trister in the room because it was loaded with many potential train-wrecks that has sent many a Deadstein lead guitarist fleeing from the scene.

Before we got to any of that ’76 stuff, we decided to open up the jam session by trying out a Deadstein first, Operator, which I had just charted out a few days earlier.  It went well and was a fun song, should be any easy one to get into and add to our repertoire.

We then plunged head first into the Beacon show and Trister was there for the entire first set.  The cowboy songs starting with Mama Tried had Andy remembering the Deadstein feel of things, which is not a good thing, but with the use of the actual setlist downloaded on my iPhone, I was able to sample the songs in the microphones for everyone’s edification before we played them.  This helped in many an instant.

Following the Playing to end the first set, we played a To Lay Me Down while I played Bass.  This was the only straying we did from the setlist.  The second set was just as ambitious as the first, if not more and we rushed to accomplish it in its entirety, but we did, going just a few minutes past 12:00 p.m.  Quite and feat of endurance.  Well if you saw all the eyeballs rolling in the back of people’s head’s by 11:30, you wouldn’t think endurance would be a word associated with the jam.  Good stuff.  We should be around the solstice by next jam so get set for some sunshine.  So until next time, keep the buffet open, go for seconds and it’s Grateful Said.

To hear what we played, G-d forbid, go to the link below:

 

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/06-14-11/

 

Jam – 2011-06-08 – Carroll’s

09 Jun 2011 3 Comments

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

It seemed like it would be a good jam as there was no Terminal-5 concert, parking was easy and we all got there early and were ready to play at 8:00.  We had no guests for the night but Alan was back so we were back to our 5-man Grateful Dead line-up and away we went.  It started nicely with the Shakedown that had a nice groove. We had no plan or theme for the night and Kevin seemed a little scared about the unknown and we played a 1st set that was typical if not too hot, but a nice chunk of music that was worthy of our attention.

That lead to a break and the second set was a knockout.  We played a big 4-song segment that required another break to get our feet and mind back under ourselves.  We must have played hard because I woke up with a left wrist that was killing me.

Ironically, the last set ended with Scott leading us off to an Other One as if we were going to play for another half hour.  A last gasp burst of energy that came out of his final reserves.  Lets hope we fill our tanks and get set for next week.

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/06-08-11/

Apache/1.3.42 Server at http://www.de

Jam – 2011-06-01 – Carroll’s

02 Jun 2011 3 Comments

by deadstein in Grateful Dead Tags: , , , , ,

Core-4 is what was on tap for Deadstein on this hot first day of June.  We all think about how hot the world is getting today in the 21st century and this June 1 made you feel that way.  The great thing about our Grateful Dead experiences is that communal bond we have from focusing on one thing, the Grateful Dead.  In this instance, I am referencing Jerry Garcia, not the Grateful Dead, but to all intents and purposes, well you know where I am going with this.  Scott, Rich and I all attended the 6-1-83 Garband show at the Roseland Ballroom and the one thing we all remember is how hot of a night that night was.  So when we think it is so hot today, we all had the ability to remember so vividly how hot the temperature was on this day in 1983, 28 years ago.

That Roseland show was hot so we had to commemorate it by playing the 11 song setlist.  Only having Core-4 in the room provided the opportunity to really dig into some Jerry Garcia Band music.  While not seemingly as comfortable as previous weeks dedicated setlist remembering actual shows, we still pulled it off with some aplomb.

After completing the whole Jerry Garcia Band show as a Deadstein 1st set, it seemed to poop out Scotty a bit so as a means to prevent him from slipping into a deep Grateful Dead comma while drumming a second set we ended playing a variety of non-Dead songs, mostly Beatles, but some Stones and a Paul Simon Boxer that felt pretty good.  There was some good and some bad but it was still a fun time.  To close the night we played our only true Grateful Dead, a pretty hot and powerful Feel Like a Stranger. It was, “Ba-Ba-Ba” and we were out of there at midnight.

To hear the songs we played click on the links below:

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/06-01-11/

Jam – 2011-05-24 – Carroll’s

25 May 2011 2 Comments

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

Tuesday night May 24 and we had no dedicated show to play as our guide.  What we did have was the 70th birthday of Bob Dylan.  With both the Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia Band being the pre-eminent Bob Dylan cover bands, we had plenty of familiar material to play in which to have fun with as well as to pay homage to Bob Dylan.  He did provide us with so many great song that we play week in and week out, so from Deadstein, we wish Robert Zimmerman a happy 70th birthday. Now let’s eat.

Alan was sick this week and took it off to rest up and get better.  We were able to get Bayside Mitch to play some of his warm rhythms using that sweet sounding Epiphone semi-hollow body.    I think we sounded pretty good for most of the night, sustaining ourselves through the 12:00 midnight witching hour.  We played a full Dylan first set and went back to the Dead for the second set yet throwing in a few more appropriate Dylan songs.  For as many Dylan songs that we found to do, we could have done so many more.  It shows how prolific of a songwriter he really is.

I thought I was playing well through the night with several leads feeling like I was taking it to the next level.  Hopefully up.  We had a few structural clunky moments, Times They are a Changing and I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight but most of the Dylan stuff was rewarding.  Unlike the Beatles songs we now do, those Dylan songs are pretty long and we didn’t even do a Joey.

As far as guests, we only had Scott Bayer and he may not be coming back as we had to put the k-bash on his bongo playing.  Hopefully he can recoup the investment he made in his percussion setup, but enough was enough and hopefully that will be the end of his bongo-ing.  That was the only neg of the the night, the rest of it was full of pos.  From now on, all you can eat.  Yoink!

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/05-24-11/

Jam -2011-05-18 – Carroll’s

19 May 2011 5 Comments

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

It’s has been raining all week and the heavy rains were ending as I was driving into Deadastein on this Wednesday night. While New Jersey was wet, it was without traffic.  Manhattan was the opposite, it was dry and crowded.  It took me about 30 minutes to get from 42nd Street to Carroll’s on 55th.  Some of the worst traffic I have experienced on the West Side since playing at Carroll’s.  At least parking was close.

All these issues may have been a precursor for what was coming.  Scott left his water at home and he was worrying all night that he would need a jump-start because his starter was acting up.  Fortunately for Scott his car stared at the end of the night.  Unfortunately for me, on the way home I got through the Lincoln Tunnel and on the helix I hit a whopper of a pothole, it flattened my passenger tire instantly.  I rolled off the helix and found a street light to park the car under and changed the tire.  No big deal, it wasn’t raining too badly and I was off in 20 minutes.  Nevertheless, the jolt was major and got me home pretty late.

Back to the fun.  While I got there a little late we got going and had a very good long jam.  Some interesting  stuff and pretty good sounding.  Rich was getting over a cold, so he was a head-case but the rest of us seem to feel OK.  I’m mean Scott was hurting but that was normal.  He was more pissed that his iPad couldn’t connect to Carroll’s wifi, while mine worked fine.

We opened with a Dupress and it got us off in a good fashion, it shaped the evening ahead of us as being relaxed and capable. We sustained our energy nicely through the end of the night.

Speaking of which, it was weird that we finished the Throwing Stones at 11:56 at the end of the night and I launched us into an Other One, which I knew we didn’t have time for, and rocked it with a loud feedback fade out into We Bid You Goodnight. That was interesting for being after 12:00.

The second set opened nicely with a Wheel –> Here Comes Sunshine with a nice natural transition.  This transitioned  into Viola Lee where Alan moved us into a Cumberalnd between the 2nd and 3rd verse and we all followed.  Knowing we had a little Viola Lee to finish, I brought us back into the Viola Lee during the 2nd lead Cumberland and then brought us back into the Cumberland, where we left it, to finish out this song melange.  Pretty cool.

After that Scott Bayer, the only guest of the night, came in and paid his $10to play 4 songs with us on his bongo.  It was for this reason I decided to play 4 quick Beatles songs which were fun to do.  I like the harmonica on Love Me Do.  Can’t wait to hear the MP3s which are avaialable at the links below:

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/05-18-11/

Jam – 2011-05-12 – Carroll’s

13 May 2011 5 Comments

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

With Scott at the Warren Haynes show with my brother Jay at the Beacon, we were able to wrestle Coffee-Boy to come back and play a week with us.  He was feeling good as he had recently setup his kit in his house and has been playing a bit.  Not as much ferrous oxide on those sticks as the last time and it showed.

We had a few glitches to start the night.  While parking was good, when we got to the lobby of Carroll’s the elevator was shit out of order.  That means six long hard flights up to Carroll’s hauling my guitar crap all the way up.  After a couple of weeks of non-stop bike commuting, my thighs were burning hauling that crap up the stairs.  I guess I was doing better than Alan because I caught him resting somewhere around the 4th floor before getting psyched for the final climb to six.

When we got there things were good, after getting them to fix the one bad channel in the PA, it all seemed to work and sound good.  I thought were were playing pretty well all of us.  More relaxed than I would have expected, and tat was a good thing.  Hopefully Coffee-Boy gets his juices flowing from all the good stuff that happens.

We had Coffee select most of the songs for the night and I like the selection.  Fifteen songs seems weak in comparison to the previous several weeks where we used the setlists and achieved great numbers, so there is something to be said for that. I’ll be excited to hear this weak, hopefully our recording issue is resolved, I’ll know as soon as I click on one of the MP3s.

To hear the MP3s, take a stab at the links below:

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/05-12-11/

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