Jam – 2011-05-03 – Carroll’s

04 May 2011 8 Comments

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

Jerry 5-3-87

We seemed to get to Carroll’s early on this jam night as there was no traffic and no show at Terminal-5 so we got good spots and were set for a jam.  Being May 3 we decided to try another anniversary show, and this week’s tribute was to 1977 and the long Palladium show that happened 34 years ago.

We had an epic setlist to get through in 4 hours and we rushed through it a bit to achieve its completeness, but some how we finished the Uncle John’s Band encore as the clock turned 12.  It was quite an accomplishment for us.  It took a few songs to tune in the PA system but once we got it we sounded pretty good.

Scott was alert and consistent and it helped us stay steady and easy through out the night.  Lazy Lightning took a few leaps forward on this night.  Speaking of Lazy Lightning, this show we were playing was filled with many giant songs so it really was quite a big evening of music.  We moved Rich’s MP3 recorder to see if we could get  a sound out of it that wasn’t so over-loaded, so when the MP3s come out we shall see or hear.

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/05-03-11/

In the end the MP3s sound good.

In the world, this is the week the U.S. hunted down and killed Osama Bin Laden, almost 10 years after  the 9-11 attacks.

Jam – 2011-04-27 – Carroll’s

30 Apr 2011 2 Comments

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

In honor of the 40th anniversary of the great 4-27-71 Fillmore East Dead show with the Beach Boys, we decided to try to replicate the Grateful Dead portion of the show.  It is a great long setlist and took a lot of persistence to get through, and through we got as we finished the show’s song list with room to spare, enabling us to play to additional song.  Unfortunately, Rich’s MP3 recorder was set  to high or the preamps we overwhlemed, but the MP3s came out filled with distortion.  To bad because we had some good moments.

As far as guests we had Marty Goodman playing keyboard, B3 sounds for the last two-thirds of the night.  His sounds we limited since his zip disk was on the fritz, I think Pigpen used a zip disk to get his sounds on the keys way back when, so you know it’s time for Marty to invest in a new storage medium.  Nevertheless, I jest and it was good to have Marty there that night, he has played with us at our two Short Hills gigs.

Though they are tough to listen to due to the overloaded distortion, the songs are available at the following locations.

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/04-27-11/

Jam – 2011-04-21 – Carroll’s

26 Apr 2011 1 Comment

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

For the first week in several weeks we didn’t have a setlist to play when we arrived and picked one out of the air as we played. It was good to be back in Carroll’s with the five of us. That’s right we also had Scott Bayer with his beaded gourd and desire to have a 10-minute telephone consultation with Scott on the fine art of drumming. If that conversation ever took place, I would be interested in how it went. We also had Rob and Miriam show up and one of their friends also hung out for a while. He seemed interested in buying Carroll’s. Let’s hope that never happens because Carroll’s is where it is at.

There was a little hamper on our night as a crowd of like 200 girls played in the studio next door and we could play too loud and upset them. Then after we all thought they were gone and we were free to let our proverbial hair done, at 11:15 came another bus-load. How did they get them all in the elevator?

Anyway, I am posting this on the Tuesday night, the night before we have our next jam just to make sure I get this thing posted. You never want to get behind on this stuff because you find yourself never ahead again.

I had an agenda coming into the jam to play the Help-Slip Franklins that I had been practicing for a week anticipation for the 4/12 Binghampton show that never materialized the week before. I also wanted to try the Lazy Lightning again which we are getting closer to doing well. Both were fair at best, but there were moments in the night, I’ll have to see if I can get to the MP3s before the next jam.

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/04-21-11/

Jam – 2011-04-14 – UltraSound

16 Apr 2011 1 Comment

by deadstein in Jams Tags: , , , , ,

Deadstein got a jam in this week when it looked like we were going to have to miss a week.  Since Carnegie Hall had Carroll’s reserved for the week and unavailable for us we had to find another place to play.  Additionally, it was difficult coordinating our schedules to find a day that was good for everyone and as such, Alan fell victim this week and was the odd man out.  This week would be Core-4 at Ultrasound on 30th Street between 9-12, only three hours.  Everything as a bid different this week and we made the best of it.

Early plans for this week were to play on Tuesday the 12th.  This would have been the 28th anniversary of the 4-12-1983 Binghamton show, a great show and Kevin’s first and my fifth. Since we ended up switching the jam to Thursday, which was the 14 and the 29th anniversary of the 4-14-82 Glenns Falls show, it over-ruled the Binghamton show and we had to play the Glenn’s Falls show.  This was my second show and arguable a better show than Binghamton even though the Binghamton show has a bigger and better setlist.  This worked well for us since we were restricted to only 3 hours in the study, and 3 tight, strict hours, not a minute more.  In some respects this switch was too bad because I had practiced the Binghamton during the wek especially trying to get the Help on the Way and Slipknot down from a Jerry perspective.  I spent a lot of time approaching getting the Slipknot under my belt and didn’t spend anytime on Lazy Lightning from 4-14 which needed some attention.  Not to fret, the Help on the Way work will pay dividends in te future and the Lazy Lighning we did had some ggood moments and felt better than it could have.

Being in UltraSound sound a lot of different things for us.  It meant a 9:00 start time and no time to hang out before hand.  I met Scott and Rich at Mustang Harry’s on 7th for dinner at 7:30 but we still finished early and hung out in the street with the other musician trash waiting for our time to come.  When we finally checked into Ultrasound, we had to wait for the band occupying our Studio 11 to finish, they were nerdier than we were, and we were forced to wait in the stairwell for a few minutes.  That wasn’t the worst thing as it gave us time to unwind because once we got going it felt like we were on a harried pace in an attempt to finish the entire 4-14-82 show in the 3-hour time slot.  When came within 1 minutes but got cut-off in the end.

The Studio itself was pretty nice.  The PA was strong and clean.  My amp was a Marshall and had a nice clean channel with a nice reverb that came pretty close to the Fender Twin Reverb I typically use.  I thought Kevin’s amp sounded good and Rich was using an electronic keyboard playing organ and electric piano sounds.  These were all nice changes.  The room was intimate, sterile yet facilitated our jam nicely.  One good point is it cost one-half of what Carroll’s costs us.  I even found a spot right in front.

To hear what we did in distorted MP3 format, go to the links below:

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/04-14-11/

Jam – 2011-04-06 – Carroll’s

08 Apr 2011 Leave a comment

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

This week was Deadstein’s ode to the 29th anniversary of one of my favorite shows; Philadelphia Spectrum, April 6, 1982, or 4-6-82 as we affectionately refer to it.  It’s been fun that we have played  several complete shows recently.  It’s an homage to some of the greatness the Grateful Dead provided us as well as a chance for us to reflect back at being at specific shows or listening to specific tapes.   Lots of good memories.

In my case, 4-6-82 was a set of high quality soundboard tapes my friend Bruce Levine somehow obtained just weeks after the show.  He was enrolled in University of Pennsylvania at the time, Brotpen’s alma mater, and stumbled upon the soundboards.  My first Dead show was the Nassau Coliseum, Easter Sunday 4-11-82, a week after the 4-6-82 Spectrum show,  so this tape was early in my Deadhead life and my first really high quality current board.  I grew to know this show like the back of my hand and some of the moments are classic.  They include the Shakedown jam with the keyboard/Jerry interchange and the post space from trucking through the Morning Dew, which still may be one of the best Dews ever!

We didn’t do the Dew quite justice but the Shakdedown was pretty cool.  I studied a bit of the show and write-ups for specific songs leading up to the jam.  The Cold Rain, Candyman and Sailor/Saint all have new updated PDF tabs associated with them.  Check them out below:

The Sailor Saint has been tough, and will probably always be tough, but hopefully the new writeup will be better for us.  The significance of the Candyman change is not stepping up chromatically between the and F and G throughout the song.  This actually isn’t reflected in the new tabs but is a good thing to remember. The tabs were just clarified a bit and helped us as we played.

Though we pooped out a bit toward the end of the night, we did the entire show with room for an additional song so it was a satisfying night.  There was a lot of good playing going on, especially in the first set.  The good thing about following a real set list is that it keeps you in focus and in your role so you can settle down and execute because for the most part, the songs are standards with an occasional one to keep you wanting to come back for more so you can do better; hello Sailor-Saint.

It looks like next week we maybe be playing Binghamton ’83,  Kevin’s first show so get that Help on the Way under your belt and look forward to another crack at the Sailor Saint.  Lots of good stuff from that show.  Until we freak again.

To hear the MP3s of what we played go to the following links:

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/04-06-11/

 

Jam – 2011-03-30 – Carroll’s

31 Mar 2011 3 Comments

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

A Wednesday night that was looking as if it would be Core-4 turned out to be a nice surprise when Larry Brent walked in pulling his brand new Fender Mustang modeling amp behind him.  With Larry jamming with us and Alan not available, it brought me back to my comfort zone of playing Bob all night.

With several of us, not me, fresh off a Furthur tour where the band celebrated the Beatles Abbey Road by playing the album,  we got energized to play the Medley after listening to Furthur’s version before we got going.  We did jam a little with it during the pre-jam hang out which was a big help when we tackled it for real.  We first warmed up with the Let the Good Times Roll and that got us ready for the Medley.  My new transcription in a 3-page PDF was also a big help, we were lucky we found so many copies of them.  It was kind of shocking how not sucky that was.

Doing that album side got us to jump into the next album side, which was the Terrapin Station with the entire at a siding jam.  We practiced that a bit beforehand which also helped when we got to it.  That was also pretty darn good.  It was good to have Larry there who new how to comprehend our attempt to get through that whole thing.  I also had a new transcription of this song.

We also played a three-man Wake Up Little Susie with my new write-up.  I played drums on a couple of songs.  We played the old-school, classic Deadstein Scarlet –> Estimated.  We kept our composure and stamina for the most part through the night so we had a whole big night of lots of great songs.  Good to play Bob, nice to play with LLB, the Beatles thing was a nice surprise and a lot more to come.  Who knows there may be more classic Deadstein to come, the scent of Dave Schwartz is wafting over the horizon.

To hear what we did, listen to the MP3s made on the little recorder plopped down in the room.

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/03-30-11/

 

Previous Older Entries Next Newer Entries