Jam – 2011-03-23 – Carroll’s

24 Mar 2011 8 Comments

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

Spring is here and so is the snow, but it wasn’t falling hard enough to stop the train wreck we call Deadstein.  We got there kind of early, got into some iPad based Youtube jams through the PA, how things have changed in 20 years.  While listening to a Dancing in the Streets we somehow got inspired and pulled into playing it right out of YouTube version.  It was Furthur I believe.  It was a good technique to get us going for the rest of the night’s music.  We didn’t have a set-list or a plan this week, so that stalled us a bit.  I think I’m going to try to walk into every jam with a strategy from here on to keep us focused and moving in a positive direction.

Alan walked into the studio during the end of Dancing in the Streets and we were set to go on for the rest of the night. We worked a tad on the Wake Up Little Susie this week, which we introduced last week, and that was a nice surprise. We did the same thing with the entire Terrapin Suite and that also showed some improvement and level of comfort. The Terrapin was a big end to the first set that included a big Let It Grow into the Terrapin.

Always tough to get the same results in the second set after pooping out after the first.  In any case, we played with tenacity all the way through midnight.  Trying to keep the song selection short and fast.

May be it was the never ending mouth of Scott Bayer that showed up at 11:30 to play his new beaded coconut, or what ever he has, that kept us going through the finish line.  One thing he did have was a big bag of Bachman’s popcorn which was a major distraction toward the end of the night.  Let us not forget the Tequila and limes Scott brought and the large value cookies now available in the vending machines.  In the world of Deadstein, these are high value benefits.

To listen to the music that we made on this night go to the MP3 links below:

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/03-23-11/

 

Until we freak again.

Jam -2011-03-16 – Carroll’s

17 Mar 2011 3 Comments

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

With the Allmans, Furthur and Langfest in town, Scott decided to skip a week with Deadstein.  This gave us the opportunity to put Coffee on the throne.  He hadn’t played with us since August and he said he hadn’t played drums since that time either.  Too bad, because I was gonna need him for the challenge of the night, which was playing the Terrapin Station in it’s album version format.  The part that includes the At a Siding segment with all the drums and everything.  This was Deadstein’s 1st attempt at this and Coffee was there to do it with us.

Before that all started, and as a way to commemorate the passing of Owsley this week, we played Bear’s Choice in it’s entirety to start the night.  Rich sang the Katie Mae to get us going and we did a nice Wake Up Little Susie, which I also newly charted out like the At a Siding in preparation for the jam.  It’s good that we now have those two new songs under our belts or at least in our quivers.  I thought we did the album justice.  Alan played the harp at the appropriate places and the whole experience had an authentic feel including the ways we did the Peter, Smokestack and Hard To Handle.

The Terrapin was also as good as I could have expected.  There is a lot of tough stuff going on, and just a lot of stuff but the whole big Terrapin Experience has been expanded in a big was and for the better.  We also played lots of big songs and the night continued including the Single versions of Shakedown, Scarlet, Help On the Way. The big Garband songs included the Lucky Old Sun and Rhapsody in Red.  For the second week in a row we had the energy and will to play well past the 12:00 quiting hour.  It’s a good sign, a good sign we are playing well, having fun and don’t want to quit.  Coffee don’t make it 6 months to get back in the throne.

To Listen to the MP#s from the music from this jam go to the links below:

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/03-16-11/

 

Jam -2011-03-09 – Carroll’s

12 Mar 2011 2 Comments

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

It was Wednesday night in the big studio at Carroll’s and we had more than our typical crew of 5.  This night we had Larry Brent join us and an additional entourage of other folks thatat least they seemed to really dig the music at times.  There is always a saving grace as well as a strong, positive energy in the room.

It being March 9, 2011 in New York City I was leading the charge to commemorate the jam for being the 30th anniversary of the 3/9/81 show from Madison Square Garden.  That was an epic show on tape in that Jerry’s guitar and attitude were so over-driven that many of the leads from that concert remain some of my all time favorites.  They include the Stranger, Althea, CC Rider, Minglewood and I Know Rider. The links to the MP3s from this show on http://www.archive.org are provided blow from the following link: http://www.archive.org/details/gd1981-03-09.nak700.glassberg.wise.328.shnf.  Check out some of these great moments from Jerry rocking New York City.

3-9-81 MSG, NY VBR MP3
Stranger 14.2 MB
Althea-> 10.8 MB
CC Rider 15.0 MB
Ramble On Rose-> 10.5 MB
El Paso 8.5 MB
Deep Elem 9.7 MB
BIODTL 5.7 MB
Bird Song 16.9 MB
Minglewood 10.2 MB
China -> Rider-> 24.3 MB
Samson 12.9 MB
Ship of Fools 11.7 MB
Estimated Prophet-> 20.1 MB
Uncle John’s Band-> 16.3 MB
Drums-> 13.5 MB
Space> 10.4 MB
The Other One-> 10.9 MB
Stella Blue-> 14.0 MB
Good Lovin’, 9.5 MB
E: U.S. Blues 7.3 MB

While Deadstein obviously cannot compared to the Grateful Dead, and placing the links above is just going to over-shadow our playing, we made a nice run at the show.  Scott was more alive  than usual and survived  the entire jam with a few fumes left in in his tank at the end of the night.  It was a great use of resources.  Having a predefined setlist pushes us through the night with much less wasted time.  I find that hard to believe.  In any case, we finished the first set by 9:30 and played a few fillers before embarking on set number 2.  We played several gozintas, it’s origin is a Spanish fruit, in the first set which was part of putting the pedal to the metal?  At other times, we took advantage of the links at http://www.archive.org from 3-9-81 and listen to the real version, setting a tempo and transitioning into the jam/song from the sample.  That was quite helpful.

All in all it was really a fun filled night, lots of music and lots of energy.  It wasn’t the type of jam that you wanted to end and as such, we played a good 15 minutes past the midnight hour.  I was promised a U.S. Blues encore, to complete the setlist, and I got it after the Playing in the Band that was started just before midnight.  Who starts a Playing in the Band just before midnight, a charged-up Deadstein, that’s who.  To check Deadstein out and our MP3s, go to the links below.  That’s why you go to every show, cause you never know when the earthquake is gonna hit and when you survive it and life looks like it’s on easy street the tsunami’s at your door; so pick up your guitars and play, we don’t know how lucky we are!!!

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/03-09-11/

 

Jam -2011-03-01 – Carroll’s

05 Mar 2011 4 Comments

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

We jammed last Tuesday night and it isn’t until Saturday morning when I finally get around to write this post.  If it was Tuesday night, immediately after the jam that I wrote this posting , it would have been a blur.  If I waited until Wednesday to write the posting, it would have been a dizzy-blur.  Being Saturday morning, almost 4 days after the jam, the memories of it are only memories as the blur of the jam has been wiped off the screen.  Thank goodness for Rich’s work in recording the goings-on, or the jams would just vanish into nothing more than scheduled items in an old calendar.

By the way, the graphic was quickly created using Google SketchUp, 3D modeling for everyone.  It’s free, fun and kind of easy and has a lot of cool potential.  Check it out if you care, another great free product provided by our not-so-evil and creepy friends at Google. (http://sketchup.google.com/)

In one of the large studio we had a standard setup this week, the Dead and Alive-5, I don’t think that going have any legs. We only had one guest, Scott Bayer; and a Bayer is what you need after hearing his bongo playing.  Some how we have to manage to pull the plug on that thing.  Not that I should be one to talk. in that I had real troubles getting comfortable this week and don’t feel as if it was one of my better efforts.  The good thing  is that even having a bad effort is an effort and a good one at that.  Sometimes your good efforts are effortless and not an effort at all, and what good is that? – Zenstein.

There was a full percussion section placed on the side so I took hold of a nice pair of maracas and that got us going into a long spacey Dark Star; one in which I did don my guitar for a good 10 minutes into it as I was enjoying banging on a wide variety of vibraXylophonic types of instruments.  Alan was particularly interested in the work we did on the Cassidy finding that to be an extraordinary endeavorer in the human condition.  One thing you can say about Deadstein is is at least an adventure.  Sometimes you can take the highway and get there fast and easy or you can four-wheel it through the desert and you come to realize it wasn’t the destination but the journey that was the trip – Zenstein.

To hear what we did go to the links below:

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/03-01-11/

Jam -2011-02-22 – Carroll’s

24 Feb 2011 1 Comment

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

On a night that Trey A. was playing next door to us at Terminal-5, Deadstein-5 rocked Carroll’s on 6 on 55-08633.  While parking was at a premium, song selection wasn’t.  Rich came into the jam pulling a printed setlist out of his a$$ so we decided to play what was on the paper.  It appeared as if the setlist was from a couple of years ago when Trister played with us and planned out the night with Kevin before hand, enabling Kevin to print out a list.

It almost appeared as if the night was doomed for failure.  The PA system had gremlins in it and it took us 4 attempts at the first song, Let the Good Times Roll, and 2 PA systems to get that under our belt.  Eventually the “I get no respect” Mackie got us through the night without an issue.  From this technical difficulty, we let the setlist steer us to the end of the night.  It was positive, guidance to say the least.

Many of the songs of the night came from the 80’s and 90’s era of the Grateful Dead, so the were a bit unfamiliar Alan, and many I hadn’t try to play from a Jerry perspective.  This presented itself as a challenge, but I think we played confidently enough to work our way through these waters with much more ease than we expected.  All the anticipated difficult moments seem to fly past us before we could mess them up too badly.  It was a fun and rewarding experience.  I found the Shakedown and Estimated particularly relaxing.

The presence of the setlist got us through a night’s worth of music with time to spare, much to the agony of Scott but he and Kevin were going pretty strong.  We threw together a few non-Dead songs to close the night, made a mockery and travesty of them all, but had a great time doing it.

To hear what we did, go to the Rich recordings below:

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/02-22-11/

Jam – 2011-02-16 – Carroll’s

17 Feb 2011 1 Comment

by deadstein in Jams Tags: , , , , ,

With a last minute cancellation from Alan, Deadstein was down with Core-4 all night long.  That is with the exception of when Scott Bayer showed up with his bongo.  Then it was Core-4 with the annoying guy with the bongo.  Short of that, and I do mean “that,” we had no guests.

It felt physically tough jamming with just us four.  We did a Reuben & Cherise and that took its toll on all our arms.  Maybe not Rich’s.  Having the Core-4 we decided to do focus on some Garband to start.  The Tore Up opener was solid but I have to say I never felt totally comfortable during the entire jam.  I remember being a little disheartened at the Hard to Handle and my inability to perform.  I did get the Lucky Old Sun in early in the night when I had people focus.  It was ehhh.

We took a long break at the vending machines between sets and getting motivated for the second set was difficult.  I think I finally woke Scotty up and he finished strong but Kevy ended on the floor, TKO.  To bad because the Shady Grove that initially knocked him out was going nicely and he was there for the taking if he wanted to take a part of it.  The Crazy Love to finish the night was one Kevin wasn’t getting off the canvas for.

We had a small Beatles segment in it including a rare I Want to tell You and the When My Guitar Gently Weeps.  They were a little satisfying as well as disappointing.  On the Highlight reel were the That’s All Right Mama which we got the lyrics for on the iPad.

For the second set I decided to sit on a chair in an effort to keep a close eye on the inevitably fading rhythm section.   In addition I tried to get back to some Grateful Dead that kept going.  This included the Uncle John’s –> Wheel –> Miracle –> Bertha combo.  That was OK but the Bertha became an endurance battle but it was a good segment.

To hear the music we played go to the following links:

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/02-16-11/

 

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