Jam – 2011-02-10 – Carroll’s

12 Feb 2011 3 Comments

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

The first week in February showed no mercy on the cold front as ice and snow still dominate the landscape.  Fortunately, there was nothing going on at Terminal 5 so we were able to get the good parking spots for an easy entry into Carroll’s.  Scott, Rich, Kevin and I all arrived at the same time.  We were playing in one of the larger studios and our caring little Carroll’s techie hooked Rich up with his own monitor this week.  I’m sure that made a big difference to Rich’s take on the situation.

Fettuccine Alfredo Wikler, was having trouble with his delay and the spaghetti that was his effects setup so he eventually yanked the delay out of the loop.  Also joining us was Jeff Blues or Chocolate Boy wielding two leather guitar gig bags toting an ES-335 and a 63 Strat that was beat up and played like nothing else.  I was able to check it out during the Birdsong.  One word that would describe the experience to me was, “intimate,”  and that may have been solely based on his recently refretted neck which wasn’t original so who knows? There were no other guests that showed up during the night.  Just us chickens.

Alan suggested the China Cat –> Hey Pocky Way which is a great alternate to Rider since we don’t do it well and typically drags, so that was cool and unusual.  Speaking of dragging, we played the Cumberland for the second week in a row and tried to keep it peppie.  Likewise, the Big River was also a better than usual attempt.  Can’t say the same about the Terrapin, which with all its rust could get out of the box, the lateness of the night may have had something to do with it.  Kind of the same thing with the Music.  Still it’s nothing to revolt over since there are bigger fish to fry.

In the world, the Egyptian Revolution just about turned a corner this week so what is to transpire is still a well connect Grateful Dead mystery.

To hear what went on in our little corner of the globe go to:

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/02-10-11/

Jam – 2011-02-01 – Carroll’s

04 Feb 2011 1 Comment

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

Deadstein was back together on this Wednesday night for a full and ordinary night of Deadstein.  While ordinary for Deadstein, the normality of it all gave resulted in a really nice jam, as it should.  Kevin got his dream bass rig, with a dedicated amp for the sub with a simple high pass filter switch on it.  The remaining highs were sent to the Roland and it was low and powerful.  Thank G-d for that new tech we have in the room, he’s looking after us!

There was a giant ice storm in the country and our area the day before so it was questionable whether the jam would take place or pushed to Thursday.  The storm was a serious morning event, but by the afternoon, the sun came out it warmed up and Deadstein was on.  The roads were not a problem and didn’t freeze up on the way home either.

The night’s music can be described as a Grateful Dead sandwich on very thin Beatles toast, with a whole lot of cheese.  It was fun to be playing Jerry again after last weeks jam with Jason when I played Bob.  I’ve been practicing a lot at home recently being stuck at home with all the snow, but I hadn’t done anything between last week and this week.  It didn’t seem to matter as I felt pretty fresh and relatively competent.  The Taxman –> Aiko transition could have been good if I communicated it to anyone.  In the Minglewood I ad-libbed a little about the Egyptian revolution which was in full force during the times of our jam.  We lost a lot of energy by the time the midnight hour rolled around but there was plenty of good stuff in between.  And that’s what she said.

To hear what we played for the night go to the links below.

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

Jam – 2011-01-27 – Carroll’s

30 Jan 2011 1 Comment

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

The Return of Jason It sounds like a horror show but it was anything but a horror show.  We haven’t played with Jason for over a year,     but with Alan enjoying the sunshine of the Caribbean, it gave us an opportunity to plug him into his Jerry slot.  More importantly, it threw me back into my more natural Bobby slot from which I took the opportunity to break out the Heritage Hollow-Body and emulate that Early 1970’s sound and feel.  I liked the sound of the clean Hertage throughout the night.

We had some great jams the five of us.  The Same Thing strayed  from our late Dead manner of playing the song to more of the late 60’s way of playing.  This included a jam in the middle of the song instead of a lead.  That was pretty good.  We only captured half the night and I recall also playing the Help –> Fire but we also played several additional songs that I do not recall.  If any one remembers any of the additional songs, speak it up, before it leaves our existence forever.

To hear what we did for the first half of the night go to the links below:

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/01-27-11/

Jam – 2011-01-17 – Carroll’s

20 Jan 2011 2 Comments

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

Another Monday night jam for Deadstein meant no traffic in or out of the city, but it did mean a long week to endure after an exhausting night of Deadstein.  The night  was made even more difficult by the beautiful, large-flake snowfall on the drive home.  I beat any issues with the snow on the ground by about an hour and therefore the snow was a nice groovy experience to enjoy on the way home; thinking about what just happened at Deadstein.

Trister was in for the first half of the jam this week so we got a good set in with him before he left leaving the Grateful Dead duties to the five of us.  It was fun with Trister and it was fun without him.  The key to it all is it is fun.

I had been playing and practicing a bit with my iTunes at home, focusing on primarily 1977 music, but it also steered me into playing the Here Comes Sunshine openers as well as the Easy Wind.  I had the mojo of the Here Comes Sunshine in my bones, but the Easy Wind I couldn’t catch on to.  The Passenger, Looks Like Rain and Scarlet were all fresh in me an I finally learned the Jerry parts of the Scarlet and this version felt pretty good.

To listen to any of the music from the night go to the links below:

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/01-17-11/

 

Jam – 2011-01-10 – Carroll’s

12 Jan 2011 1 Comment

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

This was a fun week of Deadstein as we played Monday night in an attempt to preempt the snow that was coming on Wednesday.  It turned out to be a good idea.  There was little traffic outside and parking was ample.  We did have a complaint about our feedback, not our fault, so we tried to go mellow for a while until those freak left the building.  We started with the Friend of the Devil and that seemed to take the legs out from under us.

The only guest we had for the night was Scott Bayer and Carol on the cell phone.  I think she was there to hear our little crazy tune Rich called Gindspace and Winklertronics which was the debut of my iPad and an app called Rebirth taking up some crazy, wacky drum duties.  Kevin said it sounded like Devo rhythms.  This driving drum beat follwed some loco space played by Alan.  Interesting stuff at times.

We played the out-of-space Dark Star drum-less  and gained our momentum once again going into the Uncle Johns.  It’s funny how you can use a Dark Star to get your bearings.  Who would figure such a cool juxtaposition in the cosmic realm of the Grateful Dead?  We had the few fun Beatles attempts once again.  This is really fresh in Scott’s psyche so it’s good to play these things.  I also recall the Black Peter being especially nice.  That’s why you go to every show and try every song.  If you want to check any of it out, see the links below.

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/01-10-11/

Jam – 2011-01-05 – Carroll’s

08 Jan 2011 1 Comment

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

Setting us up for the jam at Carrroll's

First jam of the year had Larry Brent joining us for a reunion type of jam playing most of the Jerry leads, though I stepped in for a few. It’s fun to get back to playing Bob guitar every now and then, I feel so much more comfortable and confident with it than trying to hold things together playing Jerry leads.  I think for the most part we played really well as a band. Scott was in real pain playing drums, but that seemed to focus him into some real tight nice grooves. For instance, we were able to play the It’s All Over Now at a quick, consistent pace. We had a few nice surprises like that. Additionally, we sounded pretty good as a band playing and churning through lots of songs with confidence. Before Larry showed up we played a While My Guitar Gently Weeps as a quartet and then did the NFA –> Going Down the Road –> NFA to begin the Dead segment for the night. Too bad Rich didn’t capture this stuff because that first Beatles song was pretty good, at least from my perspective. I do recall Kevin having no concept of how to play and groove the NFA at the time, but he quickly brushed that cob-web off and had a pretty good night, all the way though the end of the night.

Speaking of the end of the night, Scott’s neck and back finally wore out by 11:45 so I stepped in to play the closing Box of Rain on drums which is always fun for me.  We can only pray for Scott that the pain in the neck goes away somehow, sometime soon.  As far as guest we had our long-time buddy Michael show up to listen to the end of the night and he came with his bud, Doug and some of his other entourage.  Fortunately, this week everything was under control and there was no collateral damage as far as we can tell.

To listen to some of the music from the jam go to the links below (thanks to Rich for taking care of the recordings):

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/01-05-11/

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