Jam – 2011-12-19 – Carroll’s

21 Dec 2011 3 Comments

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

It being holiday season and all, it is difficult to synchronize our schedules to get jams in but we were able to coordinate on an early-in-the-week Monday.  This meant little time between the last week’s jam and this week’s but a quick jam is certainly better than no jam at all.  With that said, we were able to get all five of us together to pull off the Deadstein experience.

Kevin quickly blew out the Fender high-end portion of his amplifier system and replaced it with a Vox combo – seen to the right.  It then gave him no problems for the rest of the night.  Scott was also really digging the sound of his drum kit.  Alan and I had our normal Twin reverbs though mine by the end of the night was giving off some micro-tubular whinings to the point that I had to swap it out for a fresh amp.  You see, it is not just our minds and body’s that can’t make it through these marathon jams, but it is the equipment that struggles also.

About five songs into the first set our only guests for the night appeared who were Rob, Miriam and a new comer, David Firestone, I believe his name-tag said.  Miriam was sporting an over-the-top fragrance that over-took the fragrance of the room to the point that I commented that it smelled like a Bar Mitzvah in the room, for whatever that meant.  This was not a normal smell for Deadstein with all its femininity and all.

Since we have been basking in the glory of the 12-5-71 tribute jam we played two weeks ago by playing a large bunch of short songs last week, I decided this week I would once again take an opposite approach.  This was to start the night with a bunch of spacier songs.  This would get our space songs played while we still had energy and enthusiasm to play them as well as keeping us playing at the beginning of the night in big chunks so we didn’t take so many breaks.   I figured this may pay dividends later on in the evening.  It is hard to say if it worked because both Scott and Alan were having trouble getting through the finish line.  As a matter of fact, we played an Attics of My Life as a finishing line move up to make it easier on Scott.  Alan was already packed and ready to go by then.  I have to say, Kevin was going strong at that moment though and we ended up doing a pretty cool 3 piece Attics.   Maybe an Eyes –> Estimated –> Don’t Let Go bast-off opener is just a little too much to recover from, but it was a fun start nevertheless.

One jam to go for 2011.  2012 should have some fun weeks as I relive some of the 30-year anniversary jams that will occur commemorating some of those great 1982 shows that are so near and dear to my heart.  Happy Hanukkah to all and my you have miraculous unlimited oil for your candles.

While out song-count didn’t go past 20 like the previous two week, we managed 16 strong ones.  If you want to give them a listen, please use the links below.

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/12-19-11/

Jam – 2011-12-13 – Carroll’s

15 Dec 2011 1 Comment

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

This Tuesday jam was kind of a surprise to me as I thought we were to play on Wednesday.  Therefore, it was a shock to me that I received a text from Kevin at 5:30 on Tuesday while sitting the Macho Nacho in Morristown waiting for my chimichanga to be cooked that said, “no food tonight, thx.”  I immediately called Kevin and confirmed that the jam was in a few hours and I wasn’t close to being mentally, physically or temporally close to being ready for this jam.

I got my food, went home a stuffed it down my gullet in about 10 minutes and was on my way in to Deadstein.  Amazingly enough, there was little traffic and I arrived about 40 minutes ahead of schedule.

Going into the jam we didn’t have a theme for it but we were still basking in the glow of last weeks 12-5 commemorative jam and some how the week’s theme  morphed into a bizzarro tribute to last weeks jam.  We decided to play songs that were more modern equivalents to last week’s setlist. For instance, instead of a Bertha opener we did a Touch of Grey and instead of closing the first set with One More Saturday Night, we closed with Don’t ease Me In.  This concept kept up going for much of the night and we ended playing a way above average 24 songs for the night.

By the middle of the second set, Scott’s long rock and roll weekend was catching up to him and he was having trouble keeping his eyes open and his arms up.  I decided to give him a break and played drums for 4 songs toward the end of the night. Scott finished on the final two Beatles songs that we played though Alan didn’t make it through those.

There were no guests for the night but there was surprisingly enough, another Dead cover-band in the studio next to ours. Alan knew a few of them and said hello to them and there was even rumors, or hopes from some, that a few members may come over after their short practice jam and play with us for a song or two.  That never materialized and the closest it came was a cute girl poking her head into the room saying she had a train to catch.  I guess she gave us a listen from the hallway before committing to trying to harmonize with any of us.  It was probably more of our loss than hers, so she probably made the right move.  The final few 2011 jam are upon us,so let’s make ’em count.

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/12-13-11/

Jam – 2011-12-05 – Carroll’s

06 Dec 2011 4 Comments

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

40 years ago today about 25 blocks south of where we were playing Grateful Dead had one of their more historic nights. Commemorating that, Deadstein decided to try to take on the entire set list from the famous Grateful Dead show, December 5, 1971 Felt Forum New York City just under Madison Square Garden the world’s most famous arena.

It was a monumental Grateful Dead show and trying to play it would be wild. Knowing what we were going to play you gives me the opportunity to listen to the show and I practice it up during previous day. I change the strings on my guitar use my Stratocaster and I was ready to go. I kept the band on a vigorous pace keeping us going song to song not letting us waste too much time in between. This gave us some hope of accomplishing the entire set list we have before us.

We finished the first set which contained all a lot of songs right on schedule, maybe even a little ahead of schedule . During the break are only two guests of the night came in. They were Ryan and Meredith I believe that was her name. They spoke a lot but they seem to dig our scene and I think that was a good thing. For our second set could have been a miserable trip to the trenches of the dark oblivion but I think having a few guests in the room helped us stay inspired and focused. Subsequently, we were able to keep moving through the set list and before we know it we were on the home stretch.

In many respects we played all this music as authentically as we could with a 1971 feeling to it all. I do like the concept of knowing a set list and a time frame and sticking to it. This gives me something to really try to focus on with respect to my playing and my mindset.

It was a great Grateful Dead show and the power and the vibe from that show seem to really carry us through the evening at least it did with me. The show was special and we had a few special songs and moments in the ways that we played the songs. I convinced everyone that the key of G was wrong for both the I wash my hands as well as the Mr. Charlie and therefore we played them in a played them correctly and they were really good. There were lots of those Pigpen songs that required the harmonica and Alan was there for those authentic sounds also. It was good stuff that December 5, 1971 Felt Forum Grateful Dead show and it was good stuff for us playing the same songs on December 5, 2011 exactly 40 years to the date. This show and that day will live in infamy.

So as we begin to close out a another year of Deadstein we will see what 2012 has for us.  I suspect is probably more of the same which is a good thing so stay tuned and get prepared for a few more weeks of 2011 as we work our way through the winter of 2012 and go on on on on and on.

To hear any of this setlist go to the links below:

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

Jam – 2011-11-30 – Carroll’s

04 Dec 2011 Leave a comment

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

This Wednesday night at Deadstein we were supposed to fight the lighting of the Christmas Tree in Rockefeller Plaza.  Trister, who was planning to jam with us, was about to abort, but Scott’s wise advice was to stay on the west side and Trister heeded it.  As a result, traffic and parking was not an issue and we got there in plenty of time. We played with Andy for the first two-thirds of the jam.

When jamming with a great resource like Andy you don’t want to waste any opportunities, so I decided to start the night with a jammy beginning to get us going before we can begin to doubt ourselves.  I think the Uncle Johns –> Playing  –>Uncle Johns sent us toward this direction.  Andy tried to reverse the ship with the Rosa Lee McFall, but Deadstein would have nothing of it.  After almost being deep-sixed after a couple of false starts,  Andy pointed out a structural issue in the song write-up we agreed and thereafter we were good to go.   It was one of those situations where communication within Deadstein actually worked.

We started the Tristerless portion of the jam around 11pm.  We wanted to try our quick in-and-out- song strategy to keep us moving toward the end of the night so the Beat It on Down the Line on 11 at 11 was the choice.  Being the last day and hours in November (11) in 2011 we decided to keep the eleven theme going.  This resulted in a very rust attempt at the St. Stephen –> Eleven but a cool trip nevertheless.  Midnight Hour should have been the closer at about 12 but I could afford the risk of losing momentum at that moment by having anyone turn a page in the book so I opted for the Not Fade Away to Close.  A good evening of Deadstein and we made it up to the finish-line better than we had in the previous several week, so that was a good thing.

Next week we play on Monday and fight traffic and parking that is going to be brought on by Snoop-Dog playing at Terminal 5.  Being December 12/52011, it will be the 40th anniversary of the Dead playing down the street at the Felt Forum, one of the great shows of all time.  That is going to be out focus for then.

In the meantime, if you ant to hear what we did this night listen to the MP3s provided below:

 

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

Jam – 2011-11-21 – Carroll’s

22 Nov 2011 3 Comments

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

it was a Monday night jam the week of Thanksgiving thereby predicating the Monday night jam. I thought I would be done with this Siri type of dictator posting of the blog but sitting here in traffic on Route 3 made me want to say something.

When I walked into the studio undenounced to me Larry Brent was standing there ready to play. I found out Alan was on vacation and thereby it was Larry and we had a pretty good jam for old time sake. As usual, the beginning of the jam was much better then the end of the jam. We ran out of steam like is cheap locomotive by the end of the night but that’s not to diminish somebody better moments we had earlier on.

Four instance, I think the pretty Peggio was a very nice rendition that showed some real taste. Additionally, the Picasso Moon also was one of our better versions of that song.

then came the end of the night or the so-called second set there we ran into the brick wall that we often do. Scott was zoned down no matter what we tried to do to keep him alive but eventually he had to cave. I tried to give him a reprieve by playing drums for two or three songs which was fun but the song Sweet shows were pretty difficult including the house we did is and Mission in the rain. Somehow we ended the night with a pretty big Terrapin station which we did finish so all that said and done we were done.

So we are wishing everyone a very happy Thanksgiving and look forward to the few jams we could squeeze in in the very busy crowded holiday season so with that wishing everyone more Yindi and then you want.

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

Jam – 2011-11-16 – Carroll’s

18 Nov 2011 3 Comments

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

I am trying iPhone – Siri dictation once again for this week’s posting. Let’s see how it goes and see how Siri and I are working together once again this week.

I just look back on the first paragraph and it looked pretty darn good. And on with the posting. We were fortunate enough to be back in town rolls this week with the entire band in tow. Right from the get-go we had some issues with the PA system. The speaker to my right was barely audible and it made a ghostly sound with respect to trying to pick up both riches keyboard as well as the vocals.

after three or four songs we finally call Alan the tech in to rectify the situation. In the end he gave us a feed from the monitor that was next to Scott’s drum kit. This works really well in the sand was good for the rest of the night.

sadly, I was struggling all evening coordinating my right hand and its ability to hit the strings. I had an atrocious night from that perspective of in accurate picking while playing my guitar. Totally I felt pretty good it was just my right hand was just missing all the strings I think I was even thinking well and clearly for most of the night but I knew from the beginning it was going to be a difficult evening. I kept sliding away though trying not to give into the inevitable shadiness of my plane and I got it going through the night it wasn’t terrible but it was just one of those nights that you knew it wasn’t going to be one of those nights even though it was one of those nights.

I got to say we will look for check for much of the second half of the jam. We only made it to 1155 and even that wasn’t easy. As far as guests go we only had the one and only very annoying Scott bear. I was trying my best to get him to stop playing the bongos during the midnight Moonlight. I was having enough trouble just trying to get a tempo going myself and to hear him in the back my head while I was trying get the song started was just more than I could bear, pardon the pun.

Well that’s about it we have one more jam before Thanksgiving which should happen on Monday night so let’s hope it goes better. In the meantime, if you dare listen to kthe MP3 below:

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

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