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 – 2011-01-05 – 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/

Jam – 2010-10-13 – Carroll’s

14 Oct 2010 4 Comments

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

This was a pretty momentous week of Deadstein as it celebrated the 20th anniversary of Deadstein’s first jam on October 9, 1990. For the occasion we had Larry Brent, Deadstein’s original lead guitarist, back in his lead seat. It really was a surrealistic experience playing with Larry again and thinking back to those jams now spanning two decades ago.

There were too many guests to name them all and probably the only ones I knew were Ken and Stu as well as Michael. We also had Jeff, who played with us last week play with us this week who came with his friend and connection to us, Peter. The rest of the peanut gallery was suspect and Alan probably picked the right week not to show. There was a lot of guitar going on and a lot of mischief. One off those assholes probably tore down part of the bathroom and will be a neg-black eyed on Deadstein’s steal your face.

I mentioned that Jeff was jamming with us and last week we geared our setlist toward his style. This week, celebrating the 20 years, we had no such mercy. We decided to play the entire setlist that we played 20 years ago which was big and meaty. Even when Rich asked for some mercy on the setlist for a You Win Again, I also had no mercy. I was determined to finish the setlist from 20 years ago. It took us until 12:15, but we did it all the way through the Going Down the Road. It was a good thing Russ was there to help out with the drums because I don’t think Scott would have made it all the way through on his own, but this week, Scott was going strong at the closing. It was a big night of music and scop only to end with the neg-scop of the bathroom incident. WTF.

To hear what we did this night, go to the links below:

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/10-13-10/

Anyway, look forward to another 20 years of jamming, the first 20 was a life saver and we will all need a life saver for the next 20. It all starts next week unless we have been kicked out of Carroll’s. Whose friend was that bozo

Jam -2010-04-28 – Carroll’s

29 Apr 2010 9 Comments

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

This was like an old timers jam for former Deadstein lead guitarists.  While we were expecting to jam with Andy Trister, as he was scheduled to play with us on this Wednesday night, but the real big surprise was the return of Larry Brent, the original Deadstein lead guitarist.  From my research, it appears as if early 2001 was the last time Larry had played with us.  This if after his long “Ihateus” or should I say “hiatus?”  It was quite an unexpected surprise and our four or five songs we played with Larry were all pretty good, especially considering he was playing with us for the last 45 minutes of the night, traditionally Deadstein’s weakest time.

With Alan playing rhythm over the past several months and me taking over the lead guitar role, I haven’t stepped into Bob’s shoes for quite some time.  I spent all night, with the exception of one or two leads, playing Bob guitar and to be honest with you, as much fun as the Jerry stuff has been, it was very refreshing to relax and do what I do best.  Playing last night seemed effortless to me as I was relaxed and confident in my approach.    Not only was the playing good with Larry B, it was also good during the Trister moments.  What’s not to like about the Deadstein experience?

Scott felt like the music was a bit stale and sterile at the beginning of the night and he felt it wasn’t until we played the Help->Slip-> Franklins that we seemed to gel.  We were a bit tentative early on and pretty quiet throughout the evening but it wasn’t bad at all.  I thought the Shakedown opener was fairly solid for a Deadstein Shakedown Street, especially the final jam, which felt authentic as opposed to the traditional Deadstein jam we gravitate to during a Shakedown Street.  We did the Run for the Roses to celebrate the Churchill Downs Kentucky Derby which occurs this weekend.  Also with Andy we played the Let Spend the Night Together which is in the new supplement book which gave us the ability to play the song.

We also were straying from our Deadstein/Grateful Dead roots as Trister was all Steely Danned out for some gigs he was preparing for.  We were hearing Steely Dan teases throughout the night from his guitar.  In addition to toying with some Steely Dead jams, we also played a nice Time/Breathe medley and finished up this Pink Floyd segment with a Comfortably Numb.  We also got a Beatle song in or two during the Trsiter portions.

While our only guest MB arrived toward the end of the Trsiter part of the night, he was able to enjoy a nice formidable Playing -> Uncle John’s à Playing combo that was fairly extensive.  After hearing the quality of this piece of music Michael asked Andy how he doesn’t show up to every Deadstein jam just so he could be part of this musical experience.  We finished Trister’s jam with a hot Music Never Stopped and bid him a good-night.  He left hauling his guitar, water bottle, effects tray and his banjo on his body, hoping his car would be in the illegal spot he left it in.  The cool thing is, on his way out he held the door for Larry who was just heading in, and no one got hurt.

LLB and MB in Elevator Short on the Way Out.

During the transition between Andy and Larry I decided to start up a very short Garband segment.  Scott called for the Crazy Love and I began playing and singing it.  We haven’t done this since the Terez days and it was a stretch for me.  Speaking of which, halfway through it Larry entered the room and made a grand entrance by singing a few of the verses to close out the song.  Wow!  After this, the playing got a bit more serious with Larry as we did a pretty good Birdsong.  This was followed by a Looks Like Rain that blew Michael away as he thought my life’s experience of listening to Bob and the band helped my take on the role of Bobby for that song.  I think he exaggerated quite a bit, but nevertheless, his exuberance towards it all was uplifting.  We did the infamous Crack of My Ass (Wharf Rat) with Larry, which is something we haven’t heard in a decade and closed out with the Brokedown Palace where we all shared verses and leads.

‘Twas a very interesting night for Deadstein, once again showing why you need to go to every jam.  Until we jam again, Freak Out.

To hear the MP3s of the night go to:

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/04-28-10/

Jam – 1990-10-09 – 162 Perry Street – First Deadstein Jam

09 Oct 1990 2 Comments

by deadstein in Jams Tags: , , , , ,

First Set Second Set Third Set
  • Jack Straw
  • Birdsong
  • Mama Tried
  • Bertha
  • Feel Like a Stranger
  • Franklin’s Tower
  • Scarlet Begonias->
  • Fire on the Mountain

    •  
    • Shakedown Street->
    • Playing in the Band->
    • Let it Grow->
    • Eyes of the World
    • Stella Blue
    • China Cat Sunflower->
    • I Know You Rider
    • Morning Dew
    • Goin’ Down the Road

    Notes – This was the first
    official jam. Here is how the story goes:

    Larry G. ran into Kevin, with Jonathan and Andrew Cohen at his side, at the Spectrum in September 1990. This was a very infrequent occurrence. Since Kevin left SUNY Albany in 1985 Larry G. saw him maybe once. First at a Garden show, and I don’t mean flowers, then at the Spectrum. The conversation probably went like this:

    LARRY – “Kevin, I see you are now a Deadhead for real , excellent. You still play bass don’t you? Why not come down to this studio in NYC and lets
    see if we can play a few Deadsongs.”

    KEVIN
    – “Cool. Yo, veggie burrito, I’ll take four.”

    LARRY – “You Freak”

    KEVIN – “B-r-r-r-p! I know this great drummer Dave, I’ll bring
    him along, he plays the Doobie Brothers really well. Here’s my phone number.”

    Before the first jam Larry G. went to Kevin’s New York City
    apartment to go over what might be played for the first jam. Going into it, Kevin knew very few Grateful Dead songs.

    So that was the Kevin connection. Now comes the Larry M. connection. Larry G. recently had jammed with several members of “Dead Batteries,” which was
    his first Grateful Dead band he played in with Larry M. This jam was at 162 Perry Street, the coolest studio. After seeing Kevin and jamming once at 162 Perry Street, Larry G called Larry M.and asked if he wanted to jam and also make arrangements to reserve 162 Perry Street. Larry M. Took care of that.

    Now the Larry B. connection. Through tape trading, Larry G. and Larry B. got together a few times in the late 80s. They jammed a little acoustic and found a few opportunities to find a drummers to jam with. Once with Stagger Lee at his house, with Schmell singing and several other times with Bruce the Drummer. We played in his tiny bedroom in an artist’s studio underneath the Williamsburg Bridge (Brooklyn-side, uuch!) We used to play with headphones singing into two Sennheisers with two Nak 300s picking up the amps and the drums. This all went into a four channel mixer. It actually sounded pretty good considering the make shiftness of it
    all.

    All these connections lead to a 7:00 jam at 162 Perry Street. It
    included Larry G., Larry B., Kevin, Larry M., Dave Schwartz, remain as the regular drummer
    for several years thereafter, and Craig”Jake” Jacobs on keyboard. We played the
    set above. Dennis was of course there and the rest is history, too bad this Internet
    ability wasn’t around in 1990 so all of our history could have been recorded. A good deal
    of the music is on tape and is available.

    The picture is Larry G. in front of 162 Perry Street adorning his
    Squire Stratocaster purchased at Drome Sound, Albany, N.Y.

    Comments Submitted

     

     

    • 28 Sep 1996

    October 9, 1990! A day that will live forever in the hearts of
    all that have enjoyed the ride of the Deadstein Band-Wagon.

     

     

    • 30 Sep 1996

    Hey, where was I for a couple of those early jams (after the
    1st One) at 162 Perry? What makes you so sure I wasn’t there? LM

     

     

    • 30 Sep 1996

    The tapes from the early days have a listing of who was at the
    Jam. What is listed on the attendance of each individual jam is
    what is list (“gold penned”) on the cassette itself. If
    anyone can prove to me they were at a jam and I did not include
    them correction can be made. Without any additional proof, what
    is stated on the cassettes will remain.

     

     

    • 30 Sep 1996

    Very official tournement rules there, Larry. LM

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