Jam – 2010-09-22 – Carroll’s

25 Sep 2010 1 Comment

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

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We were back to our standard 5-man setup this week with only Scott Bayer presenting himself as a guest.  He came in all excited with his new $35 hand-drum which I immediately tried to buy off of him, but to no luck, that drum is now his life.  Scott paying  $35 bucks is a great deal on his end, one he couldn’t pass up, so I couldn’t blame him for not sell me the drums.

This week I was still in the throws of a pretty bad cold as I was hacking and coughing and bursting a lung, but all worth the opportunity to be participating in another big Deadstein jam.  This week we had lots of rarely played songs bubble to the surface.  We played the Love Each Other with the 73 groove but not the 73 break.  We did the Easy Wind with all the breaks but only half the groove.  We played a Corinna, which who knows what groove we played and what groove it is supposed to be in, but I be we haven’t played that song in 15 years. It was that type of night.

Most of the songs were a pain in the neck for Scott but he persevered.  Kev seemed fully recovered and I was right in the middle of the cold.  I guess as we age, the blog is going to need an official injury report section to keep everyone up-to-date on all our ailments.  At least it gives us a good excuse when someone hears what happens during one of those MP3s toward the end of any song.  When Scott told me, “Gind, you sound terrible, maybe you shouldn’t sing.” maybe I should have listened to him, but he said that when I wasn’t sick so I sang when I was sick anyway.  Hopefully a weekend of seeing concerts including the FabFaux at Radio City and Trister laying the leads down for Ronnie and the New Riders Freak-Express that is rolling into nearby Whippany on Sunday will get me healthy and inspired to play even better when we meet again and deplete our body’s health status even more next week.

The music we played is available at the following link:

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/09-22-10

Jam – 2010-09-15 – Carroll’s

16 Sep 2010 2 Comments

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

This was a strange night of Deadstein that started with a bit of a blow up.  As we were getting set to jam we were all having electrical problems at the same time.  My pedal board was not working at all and I was switching around adapters to figure what the problem was.  At the same time Rich was plugging in his microphone and either Andy or Alan was also fiddling with something electrical that was suspiciously not work.  Next thing we notice is the power amp on the PA system popping, sparking, blowing then smoking.  That’s what she said, but the system blew apart like we have never seen.  Lucky for us it is Carroll’s and the rolled out another one and we were on our way, but that was a very stranger occurrence.

So, on with the show.  We were scheduled to have a big band as Trister was going to jam with us for the first set.  Always great to bring our level up a notch or two.    Alan and I shared the Bob parts until Andy left when ironically we played only Jerry Garcia Band songs were there are no Bob parts.  In any case it was a fun night and we made some good music.  We started off playing in dedication to 9-15-82, Capitol Center, Landover, MD.  I wasn’t at that show but it was famous for its Playing, Crazy Fingers opener with Playing in the Band interludes peppered throughout.

We did manager the entire opening with a Playing, Crazy Fingers, Rooster, Duprees.  That was a nice 30 minute opener without a stop.  When scheduled to continue into the Beat It On Down the Line to continue the 9-15-82 setlist, we veered in a Wharf Rat , Woman are Smarter and never looked back at Landover.  Ken the cookie/pizza man came in bearing no food which I was happy about.  His shining countenance is a treat enough.  Scott Bayer was our only other guest.  I put him to work video recording the U.S. Blues while I sat out the Next Time You See me to video that song.

As I said, Trister left after a nice chunky 1st set and we played GarBand for the rest of the night.  I jumped out of my Bob persona and entered Jerry’s.  What a warm fuzzy place to be, but with a lot of responsibilities.  I did okay in the switch and we started up right away.  Fortunately, I discovered my reverb o the guitar amp had been off for the first set and then for the second, things sounded a lot more comforting.

New to the room is Scott’s new iPad, use it well and often, which will happen.  Once again I can strongly recommend DropBox.com.  I sent referal to you guys so if you sign up I get an additional 250MB of storage, you should all sign up, its a great to place store files online in the cloud for free, such as PDFs, MP3s, documents, in lieu of emailing files back and forth to yourself.  Check it out, it is great.  One other shout out goes to Andy who will be playing a show 10 minutes from my house a week from Sunday on September 26 – Ukrainian American Cultural Center, Whippany, NJ.  I anticipate going to it and look forward to it and check out the webpage!

Any, back to the show.  To listen to the music go to the link below:

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/09-15-10/

Jam – 2010-09-07 – Carroll’s

08 Sep 2010 2 Comments

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

Kevin went home sick early in the day and without a whisper on a witches tit meaning before I knew it, we got Bayside Mitch to sit in for us on bass.  That was great and it ’twas a pleasure to play with him.  Unfortunately the time wasn’t enough.  I had forgotten that we were not able to get into the studio before 9:00 because of rehearsals by the Sonny Rollins Band and Rock of Ages.  I forgot about this little detail and got to Carroll’s at 7:30.  Thank G-d I had my iPad on me.  You would have thought that I would have made some artwork for the night in the hour and a half I had to waste, but it never occurred to me.  Duh!   Speaking of iPad and such, I have now added my lgindoff Twitter feed on the right side of this blog, so check it out and follow me on Twitter and join up.

Speaking of lack of time, we got into the studio at 9:00 but there was still setup and disassembly to do.  We probably didn’t get going until 9:30 but played pretty steadily through the night.  We even ended up going to 12:25 or so ending the night with a Good Night Irene.  A real positive night with some nice music, enjoying the intimate jamming and music making.  We did have Scott Bayer in the studio for the first song as our only guest and since we started so late, we played our first song to carol over the cell phone.  Alan had his new Boss delay pedal, the piano was sounding mice and forward in the room.  Not much more to report until Rich comes down with the recordings.

If you want to listen to them go to the links below:

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/09-07-10/

Jam – 2010-08-25 – Carroll’s

26 Aug 2010 6 Comments

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

Deadstein, good to the last drop.  After a week without Scott and Alan, the five of us were back for a mid-week Deadstein.  At least for the first set we had energy and played with some good fun.  After a little break we played a long Playing in the Band that jammed us and spaced us into oblivion.  We managed to wrangle out a few song thereafter, but our load was shot and we were not as good to the last drop as we hoped.  I think Scott’s shoulder was wearing on him by the end of the night.  I decided to call for an Attics of My Life at that point to give his arms a little reprieve and somehow that boosted us to finish the night running through the tape.  The Comfortable Numb and Cats Down Under the Stars were surprisingly better than what I was expecting at that point of the night.

For the record there were no guests who joined us for the night, so we were all alone and that wore on us a bit without anyone to make us play for something.  Therefore we love if you lurkers drop by or drop us a comment cause if you don’t drop in you’re dropping out. No so good to the last drop.  If for some reason you want to hear any of the music feel free to click the MP3s below:

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/08-25-10/

Jam – 2010-07-28 – Carroll’s

28 Jul 2010 6 Comments

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

After a few weeks of fun and excitement, we were back to basics with the 5 of us jamming the Dead in the standard small studio with no guests to be seen or heard. Even though it was like 88 outside and the temperature was set to be 65 in the studio, the air never seemed to go above or below 72 so we had 72 on our minds.  Alan’s first show was Roosevelt Stadium 1972, I think he said, so when we were seeking guidance we had no furthur to look than the thermostat on the wall.

I guess we didn’t need guidance for the first song cause we hurled up to the 80s with a Stranger to open the silky, silky crazy night.  Following that we wore our converse and played the Loser, Sugarree, Hurts Me Too, Looks Like Rain and Morning Dew all in association with 1972.  We ended our little first set segment with a quick Don’t Ease.  We ended the second segment with a transition into the Music Never Stopped which was started by Scott drumming with Kevin following his lead, but I can’t say I thought Scott was intending to go into that Music.  He usually is much more aggressive in his Musical interpretation of Music than what I heard last night.  In any case, it was pretty quick and hot.  I forget what we opened the closing portion of the night with but we finished at midnight with the Struggling Man and as tricky and struggling as that song is, I thought we did pretty well with it.

It was definitely a tiring day at work following the jam and I know Alan’s wrist was bothering him from the jam so we all realize the sacrifice and toll Deadstein puts on us physically, emotionally and financially.  What else would we save it for but the Dead, so we might as all take out of it whatever we can and and enjoying the living Dead known as Deadstein.

To listen to the jam go to the link below or just click on the MP3s

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/07-27-10/

Jam – 07-21-2010 – Carrol’s

22 Jul 2010 4 Comments

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

This ordinary Wednesday night Deadstein jam turned into a surprising and almost extraordinary Deadstein experience.  It was a night slated to be the five of us, there was a lot of traffic and I was like a half hour late.  I came into the room to hear Alan jamming the That’s What Love Will Make You Do with the rest of the band, and it sounded pretty good.  I later find out that I also missed the Gomorrah.

I got there for the opening Thrill is Gone and it was a challenge to jump into cold requiring some good movement.  I wasn’t feeling confident and relaxed but the band was good and I was able to play and not mess up.  Same goes for the Me and My Uncle, it was a pretty good tight and consistent effort, and while not having the chops at the time to add to much I was able to manage not to be a burden.  What-eva?  I think we started taking off with the Ramble on Rose and the Masterpiece.  They were feeling good.

It was about that time that our only guests of the night stopped by.  They were Kevin’s G’Island friends Keith and Gila and Gila came with her little sister Ronnie.  After a little “Hello” if you know what I mean we discovered Ronnie was a Deadhead and liked to sing.  Never ones to deny an opportunity to find someone that can hep us with our vocal challenges, we enlisted Ronnie to park herself in front of a microphone and join the fray.  It was pretty exciting to have a new fresh voice in the room and we had a great time.

I tried to steer the set toward the songs Ronnie chose to sing and it worked.  It was quite impressive how she was able to sit in and sing.  I was proud of all of us.  Alan mentioned to me how we all played with in ourselves a lot more than usual to make the experience work and I agree.  I hope we can explore this opportunity to play with Ronnie if she is wiling to put up with us.  There is some potential there for all us.

It was a lot of songs we put Ronnie through as she was there leading us for the most part from the Brown-Eyed Women all the way through the Boxer.  It’s amazing that we actually got through that oner successfully to the end but I think I was able to show Ronnie the cues throughout the night and we kept the music quite coherent and worthwhile.  There were enough happy moments to make up for the more challenging moments.  Anyway listen to the MP3s if you want.

To close I cranked a Rhapsody and we ended with a rare Standing on the Moon Good Lovin’.  To play 18 songs in a night where I arrive late and we are filled with new music is a satisfying night in my book and my book had quite a night, proving itself for what it is. G-d bless my book!

To listen to the night’s music go to:

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/07-21-10/

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