Jam – 2012-04-11 – Carroll’s

14 Apr 2012 Leave a comment

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

It was 30 years ago to the day, Easter Sunday, which I attended my first Grateful Dead show on April 11, 1982.  It was a show at the Nassau Coliseum and in many respects, I was already a Deadhead by the time I saw the band hit the stage.

It was spring break of my freshman year at Albany so I had already been indoctrinated into the Dead by the time this show hit.  I saw Jerry the first time at the Palace Theater earlier that fall in Albany on November 11, 1981 and then I was fortunate enough to get tickets to see Jerry play solo acoustic the night before at the Capitol Theater in Passaic.  By the time Easter Sunday rolled around to see my first Grateful Dead show, my life path was set for me, and this show would be more of a confirmation rather than an indoctrination.  To put it in perspective, I recall studying the setlists the band had played earlier in the spring tour, the great Spectrum shows (4-5 and 4-6), Syracuse and Rochester and predicting from these lists that the Dead would open up at the Coliseum with a Halfstep, Franklins opener; and I was right on with this prediction.  Cool enough was the fact that I had met Lee Ganbarg at the show and we sat together and took in the experience of my first show together. Afterwards, he drove me back to his house in Rockland where we slept and picked up a bus to Albany to catch Monday classes.  We were counting down the hours when we would pick up another bus that left from State Quad and delivered a bunch a SUNY Deadheads to the 4-14-82 Glenns Falls show in a couple of days.  I was discovering how wonderful spring time could be based out of Albany, NY. Yet I was not experienced enough to know to blow off Monday classes and see the Monday show at the Coliseum instead of heading back to Albany after only one show; but that’s another story.

Yoink forward 30 years and here I find myself in Carroll’s Studio playing the same setlist the Grateful Dead played to me for my first show.  It is a standard, fun show, nothing too crazy, and presents a great vehicle for Deadstein to hop onto for great inspiration for the night.

I had forwarded a copy of the music for everyone to listen to and play prior to the jam, and I took advantage by practicing some of the songs a bit.  It really helps get prepared for the evening by playing the songs a few times at home and getting a few riffs under my belt.  I was well prepared for the Halfstep, Franklins opener and this got us going for the night.

It isn’t a giant setlist, so completing didn’t seem as if it would be too much of a hassle, so we were relaxed about its execution.  The songs were solid and well played and got us through the first set before the standard 10pm break time.  What I do remember from 1982 was that I really didn’t know Let It Grow to be the kick-ass tune that it was at the time of my first show, but seeing it as a set closer when all the power and energy of what is a live Grateful Dead show was beginning to swarm in on me and cemented Let It Grow as one of my all time favorite songs.  I think I also understood the greatness of the halftime break at that moment. It was during that Let It Grow that I discovered the greatness of what Mickey and Bill brought to the Grateful Dead.  I was really able to get the gist of how this music was unique and a living being that lived off of the energy of the audience as much as it did from the hands of the musicians.  I miss those Grateful Dead shows and would love to be at the back corner of the Coliseum’s floor once again watching Jerry lead the band.

Halftime hit for Deadstein and our first set guests of Stevie and Lindsey left while our surprise guest, Terez joined us.  She and Rich found some quiet time to serenade us for a few songs during halftime. Terez then joined us for the entire second set; singing backup with the band and elevating us to a higher level.

I was glad I resisted the temptation to modify the planned setlist and commemoration of the 4-11-82 Coliseum show to accommodate Terez and the songs at which she excels.  The seconds set provided many songs with substantial harmony opportunities, and they were songs that were pretty standard and relatively familiar to Terez.  As a result, I think we sounded really good together and she accompanied the band.

The only real new song to her, as well as to us, was the Good Time Blues (Never Trust a Woman).  Deadstein had never played it before, but I charted out the non-standard blues pattern and I belted out this Brent tune.  I think we did a real solid job on this song for it being a first time of trying it.

Terez sang He’s Gone with us the first time we played together and she always sounds great on that, so that worked.  Truckin’ was a mess as I always make it, but at least I did get the whistle beginning of the song, just like Bobby did in 1982.

The show called for a true drums space and we got into that this week.  I enjoy the mini-break drums/space provides and each week as we do drums, I see Lee and Scott getting better and better at it, hopefully making it a worthwhile experience.  We had a little space going and then we railroaded through the ending of the show.  The vocal jams at the end of He’s Gone, Not Fade Away and Good Lovin’ all work well with our addition of Terez to the mix and made those segments of the songs worthwhile for us, where they are traditionally throw-aways.

Since it was a quick post drums show, we finished in plenty of time.  It gave us some time to play additional songs of our choice which we geared toward Terez.  It resulted in a Mini Beatles set that finished with energy and exuberance.

It was great to play my first show, especially to share it with Lee and to share to stories of the show with him once again.  It is amazing how we both remember all of it.  It was great to get that two drummer thing happening again, and it is really paying dividends as our beats are much more solid than they used to be.  Rich thought our Beat It On Down the Line was a Deadstein best, and I think it was due to the drumming.  Scott and Lee serve each other well with all their strengths and weaknesses to make them a great combo, because they are so different yet have the same goal in mind.

Next week we dive back into 1971 and we will attempt to play the great 4-17-71Princeton show.  This has a much different vibe than the 80’s shows we have recently played and is dominated by several great Pigpen songs.  That is something new, yet old but always worth looking forward to, so look forward to it.  Until we freak again, Freak Out.

If you want to hear what we did, go to the links below:

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/04-11-12/

Jam – 2012-04-03 – Carroll’s

05 Apr 2012 3 Comments

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

It being April 3, 2012 and there being no true great show to select as a setlist for the night, I decided to create a great show based on a made up 1977 set list.  This was good because doing actual shows and or selecting targeted random song has lead us to repeated songs or unbalanced sets with respect to singing duties.  At the end of the previous jam Lee commented that it would be good to do a 77 show, so I crafted this setlist with that in mind.

This was the 4th week that Lee has been drumming with us so I know I wanted to play some songs we haven’t done yet.  I forwarded the set list to everyone along with a Dropbox folder filled with MP3s.  This was the proverbial crib sheets for anyone that wanted to take advantage of it.  I know I took advantage of it  and practiced quite a bit leading up to this jam.  Substantial preparation has mixed results in the short run, but has tremendous result for the long term.  I was therefore concerned that I would choke with so much going on in my mind, but I think I did pretty well.  One of the techniques I used at home while practicing was using my Epiphone Les Paul as opposed to my 79 Strat which I was intending to use at the jam.  I’m more comfortable with my Strat so working out lots of new and improved notes and patterns at home, I had hope that when I got to the jam, my Strat would make it all seem easier.  In the same way, I also intentionally used a wimpy pick and marginal amp tones while practicing which meant using the real things during a jam would feel so much better.  I think I thought about this way too much, but it worked and my feel was comfortable for much of the night.

It was a very long set list, laid out like a menu at a Brazilian Rodizio restaurant, nothing but meat and lots of it, so we had to get going right away if we had any hope of completing it.  We started right at 8pm, but Alan wasn’t there yet, so we were a 5-man band for the Halfstep, Cassidy opener and Alan joined us for the end of the Loser.  His proclaimed favorite song.  By 8:20 we were really under way.

Our guests for the night showed up shortly thereafter including Fleetwood Mac (Stevie and Lindsey) and Meg Ryan.  Accompanying them was someone new to Deadstein, Pete.  Finally, just as we began our 30 minute closer to the 1st set, Catherine with violin in bow, I mean tow, jumped into the pool.  We tried to hastily mic her violin at the end of the first set, but that was wrought with peril.  For the second set, she used a direct input into one of the spare Fender Twins and was able to play in a comfortable mode with us for the entire second set.

Getting back to the first set we did some good stuff.   I think the clicking between Scoot and Lee really synched in during the Big River, could have been one of Deadstein’s best feeling Big Rivers. The Help Slip Franklins was also pretty epic for us.  Speaking of epic, the closing sandwich of the Playing, Uncle Johns, Terrapin, Uncle Johns Playing was huge.  While it was filled with blemishes all over, it was quite a fun ride.

The fun didn’t end because the second set continued with the grass-fed Kobe beef that we enjoyed during the entire first set.  It started with a big Scarlet Fire then we relaxed a bit with the Passenger, Tennessee Jed before plunging head first into our Stephen Eyes Drums Stephen combo.  Unfortunately, Rich’s MP3 recorder ran out of battery power and we didn’t record from the Saint Stephen to the end.  Following the St.Stephen, we rolled into a Wheel and was forced to skip the planned Comes a Time and ended the jam with a Sugar Magnolia.  It was a few minutes late, but we all landed on our feet happy to have been there.

To hear what we did, go to the MP3 links below:

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/04-03-12/

For next week, we are playing on April 11.  This will be the 30th anniversary of my first show at Nassau Coliseum (4-11-82), which I happened to go with on that Easter Sunday with Stagger Lee.  I therefore look forward to special jam next week as I celebrate my own personal Deadheadism in commemoration of that show.  It will once again be time Freak Out.

Jam – 2012-03-28 – Carroll’s

31 Mar 2012 2 Comments

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

Deadstein jammed on Wednesday, March 28, 2012. Our intent of the evening was to replicate the set list played by the Grateful Dead 31 years to-the-day ago inGermany.  March 28, 1981 is a pretty famous show in Dead lore in that it is the night Pete Townsend joined Jerry and the boys for jamming after drums.  Not that he did too much musically, but you can tell he had quite an impact on the night.  Having the video coverage of the entire show posted on YouTube for years has made this show pretty familiar to many people.  For these reasons we decided to tackle this show for the night and we called it “Essen of Gruga Dead.”

It is a long, meaty setlist from 1981 and early on, there was some feel as if we would not be able to complete the show.  What helped us get going was the opening power trio of Getaway, Greatest Story into Sugaree.  This put three healthy songs behind us early on and signified that we were serious in doing this show.  There were several excuses we could have made for not doing the entire setlist.  We did a few of these songs last week, including the Alabama Getaway opener and a post drums Not Fade Away.  The setlist had many songs in it that I would sing in a row, including Jerry songs, like Getaway and Althea that would leave large gaps in the set where you wouldn’t hear Rich sing.  Nevertheless, we persevered and stuck to the plan and felt the ghosts of 3-28-81 in our presence.  This all pulled together for a serious night of playing lots of music.  I find the pre-defined setlist a great energizer for all of us and we all landed on our feet.

As far as people, this was our third week in a row where Lee Staggered into the percussive hot seat and provided Deadstein with our now normal 2-drummer backline.  I am really enjoying this new ear with the possibilities it provides. It has to be mentioned that he really enjoys the maple drum kit.

The rest of the normal Deadstein-5 joined with Lee to form the ensemble.  Guests included the two pairs of Stevie and Lindsey and Meg Ryan.  We almost had a full house as Scott Bayer eventually made his way in there with a few other people.  It was getting crispy and freaky in the room as we got into our second set.

It turned out to be a nice night of music.  The mix of the band is pretty good and the tape sounds good.  I like the stereo separation between drum kits and guitars.  Piano and vocals could of course be more pronounced and it was tough to get the full piano mix especially since they did not have the PZM to use to mic the piano.  If you want to hear what we did, go to the MP3s below.

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/03-28-12/

Sunset from my car window on the Westside Highway going into Deadstein. Taken with iPhone4s

Jam – 2012-03-21 – Carroll’s

22 Mar 2012 Leave a comment

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

Another crazy night of Deadstein is what we encountered on this March 21, 2012.  For the second week in a row, Stagger Lee joined us and Scott to give us a two-man rhythm section.  This redundancy proved to be quite fortuitous later on in the evening.  For the first set we also had Andy Trister playing lead guitar which always bring the level of music up a notch or two.  A lucky man, he walked away with the final available version of the Jerry Garcia Song Book, version 8, with the bonus supplement.

In addition Lee and Andy, we had Howie Weiner in the studio to hangout. Howie and I were discussing 1987 Grateful Dead which he is planning on making the theme of his next book.  There are so many great memories from that time period.  Stevie and Lindsey, who made it through almost the entire jam with us, are becoming regulars to our scene much like Steve and Edie on the Andy Williams show.  Finally, we had the headache man himself in the room, Scott Bayer with his bongos.  While annoying, by the time he was playing them later in the evening, I didn’t care.

The music was marginal I think for the first set and for some part, I am going to blame it on the Rand-O-Matic.  While it concurred with Andy’s request to open with a Getatway, the selection of a Bucket as the second songs sent us down a pathway of difficult massive mushiness which became difficult to wade through.  Nevertheless, we made not even close to the best of it, and marched on.  A song like a Bucket is a great challenge, especially early on and right out of a Getaway. It requires precision, which Deadstein possesses like Trister’s nearly 50-year old eyes.  If nothing else, there probably were not too many other people sloshing their way through a Hell in a Bucket on March 21, 2012 like we were. In that, you have to derive some comfort.

We had some sound issues through the night.  The PA never had the bang it needed and hearing vocals and Rich’s piano was difficult.  Kevin’s bass, guitar amp split combo was failing him on the guitar amp portion as that was buzzing and distorting throughout the entire night.  All the guitars and drums seemed normal though.

The Bucket’s jammed droned on in thick boring mode that was carried on in several songs in the first set.  We eventually played and Victim or the Crime into a Hard to Handle that had the same characteristics and even the Here Come Sunshine had the same feel.  This is why I blame the Rand-O-Matic a bit, but now that I think of it; the Rand-O-Matic only selected the Bucket. I was the buffoon that selected the Victim, Hard to Handle.  Someone else called for the Here Comes Sunshine.

As negative as I may seem, I bet the tape proves me wrong, because the music came forth for the most part and it was valid.  I guess that’s the best I can come up with, “valid,” which isn’t too good.  But as I said before, who else pulled a Victim –>Hard to Handle out of their asses on this night? No one!

We took the long obligatory set break chatted, had fun.  We lost Howie, Trister and Scott and gained Scott Bayer.  Who made this trade the Mets?  The second set we were going into with Lee solo on drums.  I let him call the songs and that certainly helps a lot and we had a good second set.  Brothers and Sisters we are pretty familiar with and the Halfstep is a challenge at that late hour but we did it justice.  Lee called for the Eyes at 11:20 and here’s where his youthful energy, though he is technically 1 year older than Scott, invigorated us through a long song like Eyes and the inevitable loss of momentum never really materialized.  The redundancy of the dual drummer has some great benefits for Deadstein and I look forward to it developing.  When I think of Lee drumming, I think of him playing clay bongos on a Not Fade Away. I went into the Not Fade from Eyes to close the night.  It turned out to be a big, fun, crazy wacky, topsie, turvie night of Deadstein.  I can’t wait to do it again.

For next week’s jam, I think I am going to get a set list prepared and send it out to everyone so anyone who cares to can prepare for the night’s music.   I think this will help.  It will at least help me.  Freak out people and get prepared for next week.

To hear what we did, go to the following links:

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/03-21-12/

Jam – 2012-03-12 – Carroll’s

16 Mar 2012 Leave a comment

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

It was Monday night, but not like too many Monday nights we have had before.  It was a Monday drum-a-thon.  Let’s start with Howie Weiner’s Book, Tangled Up in Tunes.  I had just finished the book, was posting my reviews about it; and as I was in and out of Facebook one day, I saw Stagger Lee Ganbarg available via instant chat.  There was a quick “how do you do?” and I told him a about the book.  After that little chat about Howie’s book I asked him, if wanted to play and next thing I know, after 9 year of not seeing him, there he was behind drumkit #2 in Caroll’s Studio 2.

Speaking of books, Bill Sloan just the previous day asked me about my new Jerry Garcia Song Book, Version 8 and I squeaked out a few links to the book, just prior to leaving for the jam.  At the end of the message I told him we were playing at 8 o’clock and invited him to show up.  He said he probably would.

Other guests for the night include Stevie and Lindsey and Ryan of Meg Ryan, but meg wasn’t there.  Ryan played drums on a couple of songs with Scott.  Bill jammed a couple of songs with Lee.  For the most part Bill played some nice bongo, percussion, etc, which he put an SM-58 on and it sounded really good.  The combo of Lee, Scott and Bill was a great back drop to the rest of us.  I really liked the sound and the vibe in the room.

For the rest of the jam, Kevin played his old Ibanez bass with flat-wounds.  He didn’t use it for the whole night.  I was with my Strat, Alan was with his blue-light special and Rich was tinkling behind all that wood.  It was a special night of jamming and look forward to making it happen again in the near future.

When Rich gets back into town we will hopefully get to listen to the songs and see the set list.  Until then, this video of the Let it Grow, shot by Scott while Lee and Bill played drums will have to suffice.

I got the MP3s, and they are available at the following location. 21 Beefy songs is a full plate for an evening.

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/03-12-12/

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