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 – 2011-11-16 – 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/

Jam – 2011-10-25 – Carroll’s

27 Oct 2011 1 Comment

by lgindoff in Jams Tags: , , , , ,

this once again was a jam where it was the non-core four. In other words, Rich was not at the jam and it was a simple for guitar strike that to guitar bass and drum evening.

Hopefully, as you can tell I am using my iPhone’s Siri dictation interface to compose and write down this blog posting. Such as last week, I intend to not change any of what I’m saying and let you see how effective or not effective this Siri really is.

And on with the posting. caps so like I said, this was a jam where it was just the four of us and we had the quietness of no keyboard microphone in the room. caps so that actually made for some of our most dynamic music almost to date. Be charivari was quite up-and-down from a dynamic perspectives and that was pretty cool.

But we certainly had our terrible moments including the start of the night. I suggested we opened with a seen your and Kevin graciously agreed to it, but it was a disaster from the start and we jump ship rather quickly. Scott suggested we just look to the left of the seeing your and played the second that emotion which we did and that got us going. At this point of the jam we were only three people as Alan hadn’t arrived.

Alan arrived after the second that emotion and it certainly help us gel into a more cohesive unit. As far as guests we had a few. There was Rob and Miriam and who would’ve thunk that cookie 10 would’ve shown up with a box of cookies, almost all chocolate coated.

So like last week, Richard wasn’t there to record the band. Caps I therefore grabbed my iPhone I decide to record most of the songs. This week at least I brought my AC adapter so the iPhone could keep up a charge through the whole night wall recording the band. Since several people but moaned the concept of having the video up on the website I decided to compromise and record using some sort of comic filter over the video. It came out pretty cool though. So I decide to post what I talk anyway. Only missing from the video was the end of the night where we played a few non-bed songs like a comfortably numb and a Beatles song what did we play, oh yeah it was Savoie truffle.

Tap and that’s about it, you can see the dictation is better and more comprehendible than last weeks. The fact that I am in my room not in the car and dictating actually into the microphone supplied in the iPhone your bugs that came with it I think help the situation. But you can see it’s not perfect, but Siri and I are becoming better and better acquainted making a better partnership and a better posting. Who knows, one day it may be more coherent than the incoherence that I’ve been posting for all these years.

Jam – 2011-10-20 – Carroll’s

22 Oct 2011 3 Comments

by deadstein in Jams Tags: , , , , ,

Below is the unedited text of my posting as dictated into Siri on my new iPhone.  This was dictated to the iPhone sitting in a cradle on my dashboard while driving home from the jam.  The amazing thing is Siri is so much more coherent than when I type the postings myself.  Enjoy.

so tonight was a pretty interesting night. Rich wasn’t out of town just for Alan Kevin Scott I’m home now another very interesting aspects of tonight in Baghdad since Rich was not at the gym we didn’t have our typical MP3 record what was happening with you. Eric at yet improvised cigarette heaven for tonight. Fortunately this was our first week. 9/2 an hour to iPhone for less. The thing has a kick ass video camera. So why not use it to record the jam?

So that’s what we did I laid the iPhone 4S on the music stand on its side with the video camera on what in the back corner of the room and probably got a good shot time will tell when I get home if the audio is listenable but it maybe something to remember the night.

Additionally as what may be printed is illegible my experiment is I’m using the iPhone and Siri dictate the nightstands posted I also want to show you how well or not well this posting work so I am not going to change any of the mess up that Siri has made while I’m dictating to you think this will be a funny exercise.

Now I’ll probably fix the grammar but in punctuation not sure what that’s all supposed to be but it’ll really give you a great understanding of how unbelievable this dictation is all done

Four instance, I’m driving down Route 3 after the gym and dictate a chance message I’m sorry Jen posted into the iPhone. It’s quite fun and a great use of my time on the way home. Keeps me up and it will give me a huge chunk and I need you and that’s what she said of writing which to put into the blog post this is truly a new revolution the blog posting Europe for me I can tell this thing going to be quite handy and quite great use of my time on the way home.

So let’s get back to the purpose of this dictation exercise and talk about tonight’s gym. It was just the four of us as I said in tight quarters playing tight you soon. Without the keyboard and the piano my billing the room with reverberated sound we were able to accomplish a clean quiet sound at many points through the night. We had a nice set of standard top-quality Grateful Dead songs to begin the night we played really well the beginning of the night started pretty good all locked in there.

Then we went into a nice Jerry Garcia band or five songs said I was also pretty good. I got to play my positively fourth Street style I like and was able to take advantage of my ability to play as many leads as I wanted since I really patrolled the song. However there were no guests for the night not even one for people in the room. Faroles is currently a pretty busy place days and didn’t have much equipment and had really scrounge to get a love the play yet, scrounging at Carol’s is quite enjoyable experience. Alan and I both had super twin reverb the playground and they sound great. In addition the only three microphones on in the room so get that quiet sandwich I just meant.

I actually had an excellent time singing and playing virtually every song is matter of fact every song for the night. Playing lots of leads and singing songs I selected the mall and it was cool time. Eric I like the song selection, I had a really good phone and rolled the guitar, and I wasn’t full control of how long the leads should be late provided a nice black just let loose and do what they would like. I think I was able to accomplish lots of good stuff actually kept the band going by solid way and send Wyatt was only a few mess ups I think you’re being Rivervew the biggest swap tonight I was just to stir. Yet nothing been teleported by get the song “soon you’ll be doing some sort.

So speaking gets you writing quite a bit I can only imagine and I will see you when I cut-and-paste this montage of messed up blog posting into you hope you’re in law. Therefore, I will sign off now did you have there to do and wish everyone a yank your voice into the next week and weekend it was a thought on Thursday night and I look forward to another engaging Goodstein jam sometime next week.

Video recordings made from on my iPhone are provided on Youtube in a playlist as well as individual files.

Click here for the Youtube Playlist

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