Tuesday night at Carroll’s, Nine Inch Nails were playing next door so we had to park on 54th instead of 55th. No big deal, Kevy risked parking in the tow-away-zone and got away with it.
It was a night were we had no guests yet we seemed to have to have two of our favorites, Coffee and Trister. They were there for most of the night and it was great to play with them. Trister was there last week, if you read, but I missed it due to car troubles. Additionally, Coffee Boy bailed on last week so this week was like a reunion jam for all of us. Quite a bit of fun. I was gloating about my new pickup truck to replace my old Jetta. Take a Look.
We played well, some great solid grooves and the feeling was positive for the most part. I warned Andy about going for the Big River but he didn’t listen. Somehow we made it through the whole thing. In the same vein, we were using the iPhone with shuffle to select random songs for us to play. We didn’t listen totally to it but it did provide us some good suggestions. What it does do is let us listen to a sample of the song before playing it and what you realize, with examples like the Big River is how many songs we play at a molasses pace and how hard it is to play at a pace and liveliness that ironically is the Grateful Dead. Something to seriously understand and work on. The random song selector got us to play What a Wonderful World, which everyone knows I’m a sucker for. I got us to play a Garband Masterpiece with Andy singing. Likewise, it got us to play a really nice You Never Can Tell. So the random song selector impacted the night but did not dominate it.
After both Andy and then Coffee left we played a good 4 or five more songs, primarily based on the random song selector. After starting the late night Core-4 we played the How Sweet It Is and then the iPhone got us to play a Birdsong, Victim Dear Mr. Fantasy. We were done at 12:00 midnight but due to tunnel traffic I didn’t get home until 1:30. I was a little tired this morning but still enjoying the thrill of last night. Until we jam again. That’s what she said.
Well, this was a first for me in almost 20 years. Car troubles stopped me from making the jam. It’s hard to believe considering I’ve never had good cars but it’s true. I packed my trunk, turned the key and nothing, it was all over, no way of making the jam. It also looks like the end of Jetta cam, unless I do get another Jetta which seems unlikely at this point. I greatly apologize for missing the jam but I hope it was a worthwhile experience for all that made it. Scott filled me in a bit today while I was at lunch and it sounds like it was a nice night. Let me know what happened and see you next week.
We were supposed to play this week on Wednesday night but Kevin called and Emailed in a panic on Monday morning to see if we could pull off the quick switch. It was switched quick and early and Scott, Rich, Kevin and I as well as Carroll’s could make it early. It meant no one to play lead but Core-4 is what it is and it is what we are and what we are is what we is, so it was. Let us not forget to mention the 14th anniversary of Jerry’s death.
So except a brief visit from scott Bayer, who misplaced his harmonica, we had no guests. No one to play lead and no one to spill just us Core-4. Nevertheless, from a nondescript night to a Deadstein revolutionary night, that why you have to go to every show. Kev’s dream idea a came to fruition due to a convergence of several ideas. He’s always been dreaming about the random song generator as the way to select songs to play and we pulled it off nonchalantly this night in an almost flawless manner.
The combo of me getting a new iPhone recently and working on a folder of Deadsongs MP3s I called “Standards” that I loaded in my iPhone, hit shuffle and hold it up to the microphone and play the speaker off the iPhone and we all hear at the same time what the next song will be. It was really cool and we only skipped maybe 2 of the selections that came up. Another great thing about this random song selector is that it gives us a chance to hear the song with its tempos and riffs while we are getting ready to play it. Really good stuff. It saved lots of time, arguements, gave us songs we wouldn’t otherwise play and finally it even did some things earily correct, such as ending the night with a Black Muddy River, Box of Rain. This was al potentially revolutionary. Looking forward to trying it again. I better get the JGB standards in there quickly.
To hear the proponderance of songs we played go to:
Tuesday night and we are getting together is standard formation, so I think. Doing a little pre-posting to get get ahead some how. In the meantime, take a look at some spider shots I took in my basement. And I wonder why I always get so many computer bugs.
Anyway, I guess I pre-posted and now I am post-posting as I am writing about the Tuesday night jam on Thursday night. To start with it was mostly the Core-4 for of us for the entire night. Jason did show up for the last two songs and we jammed and hot Music and I forget the other song. In addition, we also had Robert <–> Trebor and Miriam also stay for the night and we shall now be referring to them as SpillBoy and SpillGirl as spilled their beer for the second week in a row. Deadstein always needs it’s Spillboy. Of course, we also had Scott Bayer show for a song. That’s it on guests. Kevin and Scott were drinking their own styles of espresso, Scott’s in mass and Kev’s in a can. I brought a few Smarties and that was ’bout it.
Check out a little iPhone video of before during and after the jam. No must, just some perspective on going to and fro and jam. Sometimes it is tough to remember.
I liked the Core-4 for the most part. I was fairly comfortable playing within myself for the whole night. Rich gave me some advice before the jam to watch the note quantity, relax, play melodically, etc. and I think I headed it for the most part all night and I hope it made a difference.
Jason asked for it and he got it. A little Jetta cam going into the jam, from the Holland Tunnel to 55th Street. Enjoy.
Tuesday night at Carroll’s, Nine Inch Nails were playing next door so we had to park on 54th instead of 55th. No big deal, Kevy risked parking in the tow-away-zone and got away with it.
We played well, some great solid grooves and the feeling was positive for the most part. I warned Andy about going for the Big River but he didn’t listen. Somehow we made it through the whole thing. In the same vein, we were using the iPhone with shuffle to select random songs for us to play. We didn’t listen totally to it but it did provide us some good suggestions. What it does do is let us listen to a sample of the song before playing it and what you realize, with examples like the Big River is how many songs we play at a molasses pace and how hard it is to play at a pace and liveliness that ironically is the Grateful Dead. Something to seriously understand and work on. The random song selector got us to play What a Wonderful World, which everyone knows I’m a sucker for. I got us to play a Garband Masterpiece with Andy singing. Likewise, it got us to play a really nice You Never Can Tell. So the random song selector impacted the night but did not dominate it. 
