- It was a Monday and
while that means nothing good for the long week
to come, it made the jam so much better. There
was so little traffic on the
 way in I was able to get to
WWI by 6:15 and I parked right in front waiting
for the free parking at 7:00 to come. It gave me
enough quite time to read over for the last time
my addendum to bid which went in the mail the
next morning. It was delightful how I was able to
get that added sense on confidence that I went
over it one last time. I would have had to do
that when I got home if I wasn’t able to do
it at WWI. It reminded me of doing studying while
waiting on the taping line in a sad, grown up
kind of way.
- Just as I was
finishing up the id document up rolls the
Brentster. I told him I would watch his car until
7:00 and asked him to run across the street to
Bens so I could have an order of fries to hold me
over till the half time feast. He ran in to tell
everyone that he was there, as if they cared, and
informed me he had half of Johnny’s corned
beef sandwich. I thought to myself that I was
going to eat and before I knew it, I was ordering
for everyone and this set the tone for the night.
- It was the first
routine Deadstein night in a long time and it
felt good. The only normal guest was Spillboy but
Michael Brand did show up for the second set an
experienced his first type of Dead experience
since Jerry’s passing. God knows what was
going through his head but it was great to see
him there. It hard to believe that he is going to
have a freakin’ baby soon.
- It was the second
week with the PA and it showed a great level of
maturation. It was tweaked moved and brought back
to stereo and it was sounding pretty good. I few
squeals to contend with but nothing to be
bothered by.
- There was some
friction regarding the volume of the PA when
Johnny was begging for more of it. Kevin was
making the point that Larry, being the lead,
needs more gain than the rest. I disagree with
that from the perspective that he may need to be
louder at times, which should be regulated by the
other singer’s touch, if they have any, and
not by mic levels. The lowering of the mics makes
the more vocally challenged of us have to fight
an up hill battle. Not only do we have to fight
our own inabilities, but we also have to do it by
screaming into the mic instead of singing. I
don’t think it helps anyone out. Even Larry.
- We eventually tweaked
the arrangement in the room to be a flat plain of
speakers directly in front of the drums. The
vortex has definitely dissipated into a calm
breeze. It’s cool and refreshing.
- Bens Deli on the
other hand is far from cool and refreshing. The
only good thing about that place is its proximity
to WWI. We ate there early and it was adequate
but in no way good. We stuck with hot dogs, which
were not good. Spill boy got kasha, which was not
good. Johnny got corned beef (I think) which he
said was not good. Menaker almost made the
mistake of getting a no good sandwich but I
warned him so he got no good hot dogs.
- It wasn’t all
bad. The French fries were good and so was the
soda as well as provision of utensils, cups,
kraut, mustard and bag of ice. As long as they
don’t make it, Bens can be good.
- As bad as Bens was,
the concept worked. It got us to play a lot of
music. We only took a small break and played many
hours. Maybe we can pull of the same concept next
week, but with Kid "Dine-O-Mat."
|
William Weiss Interiors Studio
We did a sound check type of thing
during the Cold Rain and it really helped. Not
that it was a great improvement but it set the
tone of an improving sound for the evening. We
decided to turn down a bit to let the PA get
comfortable and it made us all a bit
uncomfortable but we managed.
There was just a
slight sense of warmth.