Thursday, May 1, 1997

First Set Bertha-> Feel Like a Stranger Brown-Eyed Women Cassidy Liberty Playing in the Band-> Franklin's Tower Deal Scarlet Begonias Second Set Chinacat Sunflower-> I Know You Rider Visitor since 4/97 Last Revised: 07 Feb 2006 11:54:37 -0800

• Having trouble juggling a family and two bands, Larry M. decided to take this Thursday off. he was there to say hi and good-bye and that's about it.
• In lieu of Larry M., Kevin arranged for Coffee-Boy Mitch of Marna to sit in on the skins, which he commented were very well tuned and sounding good. This was his second time with us (see March 11, 1997 for his first jam), coming back for more java abuse. he played quite well, a slower groovier sound was then end result.
• The only other guest in the room was Mitch's friend Mitch. We have had no Brotman for several weeks now. Dennis was no where to be found but I hear he was in the building.
• Larry B. came in about 7:40 and we didn't get rolling until almost 8:00. This made for an alteration of the original setlist. as you can tell.
• I personally had a lot of trouble playing tonight. I didn't like my sound and only had moments of my new confidence that has lead me to some of my best playing in my life. I used Kevin's phaser box.
• Johnny was back in full force after not seeing us for several weeks due to Manilow (see his review in the April 17 comments)

• The Stranger out of the Bertha was a surprise to Kevin and I when Larry B. started it. It shouldn't have been, but it was. Kevin handled it well, I didn't. I was definitely having trouble communicating all night. I was in my own world and rarely reached out. I've done better thats for sure.
• Brown-Eyed Women started quickly with spunk and had a very constant beat. That is if you consider a constant rate of deceleration to be a constant beat. The spunk turned to melodic mush by the end.
• The Cassidy is a place where lack of communication had tangible results. We had our first whipless Cassidy maybe ever. It was nice. We jam hard during it. I never looked up for the whip or even the start of it, even though we toyed with it constantly, We then fell out of the Cassidy groove and our path toward the whip and never go the gusto up to do the whip. I saw Larry go to the mic to sing the closing verse and I was miraculously able to get in my riff. It was a weird Cassidy
• The Liberty was described as Calypso. It was okay, a bit too much of going through the motions.
• With time dwindling we strayed from the setlist and went for a Flourent order into Playing in the Band. We decided not to select which song to go into out of the Playing and Larry started the Franklin's. A shock to me but a pleasing choice. We played it well. I had a lot of problems getting into the Playing groove. It wasn't our best.
• The Deal was real slow and groovy and a great twang to it. It was reminiscent of early Deals, and like them, we didn't play and ending jam. That was a surprise to me and slightly disappointing. I was okay because by then we had already played several long jams.
• The Scarlet close was played very quickly with a lively feel. We flew through it with confidence and never floundered. The jam was good, coherent and finished with a nice closing riff.

• We have to give Johnny full credit for implementing a terrific meal. He got the prejam drinks, and batteries and then also did the Flourent and deli. We all owe him a great deal of gratitude for doing such a good job.
• The primary food were Flourent (cheese) burgers, fries, mashed potatoes and , who can forget, Pecan Pie. Actually the Flourentians forgot the Pecan Pie and Johnny had to go back for it. It was worth it with a nice hard glaze pecaneesed crust on top of cool soft pecan slush. While lacking a strong bourbon bite. It was still pretty darn good. I should work on the Food Channel.
• After dinner we learned of Kevin's love of Neal, the strong manly massager. Kevin's was talking of getting a Neil to service the band a future jams. I don't like the sound of it. I could live with the hammock.

• Due to the typical lack of time we only played tow of the proposed five songs.
• The China Rider was normal to me. The Rider became a chore

It was very comfortable in the room but outside were some thunderstorms that came in from the west which were enjoyed by Johnny.

Name: KEVIN
Date: 5/2/97
Time: 8:18:30 AM

Comments

All the bullshit stripped away reveals one truth...We play Grateful Dead music well. With all the critiquing and distractions going on, it's sometimes hard to see the reality and essence of our weekly experience. Week in, week out, with guests, without guests, slow, fast...bottom line: we really can, effortlessly, pull out one of 150 songs and genuinely rip-it-up! Boy, is that a good thing. Last nite was the perfect example. We had Mitch as substitute drummer-of-the-day, who added a different delicious flavor to the soup, yet we adapted to the recipe change without the blink of an eye, yielding a dish fit for a freak. God, I love that about us. One highlight that stands out from last nite: The gind's face as Johnny was singing "I Know You Rider" with an enthusiasm and drama usually not seen outside of Bellevue.

Name: Larry
Date: 5/2/97
Time: 8:27:52 AM

Comments

Watching Johnny sing during the Rider was a great thrill. It enabled me to leave a happy man.

Name: Larry G.
Date: 5/2/97
Time: 8:29:51 AM

Comments

This is just to let you know of an Email address change for me. My email address is now:

lgindoff@interactive.net

Please take note of this change. Thanks for your indulgence.

Name: Coffee Boy
Date: 5/3/97
Time: 11:32:07 AM

Comments

You Have a lot of Free timee.......Huh?

Name: Larry G.
Date: 5/3/97
Time: 2:06:37 PM

Comments

There are very few with as much free time as I. The world is the beneficiary. Enjoy it.

Name: Larry B
Date: 5/3/97
Time: 3:46:03 PM

Comments

Here's to Larry's creative use of time!!!!

Name: KEVIN
Date: 5/3/97
Time: 4:35:59 PM

Comments

Just to change the subject, - I keep forgeting to mention this: You can get FM radio reception all the way through the Midtown Tunnel ! About 6 weeks ago, on the way home from jamming , going through the tunnel it really freaked me out...man. Are Jerseyite's as lucky ?

Name: Larry G.
Date: 5/4/97
Time: 12:28:33 AM

Comments

We have always had AM radio in our tunnels but never FM. The worst thing is when they interupt a show with a traffic warning.

Name: Menaker
Date: 5/4/97
Time: 11:55:16 PM

Comments

Did you guys receive 16 Emails from some crazy guy named Gibson?

Name: Larry G.
Date: 5/5/97
Time: 12:56:10 AM

Comments

I got a billion emails from Scott and I am good for Wednesday.

Name: Larry B
Date: 5/5/97
Time: 5:52:15 PM

Comments

Early notice, next week Thurs 5/15 Dave B sitting in

Name: Captain Email
Date: 5/5/97
Time: 8:57:00 PM

Comments

Glad it wasn't a big file I was sending. Had a problem deleting message from the outbox after one message couldn't get delivered. I think it was the Gind's change of address that fouled things up. Anyway thanx for the switch to Wednesday.

Name: Larry G. Webmaster
Date: 5/5/97
Time: 11:46:31 PM

Comments

Hey, for all you TV heads, check out the new and improved links page.

Highlight is the Internet Gaming Zone, it's multi-player gaming for free over the net just a little downloading. I had a great Spades game with four people within 20 minutes of logging on and becoming a memeber and loading software. A good experience and had a great game. These guys were good but didn't know who they were dealing with.

Check out the links, the TV Stations have good ones.