1/22/2014

For this week's Deadstein jam we were expecting a lot of freak to take place, and for the most part, the freak seemed a bit contained. For one thing, Alan was due to be on vacation and we were expecting Larry Brent to play lead guitar for the night. Since the day leading up to the jam had a challenging snow storm, Larry decided not to venture into the cold and stay at home in NJ. This was probably a mistake as the trip into the city was quick and easy. The only real weather issue was a continuation of 2014's bitter cold.

Both Kevin and I got there early and got the room setup for recording. When I found out the news that Larry wasn't coming, and I was going to be the only guitarist, I disassembled the microphone I had setup in front of his amp. This did give me the ability to add the second microphone to record the piano which I did use as an SM-57 under the piano.

Lots of our songs began with small jams to get us acclimated to the beats and the Feel Like a Stranger opener was such a song. This resulted in it being a nice long 12-minute version. I applied some wacky synth filters on Kevin's bass during the Stranger and for a few songs in the first set. This gave the whole thing a pretty cool sound. I think we were playing pretty well for the most part for both the beginning and end of the night. Unlike most jams, Deadstein really kept up its energy and focus through the last notes of the jam. The Sugar Magnolia to close the night was pretty surprisingly good.

As far a guests, we had Deadstein's good old friend MB join us for the second half of the jam. Michael usually brings a few guests to ride his coat-tails to experience the Deadstein vortex and we had a few of them that we didn't know. People were busy at the jam never really getting enough time to get up and do a good quality spin job at Deadstein.

Toward the end of the night we were having GarBand requests blurted out to us and we took on each of those challenges and responded with some good versions. It's No Use, Valerie and Stop that train after 11:30 could be a recipe for disaster, but this week it was a recipe for success and the quality Sugar Magnolia was jsu the icing on the cake. The second set Sailor Saint has some nice relaxing vibes to it, more so than usual. Considering all the distractions we had, we still managed to play a healthy 18 songs, which is pretty respectable night of music. Respectable is usually not a word associated with Deadstein, freak tends to be our word, so word and Freak Out!