City Winery (The Loft), New York
City Winery (The Loft), New York
04 Playining the Bannd Wheel Playin'.mp3
07 That's What Love Will Make You Do.mp3
Rennie and Friends with Deadstein backup up the music hit the City Winery for the second time this fall to close out our epic Fall Tour. This time, everything went well as there was no Hurricane to greet us as we left the venue. This show was billed as a Merry Jerry and Happy New Weir show featuring song choices from Jerry and Bob's solo albums. It worked well our 13-song show was quick, precise, entertaining and a lot of fun. We had about half of the Loft filled and more of it sold and all who were there seemed to really enjoy the show. A cool aspect of the show which I didn't expect and was cool was to see the dancers all over of the edges of the room swaying to the grooves. It wasn't all Jappy Long Island girls sitting quietly at the tables eating haughty-taughty flay breads and drinking Chardonnay. There were genuine Freaks at the show with a genuine Shakedown Street right outside the entrance to the Loft.
As far as musicians while, a smaller group than the previous City Winery show we still had more than a bakers dozen in the band testing the limits of the soundman at the Loft who was a pleasure to work with. While I din't get a soundboard recording, which was a bummer, we were able to set cameras up all over the room which left us with a nice memory of the night as the video recordings are fun. Rennie lead the circus with Deadstein behind him featuring Drew and Scott on drums. It was nice to see Drew's family come out and see what he's been working on over the past few years. His kids seemed mesmerized by all the equipment and he also had handy helpers to assist with moving the drums out of the Loft. Andy was playing his newly refretted Ibanez and I was on my PRS,both of us into Twins.On the other sieof the stage were Kevin into his High School bass setup and Rich had his electric piano. Besides Rennie and Deadstein, in the middle and getting shuffled in and out of select numbers were Bob, Lovelight, Alyssa on Violin, Adam on Strat and KC on bass. Once again a crowded green room and hopefully not a super-spreader event during the re-emerging pandemic. Speaking of super-spreaders, the humus and all the other hospitality provided by the City Winery were great. Free dinner including great Brussel Spouts, wine, pizza, rice balls, humus was a great way to kill the time between load in and show time. You can't kill all the hours in front of the place waiting for show time.
From the sound check to the first number, How Sweet It Is, the music felt pretty comfortable throughout the night and the stage mix was good for use to play our music. Kevin was very tough to pickup in the final mix, an oddity to our sound but otherwise the audience recording coupled with the videos give a great presentation of the night.
For the most part, the music was good, How Sweet It Is was right on with Andy and Alyssa trading leads,I wish Alyssa was louder. She needs to acquire a pickup system that provides her a volume knob so she and rise and fall with the band's dynamics. The vocals even sounded genuine. The Black Throated Winded sent everyone off stage except for classic Deadstein providing our most intimate band of the night. Following we had KC and Adam sub in for Keven and Andy for the Catfish, also surprising how good that felt. Deadstein came back for the most jam-filled part of the night as we performed and really good 20-minutes Playing --> Wheel --> Playing in the Band. While nothing too crazy, it showed some of the cool places to which Deadstein can go. The same was with the following Birdsong. Nice and jammy and spacey, giving the audience that freaky Grateful Dead experience. The Easy to Slip surprised me how that ended up also, a pleasant song that like we gave it the right Bob Weir treatment. The Loser was just big and really showed-off Andy's ability to play some smokin' Jerry leads. Sat Night definitely wakes everyone up and gets them rockin' out of space and the Deal just solidifies that feeling. The Brokedown Palace to close the night violated the solo album criteria, but it was the end of the biggest Deadstein series of shows and a fitting way to say thanks for being there with us and supporting and endeavors.
Happy Holidaze and Freak Out!