2/4/1999

The timing of this week was up in the air until early in the week.  Either Kevin or I were going to make the big sacrifice and miss the jam due to pre-existing arrangements.  I had my Tuesday MCMUA meeting and Kevin had some Thursday wedding in Texas, don't ask him about it, he'll just burp in you face.  Anyway, I was all set to miss this week, chalk it up to "what can you do" but due to the season's flu propensity, which hit Scott and Larry a bit,  the jam was pushed to Thursday to not only my benefit but also Dave's who apparently loves playing bass for us.

There was left over booze from last week's Friday night fiesta breast bongo bash.  I think Scott was still dragging a bit due to it but memories were still glistening in his head. 

Guests included Paul, another furniture guy who seem to like us, Jason, who had a few to many to stand behind the bar.  The comfy chair with a sock over his eyes and an iced screwdriver was more his speed.   Brotpen couldn't get out of his cage to show, so it was also lacking on the left side like it was on the right drums.

And lets not forget the human wiggling metronome, and we're talking the real freak man here, not the pretend one of the crab variety.  Yes, Michael was there to urge us on, soaking up the tunes and screaming encore by the end of the night.   As usual when he arrives, he inspired us enough to help us forget our mundane urges for food so we can keep going with the hot tunes we were playing.  Sometimes when you play so well you just don't want to stop and spoil the moment.  Lost musical opportunities for everyday obtainable slices of pizza seem to to just that, lost opportunity.

I felt good from a guitar perspective, I put on my first set of Vinci strings and found out that really makes a difference.  They were impressive.   It helped my amp and guitar combo sound as good as they ever did.  I felt like I had total control over my tone last night.  It was really comfortable.  I was playing some of my best guitar of my life and was loving it.

We broke out Freak Magnet for the first time in probably 5 years, Dave's original about the attraction of Deadstein to Freakish-Oxide.  I had no clue how it was supposed to sound, Larry somehow remembered some type of beginning intro and off we went.  Trister was playing drums during it and we rocked.  It was tough to hear Dave's singing but nevertheless it played like a song.  I pulled off one of my better leads of my life during it.  No effects either which makes me feel even better about it. 

We then played the Mississippi Moon where I was also shocking myself with what came out of my guitar and it was hot.  We then were to play Box of Rain so I decided to do the drum thing for the Box but we preempted it for the Hendrix song, which Dave wanted to play.  I never heard that song before but I was playing some of my better drums during it. 

I stuck around on the sticks for the Box of Rain and also really clicked in to the beat, like a real drummer.  Scott and I slapped sticks when it was all over.  We started the Tore Up and I wore out my welcome on the drums as that song proved much harder to pull off.  I humbly slumped back to my guitar realizing that if I were to play drums for the long run I would need a hip replacement.

Larry seemed to mope about playing the Devil and in the end, the Devil was super hot.  Positively Fourth Street was also hot but the Cm in err was discordant with respect to Andy's C major.  Next time I won't play the minor and see if it works.

I think the first five minutes of the Other One was great, it had great tone and accents and was interesting.  It seemed to drone on a bit in the end but we finished it off with the hot Miracle.  The Dew was good with the exception of the climb into the first lead which I dropped out on.  Larry kept it going on the right track and pulled of the hot first lead. 

With Andy and I pulling for one last song and Larry and Scott wanting to leave, it was Michael's cries for an encore which made us play the Getaway.   The Getaway was really good, and had the hot closing of the song which left the crowd, all three of them, clapping in appreciation.  If I wasn't playing a guitar I would have also been clapping in appreciation.  As usual, Deadstein is just a powerful experience.  I think the Getaway was a great cap on the evening's music.