1/17/2013

After several weeks of working on material that can bit a bit outside of our range, Deadstein embarked on a jam that was closer to its roots. With Donna in Jamaica, and the standard six-man lineup, we had nothing to think about in our song selection except what would make us happy.

Everyone but Alan got there early, he had trouble getting a cab from his new home's location and was a little late. Nevertheless, we started a little before 8pm as we were eager to play. I was therefore thinking Garband until Alan arrived and initially suggested a How Sweet It Is opener. Kevin hemmed and hawed and said he wanted a song that was a little less feminine. A song he could be proud of when someone asks him what Deadstein opened with. With that in mind I then suggested a Jack Straw which was met with enthusiasm and Lee requested it go into a Franklins Tower. With that type of meaty buffet served Kevin and the rest of Deadstein was set for a satiating evening. It was a hot opener. We then went into a Little Red Rooster as Lee was thinking we don't play enough of that standard Grateful Dead blues stuff anymore. During the second lead of Rooster Alan came in and bum-rushed the microphone with his harmonica. Having nice monitors these days, and not sound-checking his microphone, caused his harmonica to overwhelm the room and bring the vibe of that song to a grinding halt.

We continued on with our Grateful Dead onslaught from there on. Playing lots of fast and just lots of A1-Dead-dsongs; steak sauce. Ryan was our only guest and he played drums for a songs or two with us. For the second set we somehow found ourselves, attacking Live Dead performing the Dark Start, Stephen, Eleven, Death as a coherent medley of music. We capped it off with a Watchtower to close. This still gave us time for a nice Uncle John's band based mini-set to close the evening. An excellent, back to our roots jam.