10/14/2013

Another freakin' week of Deadstein on a Monday night and once again we have Lee solo on the drum as Scott is still on vacation. Otherwise, the whole band was there until Donna left just after halftime. Like the past several weeks, I once again dragged my multi-track recording equipment into the room to capture the music. Also like last week, I made a stupid error in not verifying the setup before we started to play. As such, during the I realized that I had failed to plug in the connection for Rich's piano and vocals as well as Alan's vocals, but I was able to get the plugged in half way through the Way You Do the Things You Do. The direct feed from Kevin's bass was also missing for the entire first song and half way through the second song, Catfish John. I don't think it was my fault as far as missing something with respect to Kevin's issues, but somehow his bass kicked in half way through the Catfish John and remained present for the rest of the night.

We didn't have a plan for the song selection at all, but I was still trying to figure out songs which we needed to capture a good version of, so I was trying to be a bit creative. That's what guided me to the GarBand opener. After we, especially Kevin and Lee ,became totally befuddled on the 3-chord That's What Love Will Make You Do, I decided to go back to some Grateful Dead in order to wipe those cob-webs out. The Queen Jane served its purpose in this role nicely. Too bad because the beginning of the TWLWMYD had a nice feel to it and during the break, it broke us.

There were lots of nice easy grooves throughout the evening including the Queen Jane, I felt like Lee was nice and easy and relaxed on the drums. This carried through into some of the slower numbers including the To Lay Me Down and the Lost Sailor.

When it came time for Donna to do a Beatles song she asked to do I'll Follow the Sun, which was short and sweet, so short that we played it a second time in an attempt to get a better version out of it. That's It For the Other One was meant o get us into a nice jamming sequence after Donna left but we had problems finding our way in the Other One. Much like the Women are Smarter from the previous week, the Other One should be a Deadstein staple with an easy groove that we should all latch on to but we seem disparate while we play it not providing it with the foundation it deserves.

The world is round, what more needs to be said. Freak Out!