12/30/2013

"Freaking Since 1990" is what the sign a top the Terrapin's cabin says and this jam, the night before New Years Eve 2014, was a jam to commemorate not only the new year but also the longevity of Deadstein itself. Still playing Deadstein into 2014 has a nice ring to it. Happy New Years and a freaky 2014 from Deadstein to all the freaks out there.

Deadstein is going strong after all these years and the 53rd jam of the year is a testament to it. This holiday season was a challenge to keep the freak parade going with everyone's busy schedules, but some how we did it and didn't miss a beat from a scheduling perspective. Not skipping a beat while playing is a whole other matter. Scott was our only missing person this week as he was busy filming one of the many shows he has been to over the season.

While Scott films, I continue to record the jam sessions with my Mackie MDR 24/96 multi-track hard disk recorder. While you think 53 jams is going strong, how about 20 multi-track recordings since August. That is quite a bit of high quality music to remember 2013 with.

Deadstein has long been a believer in archiving its music and the merriment that accompanies its weekly jams ever since day 1. Over the past week or so, the Deadstein.com jams database has been updated with reference to adding the remaining Deadstein blog posts since the first days of blogging beginning in July 1996. Some say Deadstein invented early blogging, but I think it is only Al Gore and Kevin who make that claim. Previously, the database had only gone back as far as 1998. With this update, I was also able to find and include classic Kevin setlist artwork from the second half of the 1996 time-frame. These setlists had previously only existing on paper and never included on the web at Deadstein.com. Look for some of this new-old-stock (N.O.S.) artwork to pop up randomly throughout your Deadstein.com travels. Finally, speaking of archives, I continue to trickle in and update some of the classic recordings from the earliest days of Deadstein as I find time to digitize and upload the original cassettes. This week I uploaded 11-5-90 jam from 162 Perry Street.

Getting back to the end of 2013, with New Years Eve falling on Tuesday night, a Monday night jam or Thursday night jam were the only hopeful nights to jam so we selected Monday without Scott. Lee filled in quite nicely by himself. We were already in this Monday jam mode from the previous week as we were impacted the same way by Christmas. It did kind of force us into one last jam of the year, number 53, which I like, but it also pushes of the first of 2014 up a little. We are going to have to keep our focus in 2014 to keep the jam frequency up at 2013 levels.

Getting into the jam seemed easy this evening as it seemed none of the world was working. I was working but was able to get in early and setup seemed quick and easy, not much moved from the previous week in Studio B. Getting out of the jam was not nearly as easy for me. It was a frigid night in the metropolitan area and I was psyched to be in my warming car after the at 12:20 heading to the Lincoln Tunnel down 11th Avenue, when - BOOM - I hit a giant pothole. That woke me up a bit. Just before I was to pull into the Lincoln Tunnel entrance I decided to pull over at the Javitz Center to just check on my tire. Sure enough, it was hissing louder than my 1990-cassettes . Changing this flat in 20-degree weather was a real awakening. After about 30 minutes of very difficult work in the cold I was off and running with my doughnut The ride home was exceptionally squirrelly but I made it home by 1:45 and was fortunate to get the tire(s) changed the next morning before the place closed at 1pm for New years and before the impending snow and cold weather pattern to follow. "When life looks like easy street there is danger at your door." Let's be careful out there in 2014 and remember it's not 1990 anymore.

Speaking of 1990, like our first jam in 1990, we opened this one up with a Jack Straw and it felt pretty good and that feeling continued through the El Paso. The misplaced first set Scarlet had trouble garnering the respect it deserved and the Fire even less so as it took Kevin probably 1/2 the song to remember that Fire typically does follow a Scarlet. With this said, it had its movements, which it better have had some, because at 26 minutes, if it doesn't have any moments, I mean, WTF? Minglewood Blues brought us back into form and Push Comes to Shove knocked us right out of it. The Cats, You Win Again into Music Never Stopped was the closer of the first set which ended up being pretty hefty. I think my resolution for 2014 should be to learn how to jam on Music Never Stopped correctly. I always feel so inept while jamming that song.

We took a very long break, I think we all felt a bit satiated with our accomplishments of the evening and 2013 and felt as if there was little else to prove. In many respects we are right and the second set seemed a bit difficult to muster up the required enthusiasm. The Estimated into Terrapin was well executed for the most part, but another mini-break after the Terrapin meant whatever was reaming for the year (Gomorrah, Evangeline and Midnight Moonlight) would be petifores at best, as all the beef for the year had been devoured long ago. Not to fret because the butcher has a load of fresh bloody meat to deliver for our consumption in 2014.

For 53 jams in 2013, Freak Out!