"All of my friends - come to see me last night ..."

Well ... the last two nights. The band was blown away by the amount of people we had who came out to see us two nights in a row at Harpers Ferry in Boston.

We were originally booked for Saturday night, Jan. 5. We got an email from the club on New Years Eve saying that the band originally booked for Friday Jan. 4 had canceled, and they offered to let us play two nights. Well, we were a little concerned about playing to a sparse crowd both nights by splitting it up that way, especially with very little time to get the word out. But when they told us we could leave the stage set up Friday night for Saturday, that was the clincher. Show up 20 minutes before we go on and just walk on stage and pick up the instruments and play? Just like a real rock star? We were in.

We confirmed the date on New Years Day, and the emails went out first thing Wednesday morning. Two days later, we loaded the gear in, set up the stage, and went to our usual place for dinner, Li's, the Vietnamese place in Allston right down the street.

(Excellent food, by the way, and killer Vietnamese coffee -- super strong with sweetened condensed milk. Talk about altering your consciousness; our friend Steve Grattan made a rare appearance all the way from Plymouth, and between sets on Saturday, he told me, "I haven't had a beer all night, just the Vietnamese coffee." He wondered if the place was open late so he could get another one after the show. If he did, he's probably still awake; I could use one myself - it's 9 am and I got home at 3:30 am. But, I digress.)

We got back to the club at about 9:30 pm, and it was largely empty. Uh-oh. But it's usually that way. A few people were straggling in, and we took the stage at 10 pm with some familiar faces in attendance. As usual, by about the third or fourth song, I looked up and the room was full of Deadheads. Big smiles all around.

But we were still nervous about Saturday night ... I mean, we all used to go see the Dead consecutive nights, but we ain't the Grateful Dead. Nonetheless, on Saturday, there were even MORE people there than the night before ... it looked like everyone from Friday came back and brought a few friends. Awesome sight.

We tried a few risky moves ... playing "Get Out of My Life Woman" for the first time without so much as a rehearsal. And we threw all caution to the wind and played "Reuben and Cherise," which was surprisingly good, considering we absolutely butchered it the last time we tried it in the spring. And Jimbo couldn't resist stretching "The Other One" out across both nights ... you got the first verse Friday and the second one Saturday.

And I would be remiss without thanking Geoff Wadhams for sitting in on keyboards all weekend; Mark was in Florida with his family. Geoff came from Connecticut (where he plays with the band Shakedown, among others), and brought a real Hammond B3 organ and Leslie, as well as his other keyboards. Now, a Hammond weighs about 425 pounds and it's huge. I think you could live inside the road case he has for it. Only a serious organ player totes one around, and Geoff is a serious organ player. He shook the house all night long, both nights. What a treat for us.

We shot video the first night, thanks to Michael Kalish and Generation Productions, and got good soundboard recordings, so there may be some treats forthcoming.

What a great show of support for us; it really reaffirms to Harpers (and to us) that there is a strong scene for Grateful Dead music here in Boston. Thank you for listening!

Vic

A fine night at Harpers

As always, a great time at Harpers for our annual pre-Christmas show.

Another death-defying feat by the band-that-does-not-rehearse, as we pulled off a surprisingly tight version of "Ain't it Crazy (The Rub)" with no rehearsal beyond one quick verse and how to actually start it during soundcheck.

For the guitarists keeping score, the Grateful Dead play this song in E. We all learned it by listening to an MP3 version from the Fillmore East in 1971 the week before the show. When we got to the gig, Mark told us he wanted to sing it in the key of G, which is easy enough, except I learned all the guitar riffs in an E chord position. Fortunately, I had a capo on me. That may reappear from time to time, it's an interesting tonal variation shortening the neck like that. I just have to remember to put it on -- and take it off -- at the appropriate moments. Like right before we started the tune, Mark reminded me, a true trainwreck and tragedy narrowly averted.

In an even more flagrant display of bravado, we played "Alligator," which is a fairly complicated little tune. We got through half of that in soundcheck, and with a couple of cheat sheets on the stage, we fumbled through it during the show. We were tempted to play "Unbroken Chain" but cooler heads prevailed.

The real holiday moment of the night was when our friend Frim Jolly (Jim Frawley) appeared from backstage in his Santa suit as we plowed through "Run, Run Rudolph" to close the first set. And we didn't get to a couple of requests because they shut us down 20 minutes early, so no encores we to be had.

Thanks to all the folks who come to see us, because the opportunity to play this music for you all is the greatest gift of all; we can't do it without you.



Here's yet another little video sample from the night ... we'll have more soon.

Happy holidays, and have a Jerry New Year.

Vic

Thank you for a real good time ...

We had a blast playing at Copperfield's in Boston last Friday with our buddies, the Peacheaters. It was a benefit for the Boston Food Bank, and although the stage was impossibly crowded with gear and musicians, both bands rocked it out for a good four and a half hours of music.

Playing Dead had a special guest, Steve Liesman, sitting in on guitar. John Bennett from the Peacheaters joined us on harp for "Mr. Charlie" and we got half the Peacheaters up for a wild 30-minute jam at the end of the night.

Here's a sample of Bertha from our set ...




And, for the gearheads out there, Santa came early for Jimbo, he got a new Modulus guitar, which sounds terrific.



Happy Holiday to all and we'll see you Friday Dec. 21 at Harpers Ferry. Santa will be in attendance.

Favorite GD moments

People ask me, sometimes, what was your favorite Dead show ... now there's an impossible question to answer. But I thought it might be fun to occasionally post some musical moments that I thought were particularly outstanding.

So we'll start with a show that is one of my all-time favorites, one of Brent's first shows, from the Broome County Arena in Binghamton NY, 5-9-79.

I have heard rumors that there is a soundboard that exists of this show, and even chased it back in the day when I was a tape collector, but it has never surfaced. (I even had David Gans check the Vault for me. It wasn't there.) Instead, there are a couple of audience versions up on archive.org, both have quite a bit of crowd noise, but this is a rockin' New York show and all that clapping along kind of adds to the fun. (This is from an admitted SBD snob.)

Now, this is an example of a show not a lot of people have heard, with a pretty pedestrian setlist, but the magic was there that night. There are three moments in particular that make it noteworthy to me:

1) The jam between He's Gone and Truckin' is, literally, some of the best playing I've ever heard from the Dead, and that is saying a lot. Not to get all musical on you, or anything, but it starts somewhat typically, with Jerry playing a melodical riff he did a lot around that era, but suddenly it takes on a life of its own ... Phil starts alternating between the root (E) and the fifth (B) and suddenly you have this very interesting tradeoff and interplay between Jerry and Bob which culminates in them playing twin lead guitar together very high up on the neck, something I have never heard on another Dead show. It's this incredibly graceful ballet of notes for a couple of minutes, really outstanding. It drops right into a really smoking version of ...

2) Truckin' -- I can hear you say, big deal, Truckin' ... but this one is a little bit different ... for starters, it starts off rocking, with the crowd clapping along and settles into the groove ... but there are no vocals. It trucks a long a little bit, the band pauses for a half-beat ... and does the intro all over again to speed up a little, something else I have never heard them do twice. Then we get the vocals, with Bob's usual flubbed verse or two ... and then the usual series of rising riffs that is supposed to culminate in the big Phil bomb ... except Phil misses the first one. I mean, it's built to a huge frenzy and the first bomb isn't there, so I can just imagine everyone in the crowd kind of falling over themselves. So the band kicks into this absolutely frenetic jam, with an Other One groove, which has Jerry doing this unbelievable piercingly high riff ... and they do the bombs again, and does Phil hit it? I guess he does ... instead of four times they do it eight times ... and he's hitting it so hard he's overloading the sound system. He then does some really nice little bass runs, to lead the jam into the drums.

3) Wharf Rat -- It's the jam at the end of this one that gets to me ... they pick up one that same tension-release thing they do at the end of Truckin' with Jerry and Bob going way up the neck, building, building, building ... and then releasing. And ... surprise ... Jerry takes them into Round and Round. But Bobby doesn't sing the first line. So they hit the Round and Round intro again. Bobby doesn't sing that time either. Jerry hits it a third time, and Bobby kicks the band into a ferocious version of Sugar Magnolia. And the crowd is clapping along, and the jam at the end before Sunshine Daydream is just ... well, it's the Dead at their rocking best.

If you're a musician who appreciates the Grateful Dead, you need to hear these moments. If you're a Deadhead, you should hear these moments too, because I suspect it will wind up as one of your favorites. I got this tape a few months after the concert happened ... and I have never stopped listening to it. The second set is a must-have.

Enjoy. Vic

The version I had way back then:
http://www.archive.org/details/gd79-05-09.naks.seff.4881.sbefixed.shnf

A different version, slightly better sound, a little more vocal crowd:
http://www.archive.org/details/gd79-05-09.glassberg.vernon.18875.sbeok.shnf

New York, got the ways and means ...

Well, we had a heck of an interesting Saturday excursion for the band as we travelled south from Boston down to New York City for our first gig at BB King's Blues club in Times Square.

The East Coast was being lashed by the former Hurricane Noel, but that didn't deter us from loading up the gear and driving through the storm, which fortunately was already leaving New York by the time we got close. Somewhere in Connecticut, the skies began to clear, the rain abated and it turned out to be a beautiful night.

Of course, unloading all the gear and hauling it inside the club while illegally parking in the bus lane out front with the flashers on is an interesting experience ... but we had ample help (thanks, Ben!).

There was a Mexican ska band booked into the main room before us; they went on at 8 pm, and had, it seemed, about 30 band members, all milling about backstage, so we piled our gear up where we could and found something to occupy ourselves until 11 pm, when we could get set up, order our complimentary dinners and prepare to play.

Unfortunately, our timing couldn't have been worse, because all 30 Mexican musicians came streaming offstage at the exact same moment our dinners were arriving, and they lost no time scarfing down our pulled pork and turkey club sandwiches. Apparently, the servers have to be more specific when they say "These are for the band," as in *which* band. But the club was quick in re-ordering everything and we didn't have to take the stage starving.

And let's just say no one should have to witness what the backstage dressing rooms look like when there are 30 musicians plus their guests back there before you ... but the club staff took care of that swiftly.

With daylight savings time working in our favor, we took the stage at 12:15 am; played two nice long sets, finished up at 4:15 am. We had a great crowd, about 750 people. It's always a high-energy show playing in the city, and this was no exception. We got to meet a lot of cool new people.

My favorite moment was after the show, when a woman approached me with a terrific smile, and said she was Jerry Garcia's chef for eight years, and she knew ol' Jer was up there somewhere with a big smile on his face. "I've seen every Grateful Dead cover band out there, and then some," she said, "and you guys are by far the best I've ever seen." Now that is a serious compliment!

It was extra fun for me, because some of my old high school friends were in attendance, and some of Brian's buddies were there, as well. The club was thrilled with the turnout -- thanks for the assistance, Phil, it helps when Mr. Lesh is playing right around the corner. They assured us they will have us back soon.

The ride home was slightly crazy ... we loaded up on coffee and Krispy Kreme donuts and hauled ass back to Boston. Now it's time to sleep all day Sunday.

And, as always, I can't tell you how much it means to the band to see some of our regulars in the crowd, no matter how far we stray from home. We love you guys.

Thanks for checking in!

Vic

Welcome ...

Welcome to Playing Dead's new blog ... a way for the band to communicate with friends and family.