[hogan]

^^^^^^^totally goofing around. Vic has it good and i'm sure it didn't always come this easy.

[playingdead]

No, I'm not Seth. And I knew Hogan was kidding because I'm not pretty.

My point is, if you take as a given that the musicians in question are accomplished on their instruments -- and a perusal of audio and video recordings posted by many of the folks on this website demonstrates that there are plenty of them out there -- you can cherry pick lead guitar, bass, rhythm guitar, keys and drums from any number of quality Dead cover bands across this country who have never met, put them onstage somewhere with great sound and monitors, without a rehearsal, and they should be able to deliver 3 hours of quality music. I'm not suggesting playing Unbroken Chain, Money Money and the full Weather Report Suite here, but I would bet you China -> Rider -> PITB -> UJB -> Drums -> Dark Star -> The Other One -> Stella Blue -> Sugar Magnolia would be effortless.

Now, I've seen my share of Dead cover bands with terrible keyboard players, bad singers or drummers with no meter. I'm talking about accomplished musicians who happen to be Deadheads and play professionally. Plenty of people here could sit in with DSO tonight on their instrument and it would sound just fine. Plenty of guitar players on here are better guitarists than I will ever be. But if you are a Deadhead, and a talented musician, rehearsal is not required to play Grateful Dead music well live. Would it be better rehearsed? Sure. Do you have to sit there and learn Me and My Uncle as a band to play it well if everyone knows the tune? No.

[Wicky King]

I agree. With good players who play in Dead bands you should be able to mix and match five guys from five different bands, say you have 50 guys, how ever many combinations of, for example, five players you can make out of those 50 players (I'm bad at math), they should all be able to nail it-- not Unbroken Chain or whatever, but you could have easily 50-60 songs to pick from right off the bat. And if you happened to have five guys who were completely down with Unbroken Chain or maybe Born Cross-Eyed, you could pull that off too, I'd imagine.

[jahozer]

I have never been here and obviously this kind of thing has happened before, and it sounds like it happens a lot. I don't normally frequent sites like this and I'm realizing that there are probably a lot of d-bags posting a lot of irritating stuff. I get it. I'm not that guy.

Nope! Pretty much just you, dude! Just gotta poke around before poppin off, man.

I agree with all the talk of sitting in with other Dead musicians. Its a great musical language, thats not unlike jazz standards. You can go anywhere and at least have a hootenanny if you happen accross a couple of other like minded heads. Or sit in and play the dead standards.
The most irritating thing I hear from casual players, is "its all 3 chord songs, dude. We'll just make it up like they did...nobody will know" Fake your way with a pentatonic and die, I always say...

Its been a frustrating journey since moving and trying to form a dead/jam band. The internet, while connecting me with you awesome players at least virtually, adds a layer of weirdness to an already decidedly flaky set of people. We have gone through countless of craigslist "also rans".

Our line up is pretty solid now. Good musicians, nice people, all with relatively the same commitment level. We all have wives, kids, lawnmowers, etc. But damn there is a pile of rejects that in the early forming days, we kept around too long. You either get this stuff or you dont. Plenty of musicians treat it with such disrespect, that we learned to sniff them out quick. Musical ability is a requisite, but knowing it is a must too.

Like I said, the lineup is such that while we don't nail it as a tribute, we get close enough to show the respect it deserves, and have fun with it for a bunch of balding dudes in... and a chick (my lovely wife)

[Wicky King]

I'm running into this with my other Dead band. We had a show tonight, nice crowd, they dug it, but these guys just do not know a lot of the songs, they dig the music but...I think there needs to be a certain level of obsession involved. So there were moments, there were, the rhythm section is solid, but philosophically, it's just not really happening.

The thing about like minded players, within that subset some people have more chemistry with certain people than they do with other people, no matter how talented they might happen to be. That's a big key, I think, finding people to play with who you have great chemistry with.

[bpg21]

[quote=".I think there needs to be a certain level of obsession involved. [/quote]

I gotta agree with this. I find that the casual Dead listener/musician rarely is able to really nail this stuff. It's more than knowing the chords. You really need to dissect it and internalized it. I can tell within a couple of measures if the band has done it's homework. I began as a bluegrass player and to play a three chord bluegrass tune CORRECTLY takes a certain level of obsession. You see this in almost every style of music out there.

[Rusty the Scoob]

Man, this thread turned refreshing! I've been in so many bands where the guys think that all they have to do is spend X amount of hours in the practice room and they'll be a great band... nothing could be further from the truth IMHO. I even had one that was getting together once a week, totally unprepared, accomplishing nothing, and they thought the solution would be to get together twice a week.

Of all the bands I've been in, the best ones have been the ones that practiced the least. I think Fennario's gotten together to practice exactly once in the past 12 months. I wouldn't necessarily call it the easy approach, though... it requires a lot of individual preparation and obsessive listening really helps. Then you just show up to the gig, know your role and trust each other.

[jester536]

I about spit my coffee all over my computer after Hogan's crack about Vic being the prettiest in the class. Good stuff. As always I'm envious. You guys seem to have a wealth of musicians to pull from. I've been playing since my early teens and never been in a full band of dyed-in-the-wool deadheads. I wish it would happen sometime...but there just ain't that many of us in this neck of the woods. I understand the concept of a bunch of true deadheads being able to get together and pull off a full show of good music...but I think you guys tend to downplay the level of your musicianship. All the bands I've seen video of on this site...these are not just good players that know the dead very well...these are remarkable players that have an encyclopedic knowledge of the music...and in many cases apparently have a strong bond with the people they are playing with. It's a special thing you guys have...and a treat for the people that get to see you live. It's magic and you make it seem easy. Thanks.

[Pete B.]

I agree. With good players who play in Dead bands you should be able to mix and match five guys from five different bands, say you have 50 guys, how ever many combinations of, for example, five players you can make out of those 50 players (I'm bad at math), they should all be able to nail it-- not Unbroken Chain or whatever, but you could have easily 50-60 songs to pick from right off the bat. And if you happened to have five guys who were completely down with Unbroken Chain or maybe Born Cross-Eyed, you could pull that off too, I'd imagine.

I wish it were true, but I have to disagree on the "take any group of Deadheads..." thing.
In my expierience, anything beyond the beginner level songs like Franklins and Bertha and... Here Comes Trainwreck is next.
ime, The first G to F# in Cumberland will fuck up most casual DeadHead bandmembers.
Most guys can't play in 7/4 for any length of time.... Forget about Lazy Lightnin', UJB, Estimated (you know the Bridge, right?)...
Playin' ITB, Slipknot?, good luck.
Halfstep solo chords. Even the cream can't agree on F or Dm.
I wouldn't call anything with more than 3 chords without factual evidence that the others know, and are able to play, the agreed upon version of any given song.

[DenverEd]

We are a fairly new band, but all are hardcore Heads. That being said, it still takes a couple of run throughs for everyone to agree on how we are going to play any particular song. It does help that we all have had, and continue to have, the same soundtrack running through our lives.

It is way too much fun to plan to play a song and nail it (relatively speaking) the first time out of the box.

[Wicky King]

Certainly the more everybody is down with the material the better chance that the music will play the band. That's the other side of it.
I think with really good players you can, unrehearsed, deliver a product that the audience will get off on, dance and twirl to, hoot and holler, etc. But then, when you add in chemistry and also degrees of understanding of the material, that's when you can achieve secret circus status, which is really what you're after, imo. To me, the Dead didn't really ever sound like the Dead, if you see what I mean, when the music started playing them there's like this secret music that comes out. When the band would heat up like that it's like they're playing to the sounds their hands and instruments make between the notes and chords and beats they're laying down, like that's the stuff that's being accentuated and punctuated and that's what fosters the addiction to the stuff.

[strumminsix]

I've jumped in to play with a few other GD bands and can EASILY step in IF they are playing the song correctly. Sadly, to many bands play songs as they THINK they hear it and never compare it with recordings.

[jahozer]

Man, this thread turned refreshing! I've been in so many bands where the guys think that all they have to do is spend X amount of hours in the practice room and they'll be a great band... nothing could be further from the truth IMHO. I even had one that was getting together once a week, totally unprepared, accomplishing nothing, and they thought the solution would be to get together twice a week.

Of all the bands I've been in, the best ones have been the ones that practiced the least. I think Fennario's gotten together to practice exactly once in the past 12 months. I wouldn't necessarily call it the easy approach, though... it requires a lot of individual preparation and obsessive listening really helps. Then you just show up to the gig, know your role and trust each other.

The lack of individual practice drives me insane with some guys. If you are lucky enough to have a group of dudes that can sit in at the drop of a hat and know everything cold, then thats a luxury, and an extreme one at that. Most of us are not that fortunate. You tend to go to war with the army you have, so I like group practice, but I expect a level of individual homework. Unfortunately the lack there of is why group practice is necessary.

I liken what we do to community theater. We all have jobs and have given up wanting to be rock stars, but enjoy putting on a decent show. There is an expectation that when you sign up for community theater, you have the time to commit to it, and that means learning your lines AWAY from rehearsal.

If you were to exhibit the amount of laziness that musicians toss around, you would be kicked to curb and pissed on by the entire production. I am amazed at how many guys who do this as a hobby, but on a semi-pro level, dont want to learn or do anything that that involves a modicum of effort. It seems some dudes get to a point where they may have been in a cool band at some point waaay back in the day, and feel that they just dont need to try.

Try waltzing into a theater production, no matter how bumfuck it is, and say, "oh yeah, dude. I didnt have time to go over it this week. Hows it go?" I mean some dont even listen to the shit! My current line up is pretty good about it, but there is still an element of that with some. We have struggled in the past keeping those guys around just too long, but in the end it just aint worth it.

[Wicky King]

Exactly. What they think they're hearing. This is what happened at my show last night, two of the guys, what it is is they're naive I guess, they'll defer to the studio stuff before the live stuff. I keep trying to explain that with the live stuff you have a perfect template to work off of, everybody should know where everything is. The fact that I'm even trying to explain this tells you everything you need to know. Sure, there's stuff that needs to be worked out, like how do you want to start Samson, say. But anyway, it's very frustrating playing with people who aren't completely down with the material-- and of course they're the ones with Dead t-shirts and bandanas and the rest of it, lol.

[strumminsix]

IMO, the studio stuff tells ya WHAT to do but the live stuff tells ya HOW to do it!

I call it rehearsal, practice is what you do on your own time.