1/27 DLC - Grateful Dead Pack 02!

**Abomstar** · Joined: 28 Jul 2006 Posts: 994 Location: Utica, NY

Decided to take this pack out for a spin on drums. I'm not the most adept drummer, and don't typically play them that much, but the first Grateful Dead pack is one of the standards that I play virtually every time I do (other highlights being The Killers and Mission of Burma packs). What draws me to the Dead songs on drums is mostly the "feel" of them; those songs seem very organic to play. It's one of the rare cases where I feel like I'm actually playing the drum track, not just playing to it.

And for the most part these new songs hold up in that respect; the best examples being Doin' That Rag, Uncle John's Band, and Cold Rain & Snow.

Doin' That Rag might actually be my favorite song of the week for Rock Band. The charts are rather intriguing, it has a tricky guitar solo, and the song is full of tempo shifts and unusual start/stop dynamics.

Cold Rain & Snow drums is worth a mention, as it plays like a punk song. Very fast and a ton of rolls. Challenging, but easily overlooked.

These also seem like far better songs for vocals than the first pack, although I haven't tried them yet. Hell in a Bucket has some really great delivery, and even Uncle John's Band, despite being tier 0, seems fun because of the harmonies.

So yeah, recommended.

**Catalanowned** · Joined: 20 Mar 2008 Posts: 1526

All the drum charts are fun except Don't Ease Me In... Spirit in the Sky combined with Truckin' to make a drum chart from hell.

**cincyroach** · Joined: 09 Jul 2007 Posts: 37 Location: Fishers, Indiana

Expert Guitar:

Cold Rain and Snow- A pretty easy song with a lot of strumming and a couple of ho/po in the verses. It's easy, but like most dead songs its got a cool vibe.

Hell in a Bucket- I thought this song was just ok. Sure it has a lot of ho/po and 2 solos, but i just thought that it didnt have the same vibe to it as most dead songs to.

Fire on the Mountain- Really cool song. not exactly the most entertaining on guitar, but music wise this song is awsome.

Doin' That Rag- Wow, this is a really awsome song. it has a really cool vibe that flows throughout the song, it has very cool sounding riffs, and its got an awsome solo.

Uncle John's Band- A cool little campfire dead song that has mostly acoustic chords, with some licks sprinkled in. a pretty fun song.

Dont Ease me in- The most fun guitar song this week. Plently of variety, and a really cool solo to boot.

What I Recommend- Optimally get the whole pack, but if short on MSP, pick up doin that rag, and dont ease me in.
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**augthebomb** · Joined: 20 Jan 2008 Posts: 812 Location: Amherst, NY

**deathbat911** · Joined: 05 Jun 2008 Posts: 216 Location: Imaginationland

**CyberRaiza** · Joined: 02 Oct 2008 Posts: 1194

This pack looks ok, I've never been a fan of Grateful Dead and I'm low on MSP, but I might pick up one of the funner ones.
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"It is dangerous to be right in matters in which the established authorities are wrong"

"When things go wrong I seem to be bad
But I'm just a soul whose intentions are good
Oh Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood"

"And no one, thinks, they are to blame
Why can't we see, that when we bleed we bleed the same"

**maxxxers** · Joined: 05 Jul 2008 Posts: 24 Location: Missouri

**005** · Joined: 13 Jul 2007 Posts: 1283 Location: Dallas

Man, I was wrong about this pack. For whatever reason, several of these are now appealing to me. I've never cared for any of the Dead songs from the first pack. Anyway, whenever Target has another one of those points sales, I'll probably have my eye on everything but Uncle John's Band and Fire on the Mountain.

**espher** · Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2009 4:10 pm Post subject:

I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed some of these.

I expected them to be fun, but not as fun as they were.

**orangeglacier** · Joined: 10 Jun 2007 Posts: 396 Location: Concord, MA

Pretty good on drums. Overall, I'd rank the 12 Grateful Dead DLC on drums, from best to worst:

China Cat Sunflower
Hell in a Bucket
Casey Jones
Sugar Magnolia
Fire on the Mountain
Cold Rain and Snow
Doin' That Rag
Truckin'
Uncle John's Band
Franklin's Tower
Don't Ease Me In
I Need a Miracle
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Goals: FC half of RB2 and GH5 on expert drums

GH5 (30/43)(Gamma Ray latest)
RB2 (39/42)(Souls of Black latest)

**ace-kicker** · Joined: 14 Apr 2007 Posts: 77 Location: nebraska

**internetguy87** · Joined: 27 Mar 2008 Posts: 3505 Location: Pittsburgh, PA

People on drums need to stop ragging on Don't Ease Me In. It is 100x more fun than Truckin. The pain with Truckin was 2 things. First of all it is very very long, a score of 350,000 on drums is possible which is so high. Also, the bigger problem was that it came out when people were still not quite adept at drumming yet. This meant people's left hand could not take a 6 minute song that used it as much as their main hand. (Or vice versa for left handers).

Don't East Me In does not have the length truckin had, and has a much easier part for your left hand to play. It is a lot more fun in my opinion to play the high hat like this song than to keep just a constant beat we see in many songs.

I am not saying this is the best drum song in the pack, but it is definitely not the worse, and it was the only song I played twice last night because it was fun and somewhat tricky.

As for vocals... Doin the Rag and Hell in a Bucket are beasts.. the rest are pretty easy to get down quick.
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**Nuke39** · Joined: 11 Aug 2007 Posts: 929

Here's a nice little touch I noticed.

When you play Uncle John's Band, the whole band will sing along with you during the ENTIRE song. I just thought that was pretty cool on HMX's part

**roysche** · Joined: 07 Dec 2008 Posts: 4

I SERIOUSLY SHOULD NOT BUT THIS PACK BUT HELL IT LOOKS LIKE A GOOD ONE A FEW MORE GOOD SONGS CAN'T HURT AND MY BROTHER WOULD LOVE IT HAHA.

**purkie103** · Joined: 10 Mar 2007 Posts: 160