Cosmicnauts Take Flight As Cosmic Lifts Off

2020/9/12 Cosmic @ Jackson Elks Lodge #2744, Jackson, NJ

Cosmicnauts have had a lot to celebrate lately … add this past Saturday to the list. Cosmic, one of the first bands to gain its footing in the current environment, spoiled its faithful and ever growing family with another creative booking on a perfect September afternoon at a local Elks Lodge with yet another kickass marathon show.

Cosmic continues to establish its strong footing as an original band while honoring their roots and the influences that made them who they are. On Saturday at the Jackson Elks, fans were treated to twelve originals expertly woven throughout a masterfully crafted setlist comprised mostly of offerings popularized by the Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia Band. Opening with “Butterflies”, they quickly established the tone with a three-pack of originals that made it easy to see all the work and love baked into these songs that fully justified the crowd’s adoring response. With alternating solos from keyboardist Billy Siegel and guitarist Mike Jaskewicz and kickass rhythms from bassist John “Jelly Roll” Nemeth and drummer Dan Donovan, “Salad Days” is the most recent offering to sneak up and bite me in the ass. Emotional wringer “My Destruction”, written in memory of Cosmicnaut Matt Scholz, rounded out that trio of set opening originals, broken up only by the Grateful Dead classic “Stagger Lee”.

An energetic cover of Bob Dylan’s “Maggie’s Farm” got the party kicked into high gear before a stirring rendition of the Grateful Dead’s “Loser”. A confessed sucker for all things Jelly, I became downright giddy when he grabbed the mic for a super fun “Monkey and the Engineer”. Written by Junior Walker & The Allstars before being popularized by the JGB (at least in my circles, lol), Cosmic absolutely crushed the next cover of “(I’m a) Roadrunner” before another original, “War That Can’t Be Won.” No disrespect to the Beatles but I grew up on Garcia so “Dear Prudence” will always be a tune off the JGB’s first live album. Either way, Jaskewicz and company’s version was hair raising.

While the Grateful Dead cover space is extremely crowded, there aren’t too many bands that pay homage to the JGB catalog and especially not many that do so as well as Cosmic. Not only do they do these tunes great justice, but they also dig really deep as demonstrated by the fiery set-closer, King Floyd’s “I Feel Like Dynamite” which to the best of my knowledge was only played a few times by Jerry and Merle’s Legion of Mary in 1975.

Song writing credits for the set opening “Expressway to Your Heart” go to Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, though it was originally performed by the Soul Survivors. Let’s be real though, for Deadheads it’s a Jerry Garcia and Merle Saunders’ tune from their 1973 recording, or for party people perhaps it’s a Blues Brothers’ tune from their hit single in 1981. Credit where it’s due, though, even though none of that matters as much as the fact that Cosmic blew the fucking roof off one of my very favorite tunes. Yowza. “Crooked Tree” was my first favorite “Cosmic Song” and with damn good reason and its placement in this set was spot on. To put an original after “Expressway” and have there be no let down in crowd energy is this song’s highest compliment. If I had to choose one tune that defines Cosmic as an original band, this is it bar none. The fourteen minute clip that follows is worth every second of your time!

The next five songs featured four more originals with an energetic and amped up “Hard To Handle” symmetrically breaking them up. Highlights from that run include “I Was Worth It”¹, a song Jaskewicz wrote to himself during a dark time, and “Raised Upon a Fire” with an opening riff that grabs you by the balls and never lets go. A cover of Bob Dylan’s “Silvio” followed before another duo of originals that I’d love to see on an upcoming album. “Where Are the Angels” is a song that sits in stark contrast to the rest of Cosmic’s originals, more of a ballad than anything else and I’m really drawn to its tenderness. “Bloom” could also be the one song that best showcases Cosmic’s originality, in contrast to my earlier statement. Good problem to have, I guess.

“Help On The Way” > “Slipknot” > “Franklin’s Tower” was ad libbed into the set and it was everything a Deadhead could hope for and then some. Seriously, if “Franklin’s Tower” doesn’t make you feel alive then I’ll let you know where to turn in your tie dye. Cosmic seems to have cornered the market on ridiculous encores and last night was no exception, with a quadruple play of “Big Railroad Blues” > “Casey Jones” > “Tore Up” > “We Are Divine” that was simply out of this world. Again, it’s worth noting that an original anchored both the encore and the show, another example of the power of Cosmic’s songwriting.

As is always the case with this loveable foursome and their adoring family of Cosmicnauts, love was heavy in the air and the entire day was a celebration of life. This community is so beautiful and that fact always sits proudly at the forefront of every Cosmic experience.

19,277 steps of otherworldly goodness.

Setlist:

Set One: Butterflies* /> Stagger Lee, Salad Days*, My Destruction*, Maggie’s Farm, Loser, Monkey & The Engineer /> (I’m A) Roadrunner, War That Can’t Be Won*, Dear Prudence, I Feel Like Dynamite

Set Two: Expressway (To Your Heart) > Crooked Tree*, Birds Of A Feather* /> I Was Worth It* /> Hard To Handle, Raised Upon A Fire*, Apple Tree* > Silvio, Where Are The Angels?* /> Bloom*, Help On The Way > Slipknot > Franklin’s Tower

Encore: Big Railroad Blues /> Casey Jones > Tore Up > We Are Divine*

Footnotes:

Listen to Jaskewicz tell the story of “I Was Worth It.”

I was hovering at one of my darkest points. Songs had been coming to me regularly but in this period of time my mind went silent. No riffs, no melodies, no words. Each time I’d wonder if I’d ever receive anything again. Songs are a gift from the universe, swirling and trying to find homes in the minds of those who are open to receiving them and writing them. I started to think maybe my run went cold, and I started to cry a little and I wrote the words “why did you leave me”. And in that moment the paths lit up and I heard this gospel type of song forming and the words started flowing stream of conscious style. By the end I’m convinced the Gods of song, universe, God him or herself… all conspired to make me realize I am never alone, and in doing so they made me write a song where I have to belt out “I was worth it”. I genuinely believe that. How can you sing that song to someone you want to inspire if you don’t believe it yourself? Kind of like “when there was no ear to hear, you sang to me”. I understand that line so clearly now, and maybe just maybe Robert Hunter has his moment of doubt…and maybe that line and song was God, the universe, spirits, whatever he believed in, speaking to him.

WOW.