Last night, Joe Russo’s Almost Dead continued their third annual Fall Ball, returning to Brooklyn Bowl in New York City for the second of their six-night run across this weekend and the next. During their show on Friday, the Grateful Dead-inspired five-piece debuted a new cover—Bob Dylan’s “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues”, a number off the iconic singer-songwriter’s 1965 album Highway 61 Revisited—during the second set, with bassist Dave Dreiwitz taking on the vocal duties for the song.
Joe Russo’s Almost Dead Pays Tribute To Tom Petty In NYC [Video]
This was not the only Bob Dylan tune performed during the evening, as the band kicked off their Brooklyn Bowl show with a rendition of “Shelter From The Storm”, a song that the Dead and Dylan played together on July 24th, 1987 during their shared summer tour and that Joe Russo’s Almost Dead debuted back in April as the show-opener for their performance at Colorado’s 1st Bank Center. Following “Shelter From The Storm”, Almost Dead moved into a cover of The Rascals’ “Good Lovin'” before laying out renditions of the Grateful Dead’s “Touch Of Grey” and “Fire On The Mountain”. By way of an unfinished “Cassidy”, the group transitioned into “Cumberland Blues”, with the massive jam working in references to both “St. Stephen” and “China Cat Sunflower”. To close out their first set, the band closed with a wistful “He’s Gone.”
“Good Lovin'”
Returning from set break, Joe Russo’s Almost Dead opened with a reprise of “Cumberland Blues”, looking back to the number that helped close out the first set ahead of “He’s Gone.” Before dropping their debut cover of “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues”, the group gave a rendition of “Alligator” the proper treatment, taking their time as they jammed into the unexpected Dylan tune. From there, the band laid out a crowd-pleasing rendition of “Casey Jones” before taking a quick pause and then starting back up with the instrumental “King Solomon’s Marbles”. The non-stop sequence of songs to close out the second set saw the group hit “The Eleven” coming out of “King Solomon’s Marbles”, using an extended jam before landing in “Easy Wind” to finish out set two. As an encore, the band returned with a rendition of “Promised Land” to fully close out night two of their annual Fall Ball.
“Cumberland Blues Reprise”
You can take a look at the full setlist from Joe Russo’s Almost Dead’s Brooklyn Bowl performance last night, courtesy of Peter Costello, and stay tuned for more coverage of the band’s third annual Fall Ball in the coming days.
Setlist: Joe Russo’s Almost Dead | Brooklyn Bowl | New York, NY | 10/6/2017
Set One: Shelter From The Storm, Jam -> Good Lovin’ -> Touch Of Grey -> Fire On The Mountain -> Cassidy @ -> Cumberland Blues # -> He’s Gone
Set Two: Cumberland Blues Reprise -> Alligator -> Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues $ (DD) > Casey Jones, King Solomon’s Marbles -> The Eleven -> Jam -> Easy Wind %
Encore: Promised Land
@ – With St. Stephen & China Cat Sunflower Teases, Unfinished
# – With a “Hoedown” (Aaron Copeland) Tease (MB)
$ – Bob Dylan Cover, First Time Played By Almost Dead, with “Like A Rolling Stone” And/Or ”Positively 4th Street” (Bob Dylan) Teases (MB)
% – Opened with the final chorus sung first.
[Photo: Scott Harris]