The inimitable Joe Russo’s Almost Dead brought their “Fall Ball” to a close last night with another barn-burner of a performance. The band continued their dominance of Brooklyn Bowl with several Grateful Dead classics, wild and intricate jamming, and a guest appearance from Joe Russo‘s band mate in Band of Changes, Chris Harford.
The show opened with a rare take on the plodding ballad “Blues for Allah”, which saw the band start the evening with a ton of swampy improvisation. The song eventually transformed into a spirited take on “Eyes of the World”, on which Scott Metzger took the lead, delivering a raging guitar solo that led the band through the song’s first jam section. Marco Benevento then took over for a solo of his own, leading the band through the song’s second jam section before bringing the early show highlight to a close with an awesome reprise of the tune’s chorus. The band then dropped right into a fiery and fast version of “New Minglewood Blues” that really got the crowd excited, as they yelled along with the song’s “I was born in the desert / raised in a lion’s den” lyric. This was an aggressive take on “New Minglewood Blues”, and it really paid off, with JRAD showcasing their confidence with the Grateful Dead catalog on this number and throughout the evening.
The band then slowed things down with a heartfelt take on Jerry Garcia‘s beloved ballad “The Wheel”. Things picked back up with an excellent and bouncy version of “Ramble On Rose”. The audience was in the palm of their hands by this point, and the band returned the excitement in kind with a huge version of Merle Haggard‘s “Mama Tried”. The band then brought the first set to close with a version of “Morning Dew” that slowly but surely built to a huge peak, with Hamilton leading the way with his impressive guitar work.
The Almost Dead didn’t play an acoustic set in the bowling lanes of Brooklyn Bowl on this night, but they did return with a massive second set. A reggae-tinged “Crazy Fingers” kicked things off, with Hamilton once again taking the lead as the band built the song up. Joe Russo started pounding his floor tom and suddenly the band was building up the intro to “Truckin'”, which served as the night’s standout jam segment. There was a moment where the band sped up into double time before Benevento took over for a keyboard-led jam, and eventually Russo continued his pounding on the drums to briefly tease “The Other One”, before the improv eventually led the band into a cover of Donny Hathaway‘s “Magnificent Sanctuary Band”.
“Help On The Way” was met with a huge cheer from the crowd, and it was finally Dave Dreiwitz‘s time to shine, as he delivered several tasty bass licks in the song’s intro, and generally owned the track. The jam of course led into the song’s natural partner “Slipknot!”, which was played with a very jazzy and slowed-down arrangement. It’s awesome to see this band taking risks, coming up with their own arrangements and new interpretations of a catalog that has been played a million times over. “Estimated Prophet” followed, before the band invited Chris Harford from Band of Changes on stage to lead them through a cover of Neil Young‘s “Hippie Dream”, a fitting song for the nostalgic audience.
For the encore, the band started things out with a cover of Bob Dylan‘s “He Was A Friend Of Mine”, before starting up the beloved “Not Fade Away”. The song gave the crowd one more moment to sing along and go crazy, with the band picking the perfect encore to echo the sentiment of the audience. JRAD and Brooklyn Bowl make for an absolute perfect pairing, and “Not Fade Away” was an excellent way of showing that love to their hometown crowd. The band left the stage as the crowd chanted and clapped the song’s “know our love will not fade away” lyric loudly into the night sky.
After a few minutes of chanting, Joe Russo’s Almost Dead returned to the stage for a second encore, to the disbelief of many. The band had tons of tricks up their sleeve this run, with John Mayer making an appearance, multiple acoustic sets in the VIP area, and three nights of varied setlists, but it was this second encore to close out that show that felt so right. Just the band, up on stage at The Bowl, absolutely killing a jubilant version of “Bertha”. The band and crowd alike were all smiles as they finished another great Fall Ball.
Check out the full setlist and some videos of “Blues For Allah” -> “Eyes of the World” and “Crazy Fingers” -> “Truckin'” below, courtesy of the band and nugs.net. Also, we’ve provided a set of photos from the evening, courtesy of photographer Andrew Blackstein. Joe Russo’s Almost Dead take a few weeks off the road before their next shows, as they’ll head to California in early November for shows in San Diego and Oakland.
