Three years ago today, drummer Joe Russo debuted his Grateful Dead-inspired project Joe Russo’s Almost Dead at the Brooklyn Bowl for Freaks Ball to celebrate the anniversary of the prominent email list, NYC-Freaks. While considered to be a one-off performance at the time with compadres Marco Benevento (keys), Tom Hamilton (guitar), Scott Metzger (guitar) and Dave Dreiwitz (bass), Russo has pivoted Almost Dead into one of the most explosive entities playing Grateful Dead tunes today, playing at some of the most notable venues across the country and some of the biggest summer festivals. A must-see.
Check out highlights from that very first Freaks Ball performance at the Brooklyn Bowl, on January 26th, 2013:
Almost Dead hasn’t reinvented the wheel so much as they have used the canon of the Grateful Dead as a source of inspiration to a new and vibrant interpretation of the band’s work. As the band continues to rack up shows, 63 and counting, they continue to grow and branch out, making the Dead tunes more their own each and every night. They’re an ambitious group, too. Instead of packaging the same classic Dead tunes together every night, Russo has dug deep into the catalog to keep shows fun and exciting.
Most recently, Russo’s Almost Dead made their Jam Cruise debut with two outstanding performances aboard the cruise liner and have dates planned for early February in the Northeast and a date at Red Rocks Amphitheatre this summer.
As for the rest of the year, Almost Dead band member Tom Hamilton tells L4LM in a new interview that this year could be a quieter year for the five-piece. He explains that with Russo and his wife expecting a new baby, and Hamilton and Benenvento releasing new albums, “Instead of playing the 45+ shows we did last year, we will probably do around 30 or so in 2016. Joe has to concentrate on his baby, and I have to concentrate on my own Babies! We all keep pretty busy with our own projects, which is definitely important to us as well, to keep the creativity flowing.”
Here’s to those creative juices flowing! On that note, enjoy a brand spankin’ new video of Joe Russo’s Almost Dead running through “Help On The Way” > “Slipknot!” > “The Wheel” from Jam Cruise, courtesy of videographer Rex Thomson: