Joe Russo’s Almost Dead Cover Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Allman Brothers Amid Tease-Filled Performance at New York City’s Rooftop at Pier 17
Of all the Grateful Dead cover bands of note out there today, Joe Russo’s Almost Dead (JRAD) may well be not just the best, but also the most unlikely to exist at all.
What began as a patchwork fill-in for the Dean Ween Group at Brooklyn Bowl in 2013 has since morphed into a more-than-decade-long run together for drummer/bandleader Joe Russo, keyboardist Marco Benevento, bassist Dave Dreiwitz, and guitarists Tom Hamilton and Scott Metzger.
Of course, unlike most Dead cover bands, JRAD was blessed by the original. For five years, Joe played with Bob Weir and Phil Lesh in Furthur, which also featured John Kadlecik (from fellow Dead cover band Dark Star Orchestra) on guitar, as well as eventual Dead & Company members Jeff Chimenti and Jay Lane on keyboards and percussion, respectively.
That training alongside legends apparently prepared Joe to lead a Dead retrospective of his own. Surely, the thousands of Deadheads who regularly pack JRAD’s shows in and around the band’s birthplace of New York City—including an early September show on The Rooftop at Pier 17—would agree.
The first Friday after Labor Day could hardly have provided a more picturesque setting for two sets of covers by The Grateful Dead and their musical contemporaries. An occasional breeze whistled through the 3,500-capacity riverside venue as Joe and company plied their trade against a backdrop of the Brooklyn Bridge and the Empire State Building, among other iconic artifices.
The sun was just beginning to dip behind the towers of the Financial District when JRAD emerged to open the show with Bob Dylan’s “Gotta Serve Somebody”. Indeed, the band was there to serve the appetite of the Deadheads, many of whom had walked down from the nearby high rises to reveal the true Deadness beneath their white collars.
As always with JRAD, the teases came early and often. During the first set alone, they dropped hints of “Born Cross-Eyed” into “The Music Never Stopped” and twice head faked toward “The Eleven”, including during “New Speedway Boogie,” the Dead’s dark ode to the tragic Hell’s Angels killing at the Altamont Speedway Free Festival in 1969.
The second set was riddled with teases of its own, from the get-go.
JRAD returned from a half-hour setbreak with a version of the Dead-staple Cannon’s Jug Stompers cover “New Minglewood Blues” that also featured notes of The Beatles’ “Ticket to Ride” before venturing into “Foolish Heart”. “Brown-Eye Women” occasioned bits of “Eyes of the World” amid the band’s jams. “Alice D. Millionaire”, the Dead deepcut that Furthur helped to resurface, brought with it not one, but two teases: Otis Redding’s “Can’t Turn You Loose” and the Dead’s own “I Know You Rider”.
Joe Russo’s Almost Dead – “Alice D. Millionaire” – 9/6/24
[Video: sgibson818]
The Brooklyn-born band followed that up with a rendition of “Feel Like a Stranger” that looped in parts of Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2”. After amping up the crowd courtesy of “Casey Jones”, they went on to close out the second set with a “Playing in the Band” tinged by hints of “Slipknot!”
Those Easter eggs aside, JRAD used its setlist to traverse the United States—a fitting trek, given both The Grateful Dead’s own integral role in the formation of modern Americana and the way the Empire State Building was lit up in red, white, and blue.
The first set came with a golden nod to The Dead’s California roots in “Estimated Prophet” as well as an ode to the South with The Allman Brothers Band’s “Hot ‘Lanta” (which was also the source of the second tease of “The Eleven”). Come the second set, JRAD delighted its tri-state fans with a faithful performance of Bruce Springsteen’s “Atlantic City”, as if to incept post-show plans into their work-week-fried minds.
Following a brief head-fake toward an early exit, JRAD returned to the stage for a powerful cover of Them’s “Gloria” that had everyone in the house singing along and shout-spelling the song’s namesake.
Joe Russo’s Almost Dead – “Gloria” (Them) – 9/6/24
[Video: sgibson818]
Though the music did, in fact, stop before 10:00 p.m., the rooftop venue’s hard curfew, it won’t be long before it picks up again. Joe, Marco, Dave, Tom and Scott will be back at it on Saturday—same time, same place.
For a full list of upcoming Joe Russo’s Almost Dead tour dates, head here. Find tickets to upcoming JRAD shows here.
Below, check out the setlist and a gallery of photos and videos from night one of Joe Russo’s Almost Dead at New York, NY’s The Rooftop at Pier 17 via photographer Josh Martin.
Setlist: Joe Russo’s Almost Dead | The Rooftop at Pier 17 | New York, NY | 9/6/24
Set One: Gotta Serve Somebody (Bob Dylan), The Music Never Stopped [1], Estimated Prophet, New Speedway Boogie [2] > Hot ‘Lanta (The Allman Brothers Band) [2] > Shakedown Street
Set Two: New Minglewood Blues (Cannon’s Jug Stompers) [3] > Foolish Heart, Brown-Eyed Women [4], Alice D. Millionaire [5] [6] > Feel Like a Stranger [7], Atlantic City (Bruce Springsteen), Casey Jones, Playing in the Band [8]
Encore: Gloria (Them)
Notes:
[1] with Born Cross-Eyed teases
[2] with The Eleven teases
[3] with Ticket to Ride (The Beatles) tease
[4] with Eyes of the World tease
[5] with Can’t Turn You Loose (Otis Redding) tease
[6] with I Know You Rider tease
[7] with Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2 (Pink Floyd) teases
[8] with Let It Grow tease
