For the 95th edition of Joe Russo’s Almost Dead‘s “Taper” series, the Grateful Dead-inspired band has released the soundboard recording from their performance at The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY on January 20th, 2019. The show marked the band’s third and final performance of the weekend at their January run at The Cap.
The show began with the band wasting no time in tearing into the groovy flow of “Althea” with Tom Hamilton on vocals. Scott Metzger continued getting everyone warmed up with a first set Bob Weir cowboy tune for the third consecutive night, this time in the form of John Phillips‘ “Me & My Uncle”, which featured a blistering organ solo courtesy of Marco Benevento. Next came the classic combination of “China Cat Sunflower” and “I Know You Rider”, with the band and audience unleashing waves of nearly-uncontrollable energy by the time the latter half of the transition began. They continued by tearing into “Cream Puff War”, the Dead’s counterculture-era anthem from their 1967 debut, followed by “Let It Grow” to end the first set.
The band returned to the stage to start the second half of the show with “Here Comes Sunshine”, a track from 1973’s Wake of the Flood, followed by a 15-minute, gradually-building “Playing in the Band”. They then returned to the Wake of the Flood well for a 20-minute rendition of “Eyes Of the World”. The band continued their dance party into a loose and colorful performance of “Dancin’ In the Streets”, only to bring the audience back down to earth with “He’s Gone”. The energy didn’t stay down for long, however, as the room’s decibel level charged right back up for “Sugar Magnolia” into “Sunshine Daydream” combo followed by a brief instrumental version of “We Big You Goodnight”.
Just as they’d done during the encore on the first two night’s of their Capitol Theatre run, the band returned to the stage alongside the show’s opener. This time it was Chris Harford, who helped JRAD perform a pair of Neil Young covers (“Words (Between the Lines of Age)” and “Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere”), recalling a similar collaboration during LOCKN’ performance last summer.
Fans can tune into the show’s audio below to hear the thrilling encore, as well as the entire performance from Sunday.
You can listen to the audio from the show below:
Joe Russo’s Almost Dead – 1/20/2019
[Audio: Peter Costello and Eric McRoberts]
Setlist: Joe Russo’s Almost Dead | Capitol Theatre | Port Chester, NY | 1/20/2019
Set One: Althea (Grateful Dead cover), Me & My Uncle (The Mamas and the Papas cover) > China Cat Sunflower (Grateful Dead cover) > I Know You Rider (traditional blues cover) > Cream Puff War (Grateful Dead cover) > Let It Grow (Grateful Dead cover)
Set Two: Here Comes Sunshine (Grateful Dead cover) > Playin’ In the Band (Bob Weir cover) > Eyes Of the World (Grateful Dead cover) > Dancin’ In the Streets (Martha Reeves and The Vandellas cover) > He’s Gone (Grateful Dead cover) > Sugar Magnolia (Grateful Dead cover) > Sunshine Daydream (Grateful Dead cover) > We Bid You Goodnight** (traditional)
** Instrumental Only