The show must go on! Joe Russo’s Almost Dead announced that the band will perform without Joe Russo for their scheduled performances this weekend at The Peach Music Festival and the Lake Champlain Maritime Festival. On Friday night, Russo’s wife gave birth to the couple’s second daughter.

Tonight, Saturday, July 27th, Marco Benevento, Dave Dreiwitz, Scott Metzger, and Tom Hamilton will welcome JRAD drum tech Evan Roque and Ben Perowsky, Russo’s percussive bandmate in his BOYFRIENDS ensemble. The following evening, Sunday, July 28th, Joe Russo’s Almost Dead will once again be joined by Roque along with John Kimock, the son of guitar wizard Steve Kimock and the current drummer in Mike Gordon‘s solo outfit.

Read Russo’s full announcement below,

So it turns out, sometimes babies come 3 weeks early!!?? Last night my incredible wife gave birth to our second daughter. I couldn’t be happier or more proud of my amazing partner for pushing that lil sucker to freedom! That said, clearly “new nugget” didn’t reference the family calendar. I’m very sorry to announce that I won’t be able to make the JRAD shows this weekend at Peach and Burlington. However, we here at JRAD HQ have gone into “holy shit the baby came early contingency mode” and have decided THE SHOW MUST GO ON.

This weekend Scott, Tommy, Dave and Marco will be joined by two special drummers each night. Tonight at Peach, the band will feature JRAD drum tech and incredible young musician Evan Roque on kit 1. Joining Evan on drum set 2, will be one of my dear friends and drumming heroes, Ben Perowsky. Aside from being my percussive partner in BOYFRIENDS, Ben has played with everyone from John Zorn to Rufus Wainwright to Trey Anastasio (Surrender To The Air) and is currently manning the throne on Broadway with the Tony Award winning Hadestown.

Tomorrow night in Burlington, the fellas will be joined by Evan and the one and only Johnny Kimock! We’ve all known and played with Johnny for years. He’s such a great dude and we couldn’t be more excited for him to share his masterful musicianship with us!

Thank you to all for understanding. I was so excited to play these shows this weekend, but I need to be here with my family, helping as my incredible wife recovers from her act of human badassery, introducing big sisters to little sisters and getting to know this new amazing person. Please have fun and be safe out there. I love you all so much and can’t wait to see you all in LA at The Greek Theater.

Love and thanks,

Joe 

Tune into the 4:10:00 mark below to watch full pro-shot video of Joe Russo’s Almost Dead’s performance at The Peach Music Festival:

Joe Russo’s Almost Dead – The Peach Music Festival – 7/27/2019 [Full Pro-Shot]

For a full list of the band’s upcoming tour dates, ticketing, and more information, head to Joe Russo’s Almost Dead’s website.