Hours before Donald Trump‘s presidential inauguration in our nation’s capital, Joe Russo’s Almost Dead finished its term at another capitol with a message of resiliency ahead of the incoming administration. On Sunday at The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY, the Grateful Dead cover band finished its weekend run with a potent pairing of “Throwing Stones” to close the second set and “Touch of Grey” to end the show.

For the first two nights of JRAD’s annual trip to The Cap, the band—comprised of titular drummer Joe Russo, guitarists Scott Metzger and Tom Hamilton, keyboardist Marco Benevento, and bassist Dave Dreiwitz—looked to the past with tributes to late director David Lynch and influential guitarist Link Wray. Then on Sunday, the group looked to the future as the United States awaits a transfer of power. Never one to sit on the political sidelines, JRAD has played benefit shows and raised awareness for non-partisan voter registration organization HeadCount while Russo individually took part in a Deadheads for Kamala Harris virtual rally last year.

Those political overtones laid far beneath the surface as JRAD burst forth with the jovial chord progression of latter-era Dead cult favorite “Foolish Heart” to open the show. Rather than diving deep into improvisation, Joe Russo’s Almost Dead instead covered a lot of compositional ground in the first set with concise tellings of “Mama Tried”, “Feel Like A Stranger”, and “Help on the Way” > “Slipknot!”, with a surprise turn into “Cats Under the Stars” rather than the traditional “Franklin’s Tower” ending of the Help>Slip>Frank trifecta. The joyful atmosphere persisted through the end of the first set as Hamilton took the reins to close with “Iko Iko”, the traditional New Orleans romp previewing the band’s annual return to the Jazz Fest after-dark fracas come May.

Joe Russo’s Almost Dead — “Foolish Heart” (Grateful Dead), “Mama Tried” (Merle Haggard) [Pro-Shot] — 1/19/25

Returning for the final frame of the weekend, Sunday’s second set took on a drastically different tone with Metzger’s opening “It Hurts Me Too”. Many of the songs carried ominously darker themes, including the Tampa Red opener, Bob Dylan‘s “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue”, and the closing “Throwing Stones”. The group’s debut of the Allman Brothers Band favorite Spencer Davis Group cover “Don’t Want You No More” and Dead staple “I Need A Miracle” could even be taken on surface level to be in line with JRAD’s political subtext.

Additionally, the second set also saw JRAD take unflinching plunges into improvisation. After taking “It Hurts Me Too” out for a comfortable 14 minutes, the opening chime of “St. Stephen” introduced one of the exploratory highlights of the evening. Powerful guitar crescendos ultimately rolled back to Russo’s tranquil rhythms and Benevento’s soothing sonic textures, only for the energetic waves to rise up once again and crash into the “Don’t Want You No More” debut.

The penitent “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” provided a calm respite in the wind-down of the concert, doubling as a farewell to the audience after three nights at The Cap. Finally, the band arrived at “Throwing Stones”, the searing Jerry Garcia leads crashing through the speakers of the century-old former movie house. One of the (many) strengths JRAD possesses is the ability to get longtime Grateful Dead listeners to reconsider hardened opinions they may have formed about certain songs. Speaking from a personal standpoint, I went into the band’s 2023 Suwannee Hulaween two-setter rather unenthusiastic about “Throwing Stones”. The song was never one I chased and—quite frankly—whenever I’d hear the opening riff I would get excited because I often mistook it for the beginning of “Foolish Heart”. However, all of that changed when Scott Metzger’s gravelly timbre coalesced with the monolithic rhythm section of Russo and Dreiwitz to give “Throwing Stones” the extra gravitas it always needed. Now, “Throwing Stones” is the highlight of any set for me and Sunday’s cataclysmic rendition likely made a few new converts at The Cap.

Finally, Joe Russo’s Almost Dead returned to the stage one last time to close the show with “Touch of Grey”. In addition to being unafraid to mine the Dead’s catalog for lesser-loved (and even lesser-liked) songs, JRAD will not hesitate to perform the Grateful Dead’s most commercially popular track—something many tribute acts shy away from as if acknowledging the Top 10 hit is somehow less “cool” than playing China>Rider every single show. After a set of pensive forewarnings about what may come in the next four years, Joe Russo’s Almost Dead delivered the much-needed declaration, “We will get by / We will survive.”

Check out videos from Joe Russo’s Almost Dead at The Capitol Theatre below and listen to full-show audio on the Internet Archive. Up next for the band is a two-night stay at The Eastern in Atlanta on February 14th and 15th. Find tickets on Ticketmaster and revisit livestreams of this weekend’s shows on nugs. Not a nugs subscriber? Start with a seven-day free trial. [Editor’s Note: Live For Live Music is a nugs affiliate. Ordering your nugs subscription or purchasing a download via the links on this page helps support our coverage of the world of live music. Thank you for reading!]

Joe Russo’s Almost Dead — “Cats Under The Stars” (Jerry Garcia) — 1/19/25

[Video: monihampton]

Joe Russo’s Almost Dead — “Don’t Want You No More” (Spencer Davis Group) > “I Need A Miracle” (Grateful Dead) > “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” (Bob Dylan) — 1/19/25

[Video: monihampton]

Joe Russo’s Almost Dead — “Throwing Stones” (Grateful Dead) — 1/19/25

[Video: monihampton]

Joe Russo’s Almost Dead — “Touch Of Grey” (Grateful Dead) — 1/19/25

[Video: monihampton]

Setlist: Joe Russo’s Almost Dead | The Capitol Theatre | Port Chester, NY | 1/19/25

Set One: Foolish Heart, Mama Tried (Merle Haggard), Feel Like A Stranger, Help On The Way > Slipknot! > Cats Under The Stars, Iko Iko (Sugar Boy And His Cane Cutters)
Set Two: It Hurts Me Too (Tampa Red) St. Stephen, Don’t Want You No More (Spencer Davis Group) [1] > I Need A Miracle > It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue (Bob Dylan), Throwing Stones
Encore: Touch of Grey

[1] FTP