There’s something about the Greek Theatre that makes it feel like the most natural habitat in the world for Joe Russo’s Almost Dead. Maybe it’s the oak trees swaying gently in time with the music, or the misty canyon air catching the light like incense smoke, or the crowd of dancing Deadheads treating Saturday night like a sacred ceremony below Griffith Park—or, maybe, it’s all of the above.
Either way, by the time Joe Russo and the boys dropped into the first bars of “Cumberland Blues”, it was clear that this wouldn’t be just another Grateful Dead tribute show, but rather, a jazz-fueled, soul-expanding, rhythm-soaked reinvention of the catalog that never stops evolving.
For over a decade now, Joe Russo’s Almost Dead—featuring Russo on drums, Dave Dreiwitz on bass, Marco Benevento on keys, and Scott Metzger and Tom Hamilton on guitar and vocals—has set a new bar for what it means to play the Dead. They don’t recreate the music so much as recompose it in real time. Russo’s ferocious drumming forms the heartbeat, Dreiwitz’s thick, melodic basslines keep the groove elastic, and Benevento’s keyboard wizardry sprinkles cosmic color while Metzger’s funky grit and Hamilton’s soaring tones wrap it all in melodic conversation.
They take the same raw ingredients the Grateful Dead did (improvisation, risk, communion) and cook them into something altogether modern. If Dead & Company are the living museum of the Dead’s music, JRAD is the laboratory, combining chaos, chemistry, and telepathy over timeless tunes.
They kicked things off with a locomotive “Cumberland Blues”, stretching it far beyond the workingman’s lament into a syncopated sprint through tempo shifts and time signatures. “Viola Lee Blues” followed, but this wasn’t your grandpa’s jug band version. This one came drenched in 21st-century funk and jazz phrasing, a perfect setup for a sultry, slow-burn “Candyman”.
From there, “Eyes of the World” cracked wide open, full of fluttering piano runs and sunny California guitar tones, the whole amphitheater pulsing like one giant heartbeat. “The Music Never Stopped” turned into a full-on disco-jazz freakout, complete with a mini drum solo and a “Black Peter” tease that riled up the heads in the pit.
The cherry on top? A radiant “Fire on the Mountain” that burned brighter than the jack-o’-lanterns glowing onstage. By the end of the set, the whole Greek felt like it was levitating somewhere between Haight Street and the Milky Way.
After a quick breather (and a few communal spins through the beer lines), set two rolled in with “Feel Like a Stranger”, Metzger leaning hard into the groove with a smirk and a funk riff that could’ve been beamed straight from 1979. The “Help on the Way” → “Slipknot!” combo was a masterclass in precision and abandon. Hamilton’s guitar work cut sharp lines through Benevento’s kaleidoscopic organ flourishes.
When JRAD dropped into “I Need a Miracle”, the jam got downright swampy. Marco teased “Shakedown Street” as Russo and Dreiwitz locked into a polyrhythmic pocket deep enough to get lost in it. The segue into “Estimated Prophet” was seamless, as Metzger crooned through layers of delay while Benevento took the wheel for a trippy, space-jazz detour that spiraled straight into a communal “Uncle John’s Band”.
Then came the knockout: “Morning Dew”, with just Tom and Marco to start, the rest of the band slipping in like ghosts. Marco leaned hard into his Halloween energy, conjuring church-organ eeriness and haunted-house reverb, while Hamilton’s voice cracked just right on the high notes. By the end, it was quiet enough to hear the echo bounce off the canyon walls, in a shared moment of stillness before the storm of the encore.
JRAD returned to the stage with a joyful abandon. They opened the encore with Radiohead’s “The Bends”, prefaced by a teasing “Lady With a Fan” intro that blurred the line between Oxfordshire and the Bay Area. From there, they slipped (gracefully, inevitably) back into the “Terrapin Station Suite”, with “Lady With a Fan” giving way to full-blown “Terrapin Station” glory. Hamilton handled the lead vocals like a man possessed, the band pushing and pulling through tempo shifts before sticking the landing in a burst of cascading light and rhythm. Russo, in a fit of percussive fury, busted his hand on the rim of his snare drum, later gifting his blood-splattered setlist to a lucky fan.
The crowd didn’t want to leave. Even after the final cymbal crash, the air buzzed with that particular Deadhead alchemy: half exhaustion, half enlightenment.
As Joe Russo grinned and waved goodnight, he did so after once again making sure the Grateful Dead’s music never stops. Every note, every risk, every rhythm was a reminder that the Dead’s songbook isn’t frozen in amber. It’s alive, mutating, jamming, and jazzing its way into new territory.
Next up, JRAD heads east to Suwannee Hulaween on November 2nd before closing out 2025 with a string of East Coast dates in Jim Thorpe (11/13), Philly (11/14), and D.C. (11/15). Find tickets here.
Joe Russo’s Almost Dead – “Viola Lee Blues” – 10/25/25
[Video: Todd Norris]
Setlist: Joe Russo’s Almost Dead | Greek Theatre | Los Angeles, CA | 10/25/25
Set: Cumberland Blues, Viola Lee Blues, Candyman -> Eyes of the World, The Music Never Stopped > short drum solo > Black Peter tease > Fire on the Mountain (unknown full band tease at the end)
Set 2: Feel Like a Stranger, Help on the Way > Slipknot!, I Need a Miracle (with MB solo) (with Shakedown Street tease) -> Estimated Prophet (with They Love Each Other tease) -> Uncle John’s Band -> Morning Dew (Bonnie Dobson)
Encore: The Bends (Radiohead) (Lady With a Fan intro) > Lady With a Fan (Slipknot! teases and full band Uncle John’s Band teases) -> Terrapin Station
