Last night, Joe Russo’s Almost Dead returned to The Capitol Theatre for their second of three shows this weekend, their first run of 2018. Just like the previous night, JRAD played to a sold-out crowd at the historic venue, and incorporated new tunes from the Grateful Dead’s catalogue and beyond into their song rotation. In addition to other numerable highlights (like a fantastic “Scarlet” > “Sugaree” > “Fire segment, an excellent extended “Playing In The Band”, a rare partial “Terrapin” suite, and a “GDTRFB” featuring “Mountain Jam” teases from both Tom Hamilton and Scott Metzger), each of last night’s two sets featured debuts for the band, and each of the debuts was sung by drummer Joe Russo. In the first set, it was “Pride of Cucamonga”, the Phil Lesh/Bobby Petersen From The Mars Hotel track that was never played by the Grateful Dead but has seen a reawakening in post-Jerry Garcia iterations of the band. In the second set, the debut came in the form of Led Zeppelin‘s “Your Time Is Gonna Come”.

Watch the JRAD debut of “Pride of Cucamonga” below via YouTube user monihampton: 

For the encore, the band creatively continued the slow rollout of “new” tunes, as keyboardist Marco Benevento laid into an increasingly powerful blues piano solo. As he played, he began to preach–“I wish we could all live together! We could all go out and see music together. We can all hang out all day and all night together, wouldnt that be great?! Peace and harmony, right? We could go out on the weekends and go to music festivals together, y’all. Or one big music festival where all our favorite bands are there to play. It would be like a dream music festival. We’ll all be there together smiling…and huggin’… and laughin’…and tellin’ each other how much we love each other…I love you!”

The “Southern preacher”-inflected sermon led into one final JRAD debut: Chuck Berry rarity “Festival”, in which he imagines a perfect dream festival with all of his favorite bands, name-checking The Who, The Band, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Johnny Cash, Little Richard, Aretha Franklin, The Rolling Stones, Ray Charles, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles and more, as well as–of course–the Grateful Dead.

Watch fan-shot video of “The Festival” > “I Know You Rider” courtesy of YouTube user Sean Roche:

JRAD closes out their Capitol Theatre run tonight with their third and final sold out performance of the weekend. For a full list of upcoming shows, head to the band’s website.

Listen to full audio of the show below via taper nico11104:

Watch pro-shot video of each of the set openers below via nugs.tv:

“Scarlett Begonias”

“Row Jimmy”:

Watch an assortment of videos from the performance below via YouTube user monihampton:

“They Love Each Other”

“Ramble On Rose”

“Cats Under The Stars” > “Going Down The Road Feeling Bad” > “We Bid You Goodnight”

“I Know You Rider”

SETLIST: Joe Russo’s Almost Dead | The Capitol Theatre | Port Chester, NY | 1/13/18 | Show #137

Set One (9:00PM – 10:19PM) :
Scarlet Begonias ->
Sugaree @ ->
Fire On The Mountain # ->
Good Lovin $ ->
They Love Each Other %
Pride Of Cucamonga ^
Playing In The Band

Set Two (10:54PM – 12:40AM):
Row Jimmy ->
Jam & ->
Lady With A Fan & + ->
Terrapin Station & ->
I Need A Miracle @@ ->
Your Time Is Gonna Come ## ->
Ramble On Rose
Music Never Stopped $$
Cats Under The Stars %% ->
GDTRFB ^^ ->
We Bid You Goodnight &&

Enc:
Marco Solo ->
The Festival ** ->
I Know You Rider ++

@ – With an “I’m The Only One” (Melissa Ethridge) Tease & a Fire On the Mountain Tease (TH)
# – With Sugaree Lyrics (TH)
$ – With a short Fire On the Mountain Jam
% – With a Shakedown Tease (Band)
^ – First Time Played by Almost Dead. JR vocals
& – With Playin & Terrapin Teases (TH)
* – I’m going to start labeling Terrapin part-by-part. “Lady With A Fan” goes from “Let my inspiration flow” to “ but he cannot be bought or sold“ and “Terrapin Station” goes from “Inspiration, move me brightly” to “and the whistle is screaming: TERRAPIN“. On this night, the second part of the “Suite” including “”Terrapin”, “Terrapin Transit”, “At a Siding”, “Terrapin Flyer” & “Refrain” was not played at this show
+ – With a Marco Solo
@@ – with a “Dear Mr. Fantasy” (Traffic) tease (TH)
## – First Time Played by Almost Dead. JR vocals. Partial version of a Led Zeppelin cover, 1st verse & chorus were sung.
$$ – With a Fire On the Mountain Tease (TH)
%% – With a “Duo Jam” and a “Hey Bulldog” (The Beatles) Jam (Band)
^^ – With Mountain Jam Teases (TH & then MB)
&& – Traditional instrumental ending to GDTRFB, with a short Cold Rain & Snow Jam (Band)
** – Chuck Berry cover, First Time Played by Almost Dead. MB vocals
http://www.lyricsfreak.com/c/chuck+b…/festival_20202543.html
++ – With a Morning Dew Tease (TH)

Pre Show Music: Cap Ipod Mix
Set Break Music: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (Wilco)
Post Show Music: Burning Down The House (Talking Heads)
Poster: Colortest

[Cover Photo: Andrew Blackstein]