On Friday night, Dark Star Orchestra guitarist and founding member John Kadlecik brought together high-profile musicians from two jamtronica favorites, The Disco Biscuits and Lotus, to honor the music of the Grateful Dead. Featuring The Disco Biscuits’ bassist Marc Brownstein and keyboardist Aron Magner alongside Lotus drummer Mike Greenfield, the band, which calls itself West Philly Fadeaway, came together at the Ardmore Music Hall just outside of Philadelphia, offering up a “Night Of The Dead” as part of the venue’s ongoing Grateful Dead-heavy schedule this month.

However, while Kadlecik, Brownstein, Magner, and Greenfield were all previously announced to perform on Friday night, to kick off the show, John Kadlecik’s West Philly Fadeaway invited out a special guest, guitarist Danny Mayer of the Eric Krasno Band, who appeared frequently throughout the night. Danny Mayer first joined the group for the show-opening “Feel Like A Stranger”, which was sung by Aron Magner, though the guest guitarist stuck around for the majority of the band’s fiery first set and reemerged at points throughout the second set. Notably, Magner’s vocal leads for the rest of the evening were somewhat rare, given that Kadlecik sang all the traditional Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir tunes.

Throughout the night, West Philly Fadeaway seemingly favored lush and expansive improvisations across the night, offering up creative and patient jam portions during each frame. The band also eschewed some of the Grateful Dead’s traditional setlist tendencies—for example, with a combo of “Me & My Uncle” into “Touch Of Grey” to close out the first set—while sticking to others, like the second set’s opening combo of the traditional duo “Scarlet Begonias” into “Fire On The Mountain”. You can check out a full video of last night’s show below, courtesy of nugs.tv.

John Kadlecik’s West Philly Fadeaway – Ardmore, PA – 10/12/18

 

[Video: nugsnet]

Setlist: John Kadlecik’s West Philly Fadeaway | Ardmore Music Hall | Ardmore, PA | 10/12/2018

Set One: Feel Like A Stranger, Sugaree, Cassidy, Bertha, West L.A. Fadeaway, Me & My Uncle > Touch Of Grey

Set Two: Scarlet Begonias > Fire On The Mountain, Man Smart Woman Smarter, Help On The Way > Slipknot! > Franklin’s Tower > Eyes Of The World, The Other One, He’s Gone, Going Down The Road Feeling Bad

Encore: U.S. Blues