Today marks the 42nd birthday of drummer Joe Russo. The New Jersey-bred musician has taken part in many projects over the past two decades including Fat Mama, The Duo, Electron, the Gene Ween Band, Furthur, GRAB, American Babies and A Big Yes And A Small No. On January 26, 2013 Russo put together a band dubbed Joe Russo’s Almost Dead for what was supposed to be a one-time tribute to the Grateful Dead at Brooklyn Bowl in New York City. The show was so good, the band has gone on to play 172 more concerts since and has dozens of gigs planned for 2019. In honor of Joe’s birthday, here’s a look at a highlight from JRAD’s second-ever performance.
Joe Russo’s Almost Dead features Russo on drums, Dave Dreiwitz on bass, guitarists Scott Metzger and Tom Hamilton as well as keyboardist Marco Benevento. While at this point it’s tough to think back to a time without JRAD, it took the five-piece over 11 months to play their second show. Almost Dead finally returned to the stage to make their Capitol Theatre debut on December 27, 2013.
The quintet only repeated a few songs from their Brooklyn Bowl debut at The Cap on December 27, 2013. One of the songs fans were most interested to hear coming into the night in Port Chester was “Terrapin Station.” Joe Russo’s Almost Dead not only performed the title track from the Grateful Dead’s iconic 1977 studio album, but they treated the capacity crowd to the full suite found on the LP. The “Terrapin Station Suite” spanned nearly 30 minutes and included portions the Dead only played live once. Watch how it went down thanks to videographer LazyLightning55 and the audio team of Pete Costello, Bill Mulvey and Eric McRoberts:
Here’s audio of the entire concert:
Setlist
Set One: Cream Puff War > Truckin’ > Dupree’s Diamond Blues, Cumberland Blues, Row Jimmy > Bertha, Easy Wind > Shakedown Street
Set Two: Jam > Scarlet Begonias > Fire On The Mountain, Playing In The Band > Althea > Turn On Your Lovelight, Terrapin Station Suite
Encore: Brokedown Palace
