Joe Russo’s Almost Dead kicked off a three-night stand at The Capitol Theatre on Friday night. JRAD welcomed violinist Katie Jacoby and busted out a Radiohead cover to open up their Cap run.
The show got underway with Joe Russo doing something every young drummer probably does once in their life: playing along with Led Zeppelin’s “Rock And Roll.” As the song, played over the PA, came to an end the band flawlessly jumped into “Shakedown Street,” which included “Feel Like A Stranger” teases and boisterous solos from guitarists Tom Hamilton and Scott Metzger. The band immediately stretched things out on the Dead classic taking it to nearly 19 minutes. JRAD got straight into another marathon with “Truckin’” which did break the 19-minute mark including a piano section from Marco Benevento toward the tail end before heading into the final verse and then into “Born Cross-Eyed” from Anthem Of The Sun. The American Beauty ballad “Candyman” followed ahead of Chuck Berry’s “Around And Around.” Built To Last’s “Foolish Heart” came next before the band segued into Radiohead’s “Killer Cars” for just the second time since debuting the song on Halloween in 2015.
To kick off the second set, JRAD jammed into “Cosmic Charlie,” slowly building it up to the song’s climactic beginning. The band then reeled off a nonstop block beginning by creeping into “New Speedway Boogie,” ahead of “Smokestack Lightnin’,” “He’s Gone” and finishing up with a rowdy “The Other One” before bringing things back down with “Stella Blue.” The band would ramp things back up again as they jammed into “Playing In The Band,” which topped 16 minutes, to bring the set to a close. For the encore, JRAD would welcome violinist Katie Jacoby, who just got engaged to guitarist Scott Metzger. Scott told the story of how the two met at a JRAD show at the Brooklyn Bowl four years prior before introducing his “future wife.” Jacoby lent her expertise on Bob Dylan’s “Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You” from 1969’s Nashville Skyline to bring the evening to a rollicking, honky-tonk close.
Check out video and listen to full-show audio taped by Jeff Travitz below:
Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You via Sean Roche
Foolish Heart > Killer Cars via monihampton
Rock And Roll > Shakedown Street & Truckin’ via Relix
Candyman via Sean Roche
The Other One via Sean Roche
Setlist via Jeff Travitz
Set One: Rock and Roll $ > Shakedown Street > Truckin’ > Born Crossed-Eyed, Candyman, Around and Around, Foolish Heart > Killer Cars^
Set Two: Jam > Cosmic Charlie, New Speedway Boogie > Smokestack Lightnin’ > He’s Gone > The Other One, Stella Blue > Playing in the Band
Encore: Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here with You *
Notes:
$ played over PA, Joe finished on drums
^ Radiohead cover
* w Katie Jacoby
