Joe Russo’s Almost Dead wrapped up their two-night stand at New Haven, Connecticut’s Westville Music Bowl this weekend as well as their eight-show run at the venue since Memorial Day Weekend. The Grateful Dead tribute act concluded the residency with no repeats. Drummer and bandleader Joe Russo detailed writing the setlists for the Westville run in a recent interview with Jambase.
JRAD opened the show with a shimmering prelude before dropping into “Stagger Lee.” Guitarist Tom Hamilton led the band through the song before his fellow guitarist Scott Metzger took over on Bob Dylan’s masterful Blond On Blonde opus “Stuck Inside A Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again.”
The upbeat “Mobile” then headed into the more kicked back groove of “West LA Fadeaway,’ sung by Hamilton. But it wouldn’t stay laid back for long as Tom delivered a wailing solo that prefaced elements of “Unbroken Chain” and a spirited piano run from Marco Benevento ahead of a rollicking jam that headed into “I Need A Miracle.” Metzger led the band through the song before the quintet cooled things down and concluded the set with “Bird Song.”
Bassist Dave Dreiwitz would step into the spotlight to sing Robbie Robertson’s “Broken Arrow” to kick off the second frame which led into “Throwing Stones.” Scott helmed the In The Dark cut which featured a wild jam punctuated by Russo’s octopus-like drumming ahead of the song’s coda.
The band kept up the jams as they found their way into “Ship Of Fools” to bring the temperature down a bit ahead of a complete performance of the “Terrapin” suite to close out the second set. Joe Russo’s Almost Dead put a cherry on top of their repeat-less run at Westville with a “Sugar Magnolia” encore.
Watch pro-shot video of nearly the entire first set (save for “Birdsong”) as well as “Broken Arrow” and “Throwing Stones” from the second set below via the Jambase Live Video Archive:
Setlist (via Almost Dead.net)
Set One: Stagger Lee > Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again -> West LA Fadeaway > I Need A Miracle -> Bird Song
Set Two: Broken Arrow > Throwing Stones -> Ship of Fools -> Terrapin suite
Encore: Sugar Magnolia
