Joe Russo’s Almost Dead brought Friday’s sold-out crowd at Vail, Colorado’s Gerald Ford Amphitheater as close as most Grateful Dead fans would likely tread to an old tent revival. JRAD has earned a reputation as the most imaginative of the plethora of Dead-based legacy projects for good reason. While they, like the world of worshippers of the vast Dead songbook, revere the source material they perform, they are the most likely to take liberties with the previous incarnations and presentations of these pieces of musical iconography.
It’s not that Joe Russo and company any more or less devoted to the way the Dead did things—they just prefer to tread their own path to enlightenment. That much was clear in Vail as the band infused its set with prayerful musical overtones, “religious” Dead tunes, and gospel music hallmarks in an effort to take the joyous Gerald Ford Amphitheater audience to church.
The customary JRAD set-opening jam gave the first hints at the night’s church organ-heavy theme as keyboardist Marco Benevento made his presence known. The improv tangent’s eventual evolution into proper opener, “Viola Lee Blues”, continued that sonic thread. Not content to sit still, the band abandoned the sinning ways of “Viola Lee” after one verse in favor of the enduring love of “Not Fade Away”. Ably assisted by JRAD’s dual deacons of guitar, Scott Metzger and Tom Hamilton, the revival bus came and everyone, fan and band alike, jumped onboard with a grin.
The evening’s vibes were not lost on bassist Dave Dreiwitz, who kept his bass lines uplifting to match Benevento’s reverential organ tone as “Delilah Jones went to meet her God” on a Hamilton-led “Brown Eyed Women”. Following that lengthy opening run of tunes, Metzger stepped forward for a strong and bluesy “Feel Like A Stranger”. A boogie-inducing “Shakedown Street” arrived hot on its tail, a proverbial dance with the disco devil that prompted a wrath of “Fire and Brimstone” (Link Wray) for the second time in JRAD history. Ever merciful, the band closed first act of the evening’s holy sonic pilgrimage from there with a hopeful “Eyes of the World” olive branch.
“It Hurts Me Two”, the old blues classic covered by the Grateful Dead on American Beauty, welcomed the audience back to the action. It didn’t take long for fans in the mountain town to find their voices for the ensuing “Fire On The Mountain”. That momentum propelled the service on a jet to the “Promised Land” (Chuck Berry) where they were greeted by a powerful “(Estimated) Prophet”.
The quintet displayed remarkable cohesion on the “Ramble On Rose” that followed. Even when they are seemingly headed in different directions in a given moment, Russo and his crew have such unshakeable faith in each other that they can wander with peace of mind. Wherever they are in a jam they have each other’s backs, and by the choruses they are ready to join together in harmony like a church choir.
“Truckin’” speedily towards the finish line, JRAD closed out the second set with the return of the unfinished “Viola Lee Blues” from earlier in the show and a resounding ride through “The Other One”. With a few moments to spare before dismissing the Vail congregation, the band returned to assure its devotees that they are on the right path to enlightment—”The Golden Road (to Unlimited Devotion)”, that is.
While a lot of attention surrounding Joe Russo’s Almost Dead’s current visit to the mountainous state centered on the band’s visit to the storied Red Rocks on Saturday, the band certainly didn’t shrink from giving the Friday night fans some food for their souls and spirit. As Monty Python so profoundly (and comedically) stated in Holy Grail, “There was much rejoicing.”
View the setlist and a selection of videos from Friday’s Joe Russo’s Almost Dead show at Gerald Ford Amphitheater in Vail, CO below. For a full list of upcoming JRAD shows, head here.
nugs.net subscribers can access a livestream of tonight’s JRAD show at Red Rocks Amphitheatre or revisit the webcast of the Vail show here. Editor’s note: Live For Live Music is a nugs.net affiliate. Ordering your subscription or purchasing an audio download via the links on this page helps support our work covering JRAD and the world of live music as a whole. Thanks for reading!]
Setlist: Joe Russo’s Almost Dead | Gerald Ford Amphitheater | Vail, CO | 5/31/24
Set One: Jam > Viola Lee Blues (pt.1) > Not Fade Away > Brown-Eyed Women, Feel Like a Stranger > Shakedown Street > Fire and Brimstone (Link Wray) > Eyes of the World
Set Two: It Hurts Me Too > Fire on the Mountain > Promised Land (Chuck Berry), Estimated Prophet > Ramble on Rose, Truckin’ > Viola Lee Blues (pt. 2) > The Other One
Encore: The Golden Road (to Unlimited Devotion)
Joe Russo’s Almost Dead – Jam > “Viola Lee Blues” (pt. 1) > Not Fade Away [Pro-Shot] – 5/31/24
Joe Russo’s Almost Dead – “The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion)” – 5/31/24
[Video: Steve_Avers]
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