Joe Russo’s Almost Dead (JRAD) isn’t your typical Grateful Dead cover band. The setlists might appear similar, but the music is interpreted with a renewed, high-energy take on the beloved catalogue. The songs have a familiar feel, but the expression is something far beyond the norm. The supergroup of musicians made up of Joe Russo on drums, Marco Benevento on keys, Dave Dreiwitz on bass, with Tom Hamilton and Scott Metzger on guitar, maintains the spirit of adventure that’s so core to the live Dead experience. They just do it in no particular way but their own, creating a fresh soundscape that pays respect to the roots, while creating what feels like a wholly new auditory experience in a live setting.
Channel 24, Sacramento, CA-10/23/25
The band eased into their Thursday night (10/23) performance at the newly opened Channel 24 in Sacramento. An improvisational jam led into a steady “Good Morning Little School Girl” to start things off before giving way to a fiery “Bertha”. Up next was a 17-minute take on “St. Stephen”, which evolved into exactly the kind of unique playing found at JRAD shows. The song had a different flow to it from the start, building tension and dissolving into an acid jazz exchange where, if you just started listening here, you’d have no idea the music being played came from a structured song. Building back to a crescendo, the band went off cohesively, bringing the energy in the building to a level as high as it gets before going a notch higher, dropping into a scorching take on “All Along the Watchtower”. A ripping “Scarlet Begonias”> “I Know You Rider” kept the energy elevated before the set break.
Another bluesy tune, “Hard to Handle,” opened set two, featuring a bit of a funky sound led by Dave Dreiwitz on the bass. Just when it seemed the group might settle into a jam, a quick tonal turn brought the familiar notes of “Cats Down Under the Stars”. Fierce playing by guitarist Tom Hamilton stood out as Joe Russo played his drum kit with the prowess of two drummers. A ripping “Big River” was next before Guitarist Scott Metzger stepped to the mic for “Saint of Circumstance”. Landing the set with “China Cat Sunflower” > “Samson and Delilah,” it’s extraordinary how well the band can raise the energy in a venue with such ease, bringing it down fluidly, and then go back full throttle. The encore on this night was a first-time performance of Eric Clapton’s “Lay Down Sally”, which had the whole band stepping up at points with an initial beautiful lead by keyboardist Marco Benevento.
The Fox Theater, Oakland, CA-10/24/25
The previous night’s show in Sacramento was stellar. Friday’s affair in Oakland seemed to build from the night before, somehow finding another level-especially during the second set. But set one was no sleeper, kicking off with the Bob Dylan-penned “Queen Jane Approximately” and the Jerry Garcia Band classic, “Rubin and Cherise.” The latter flowed right into “After Midnight”. The audience’s response rippled through the venue in waves. The energy was palpable as the upbeat tune soared before a pairing of Bob Weir classics in “Black Throated Wind” > “Jack Straw”. Inspired by playing across these tunes and the set as a whole, but the move into “Jack Straw” along with the playing within the song was something else. It’s worth a listen. “Althea” brought set one to a close.
Over the two nights, the fluidity of the sets was outstanding. That said, set two in Oakland felt like an advanced course in high-energy improvisation where the music explored was some kind of cross between futuristic Grateful Dead, nd an all-star band taking the spirit of the music to another level. Maybe both. If there’s a faster version of “Beat It On Down the Line” out there, I’d like to hear it. Grateful Dead archivist David Lemieux would know. This one was a scorcher that kept driving and driving until it exploded into a massive drop into “Shakedown Street”. A song whose core is high-energy disco-Dead, this JRAD version ramped it up, layering an incredible psychedelic sound over an updated “Shakedown” style groove.
After eleven minutes or so, the group went into an other-worldly jam that eventually gave way to “Greatest Story Ever Told”. You can’t ever tell where this band might go for a quick tease or a quick turn to a totally different sound, but it seemed from the start they’d be returning back into more improvisation. They did, with the “Space” jam yielding another highlight of the show, going full abstract, cosmic, drippy echoes of sound that only a group of such musicians can pull off in the moment. A gorgeous “Mission in The Rain” was the perfect song to kick out of the galactic jam before “Deal” ticked the energy up one more time. The set closing “Let It Grow” is the one. If there was one song to go back to, sharing what this band is capable of and what they do beyond the structure and within the spirit of Grateful Dead classics, it’s right here. A top-to-bottom dynamic ride that brought it all out, even a brief Duo jam between Benevento on Keys and Russon on drums, this is what I’d play for a friend if they wanted an idea of what they might get by going to a show. Another Clapton-inspired tune, this time from his Derek and the Dominoes days, served as the encore with “Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad?”