We’re sitting stage left at Brooklyn Bowl in NYC, where in about a half-hour the powerhouse organ trio LaMP—featuring Trey Anastasio Band drummer Russ Lawton and keyboardist Ray Paczkowski with Joe Russo’s Almost Dead guitarist Scott Metzger—will kick off its set with guest bassist and all-around jam-rock hero Oteil Burbridge. As the house fills up, Metzger takes a moment to marvel at the rows of bowling lanes stretched out in front of him.

“I actually played one of the earliest shows in this room,” he says over the low boom of the sound system, awash in dub reggae grooves that drown out the distant crashing of bowling pins. “I was with Joe Russo, Marco Benevento, and Dave Dreiwitz [in the Zep cover band Bustle in Your Hedgerow, which later launched Joe Russo’s Almost Dead]. That was more than 15 years ago, and there was nothing here. I remember coming out and thinking, ‘Nobody’s gonna come to this place,’ because the neighborhood was just dead. And now it’s completely transformed.”

Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood has indeed left most of its gritty allure in the rearview, but the Bowl has remained a stalwart presence since 2009. Tonight, it’s close to standing-room capacity by the time LaMP takes the stage just past 8 p.m., plugging in with “Some Days,” the funky opener from its 2020 debut album. It’s the perfect warm-up for the crowd and the band, with Lawton and Paczkowski—known for their long stint together in TAB and their own avant-funk duo Soule Monde—locking in as the rhythm section, with Ray laying down a mean left hand on his Hammond B3 organ. 

LaMP w/ Oteil Burbridge | Brooklyn Bowl | Brooklyn, NY | 10/8/26 | First Set Preview

Burbridge comes out to an ovation for the second song, “Pork ‘n Slaw,” a greasy and hyped-up Metzger original that has become a staple of LaMP’s live show, and he wastes no time digging in.

“I mean, what can you say?” Metzger had asked with a smile earlier. “Oteil is a top-shelf musician and a really serious listener and contributor, with a ton of musical ideas. And on top of that, he happens to be one of the best humans you could want to meet.”

The two have played together over the years in several Grateful Dead-themed contexts, but this all-too-brief Wish Benefit Tour marks the first time LaMP has played with Burbridge as a unit.

And three songs in, you’d never know it. Burbridge brings a dizzying wealth of talent, versatility, and musicianship to the mix, having logged 17 years with the Allman Brothers Band and co-founding Dead & Company in 2015. He folds himself seamlessly into LaMP’s “Hit Return” and “Out of Curiosity,” generating a butter-smooth tone and tastefully fluid lines, creating space for both Metzger to flash his rock chops (at one point quoting Jimi Hendrix’s “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)” during a solo) and Paczkowski to lay down some wicked runs on Clavinet. By the time the band wades into “When I Was Young”—a Wood Brothers cover with a driving New Orleans jump groove, with Metzger grabbing the mic to sing—the table is set, and the party is on.

Burbridge takes the mic on a pitch-perfect version of Bob Marley’s classic “Natural Mystic.” It’s a deceptively simple behind-the-beat bass line that’s even trickier to sing over while you’re playing it, but he nails it. The band closes the set with a flourish, Metzger and Burbridge sharing vocals on Jerry Garcia’s dervish-y, near-devotional “Run for the Roses,” and the vibes are flying high, especially in the rhythm section.

“You know, I was shocked to find out that Russ and Oteil had never played together before this,” Metzger notes. “And it’s always cool when you can visibly see musicians surprising each other. I think that’s why we keep showing up night after night. I mean, it’s nice to surprise an audience, but it elevates it tenfold when musicians are making that happen with each other. It just adds that extra jet fuel to the whole experience.”

For the second set, the band takes a profoundly jazzy turn into funk-fusion, opening with a gangsta-limping rendition of Ornette Coleman’s perennial “Ramblin’” and then smoothly banking into a pair of LaMP originals from last year’s groove-laced One of Us album. But the real banger is “Q Division”—a deep cut from the trio’s 2020 debut that finds Lawton and Burbridge raising the syncopation stakes (check out Russ’s snare on the original, too—wow), while Metzger and Paczkowski both tap into a tripped-out array of wah and watery psychedelic effects.

They change up the mood yet again toward the end of the set, with Burbridge channeling the secret soul singer’s delight in the late-era Grateful Dead ballad “Standing on the Moon.” That’s followed by Metzger’s high-energy take on The Band’s “Ophelia,” the prime closer to top a two-and-a-half-hour show. But they’re not done yet: the encore is the old-time country stomper “Mercury Blues,” with a Metzger-sung chorus of “I’m gonna buy me a Mercury and cruise it up and down the road” that draws hoots and hollers from the still-boisterous crowd, and sends everybody home sweating.

Metzger also takes a moment to appreciate the occasion of this short run of shows. First and foremost for him is the context of the cause, which, in partnership with Fiddlehead Brewing Company, is to raise funds for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, but also in light of what the band shares with its fanbase. “Both my parents were social workers, so I grew up in a household learning a lot about how important it is to help people who are less fortunate than you,” he says.

“But I also try to remind myself, especially when I’m starting to feel tired or a little banged up, that you never know what people are going through, and how much somebody might need this show. I’ve had people come up to me and say some of the most incredibly personal and vulnerable things about how much a show meant to them. That’s real, and I try to never take for granted that it’s a gift to be able to be there for someone who needs that.”

Setlist: LaMP ft. Oteil Burbridge | Brooklyn Bowl | Brooklyn, NY | 10/8/26

Set One: Some Days, Pork ‘n Slaw, Hit Return, Out of Curiosity, When I Was Young (The Wood Brothers), Natural Mystic (Bob Marley), Run for the Roses (Jerry Garcia)
Set Two: Ramblin’ (Ornette Coleman), Cosmo, Backfire, Q Division, Ulterior Motives, Standing on the Moon (Grateful Dead), Ophelia (The Band)
Encore: Mercury Blues (K. C. Douglas)