{"id":369210,"date":"2026-10-09T20:16:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T20:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/369210\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T20:16:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T20:16:10","slug":"oteil-burbridge-lamp-join-forces-in-brooklyn-for-make-a-wish-benefit-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/369210\/","title":{"rendered":"Oteil\u00a0Burbridge\u00a0& LaMP\u00a0Join Forces In Brooklyn For Make-A-Wish Benefit Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re sitting stage left at Brooklyn Bowl in NYC, where in about a half-hour the powerhouse organ trio\u00a0LaMP\u2014featuring Trey Anastasio Band drummer Russ Lawton<\/a> and keyboardist Ray Paczkowski with Joe Russo\u2019s Almost Dead guitarist Scott Metzger\u2014will kick off its set with guest bassist\u00a0and all-around jam-rock hero\u00a0Oteil Burbridge. As the house\u00a0fills\u00a0up, Metzger takes a moment to marvel at the rows of bowling lanes stretched out in front of him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually played one of the earliest shows in this room,\u201d he says\u00a0over the low boom of the sound system, awash in dub reggae grooves that drown out the distant crashing of bowling pins. \u201cI was with Joe Russo,\u00a0Marco Benevento, and\u00a0Dave\u00a0Dreiwitz\u00a0[in the Zep cover band Bustle in Your Hedgerow,\u00a0which later\u00a0launched Joe Russo\u2019s Almost Dead]. That was more than 15 years ago, and there was nothing here. I remember coming out\u00a0and thinking, \u2018Nobody\u2019s gonna\u00a0come to this place,\u2019 because the neighborhood was\u00a0just dead. And now it\u2019s completely transformed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brooklyn\u2019s Williamsburg neighborhood\u00a0has indeed left most of its gritty allure in the rearview, but the Bowl has remained a stalwart presence since 2009. Tonight, it\u2019s close to standing-room capacity by the time\u00a0LaMP takes the stage just past 8 p.m.,\u00a0plugging in\u00a0with \u201cSome Days,\u201d\u00a0the funky opener\u00a0from its 2020 debut album.\u00a0It\u2019s the perfect warm-up for the crowd and the band, with Lawton and\u00a0Paczkowski\u2014known for their long stint together in TAB and\u00a0their own\u00a0avant-funk duo Soule Monde\u2014locking in as the rhythm section, with Ray laying down a mean left hand on his Hammond B3 organ.\u00a0<\/p>\n

LaMP w\/ Oteil Burbridge | Brooklyn Bowl | Brooklyn, NY | 10\/8\/26 | First Set Preview<\/p>\n

Burbridge\u00a0comes out to an ovation for the second song,\u00a0\u201cPork \u2018n Slaw,\u201d a greasy and hyped-up Metzger original that has become a staple of\u00a0LaMP\u2019s\u00a0live show, and he wastes no time digging in. <\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, what can you say?\u201d Metzger had asked with a smile\u00a0earlier. \u201cOteil\u00a0is\u00a0a 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.\u201d <\/p>\n

The two have played together over the years in several Grateful Dead-themed contexts,\u00a0but this all-too-brief Wish Benefit Tour marks the first time\u00a0LaMP\u00a0has played with\u00a0Burbridge\u00a0as a unit.<\/p>\n

And three songs in, you\u2019d never know it.\u00a0Burbridge brings a dizzying wealth of talent, versatility,\u00a0and 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\u00a0LaMP\u2019s\u00a0\u201cHit Return\u201d and \u201cOut of Curiosity,\u201d 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\u2019s \u201cVoodoo Child (Slight Return)\u201d during a solo) and\u00a0Paczkowski\u00a0to lay down some wicked runs on Clavinet.\u00a0By the time the band wades into \u201cWhen I Was Young\u201d\u2014a Wood Brothers cover with a driving New Orleans jump groove, with Metzger grabbing the mic to sing\u2014the table is set, and the party is on.<\/p>\n

Burbridge\u00a0takes the mic on\u00a0a pitch-perfect version of Bob Marley\u2019s classic \u201cNatural Mystic.\u201d It\u2019s a deceptively simple behind-the-beat bass line that\u2019s even trickier to sing over while you\u2019re playing it, but he nails it.\u00a0The band\u00a0closes\u00a0the set with a flourish, Metzger and\u00a0Burbridge\u00a0sharing vocals on Jerry Garcia\u2019s\u00a0dervish-y, near-devotional\u00a0\u201cRun for the Roses,\u201d and\u00a0the vibes are flying high, especially in the rhythm section.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, I was shocked to find out that Russ and\u00a0Oteil\u00a0had never played together before this,\u201d Metzger notes. \u201cAnd it\u2019s always cool when you can visibly see\u00a0musicians\u00a0surprising each other. I think that\u2019s why we keep showing up night after night. I mean, it\u2019s nice to surprise an audience, but it elevates it tenfold when musicians are\u00a0making that happen\u00a0with\u00a0each other. It just adds that extra jet fuel to the whole experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the second set, the band\u00a0takes a profoundly jazzy turn into funk-fusion,\u00a0opening with a\u00a0gangsta-limping rendition of Ornette Coleman\u2019s perennial \u201cRamblin\u2019\u201d and then smoothly banking into a pair of\u00a0LaMP originals from last year\u2019s groove-laced\u00a0One of Us album. But the real banger is \u201cQ Division\u201d\u2014a deep cut from the trio\u2019s 2020 debut that finds Lawton and\u00a0Burbridge\u00a0raising the syncopation stakes (check out Russ\u2019s snare on the original<\/a>, too\u2014wow), while Metzger and\u00a0Paczkowski\u00a0both tap into a tripped-out array of wah and watery psychedelic effects.<\/p>\n

They change up the mood yet again toward the end of the set, with\u00a0Burbridge\u00a0channeling the secret soul singer\u2019s delight in the late-era Grateful Dead ballad \u201cStanding on the Moon.\u201d That\u2019s followed by Metzger\u2019s high-energy take on The Band\u2019s \u201cOphelia,\u201d the prime closer to top a two-and-a-half-hour show. But they\u2019re not done yet: the encore is the old-time country stomper \u201cMercury Blues,\u201d with a Metzger-sung chorus of \u201cI\u2019m\u00a0gonna\u00a0buy me a Mercury and cruise it up and down the road\u201d that draws hoots and hollers from the still-boisterous crowd, and sends everybody home sweating.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0the\u00a0Make-A-Wish\u00a0Foundation, but also\u00a0in light of what the band shares with its fanbase.\u00a0\u201cBoth 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,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut I also try to remind myself, especially when I\u2019m starting to feel tired or a little banged up, that you never know what people are going through, and how much somebody might\u00a0need\u00a0this show. I\u2019ve 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\u2019s real, and I try to never take for granted that it\u2019s a gift to be able to be there for someone who needs that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Setlist: LaMP ft. Oteil Burbridge | Brooklyn Bowl | Brooklyn, NY | 10\/8\/26<\/p>\n

Set One: Some Days, Pork \u2018n 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\u2019 (Ornette Coleman), Cosmo, Backfire, Q Division, Ulterior Motives, Standing on the Moon (Grateful Dead), Ophelia (The Band)
Encore: Mercury Blues (K. C. Douglas)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We\u2019re sitting stage left at Brooklyn Bowl in NYC, where in about a half-hour the powerhouse organ trio\u00a0LaMP\u2014featuring…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369211,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,136324,136325,136326,136327,136328,136329,136330,136331,136332,136333,136334,9,24,63,136335,136336,136337,136338,136339,136340,136341,136342,35859,136343],"class_list":["post-369210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-joe-russos-almost-dead","tag-jrad","tag-jrad-brooklyn-bowl","tag-lamp","tag-lamp-10-8-26","tag-lamp-band","tag-lamp-brooklyn-10-8-26","tag-lamp-brooklyn-bowl","tag-lamp-oteil-10-8-26","tag-lamp-oteil-brooklyn","tag-lamp-scott-metzger","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-oteil-burbridge","tag-oteil-burbridge-lamp","tag-ray-paczkowski","tag-ray-paczkowski-russ-lawton","tag-ray-paczkowski-russ-lawton-trey-anastasio","tag-russ-lawton","tag-scott-metzger","tag-scott-metzger-joe-russos-almost-dead","tag-trey-anastasio","tag-trey-anastasio-band"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}