Joe Russo’s Almost Dead kicked off the weekend just outside of Rochester at Perinton Center Park Amphitheater last night, delivering on their trademark of an absolutely action-packed show filled with wild musicianship and inventive setlisting.
Guitarist Scott Metzger led the way into the first set’s opening jam, cultivating a laid-back vibe as the rest of the band got settled and joined in on the groove. Keyboardist Marco Benevento peppered in some organ melodies as guitarist Tom Hamilton raised the energy, JRAD seamlessly moving into a swinging “Truckin’”-like vibe thanks to drummer Joe Russo’s play.
Breaking into “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl,” Metzger handled vocal duties on the rocking tune as the solo baton was passed between him, Benevento, and Hamilton for some energetic play.
Now warmed up and ready to dive into some deeper jamming, Benevento filled the quiet space with waves of delayed Rhodes, eventually switching to some dreamy piano as the rest of the band coalesced around him for a patient build into “The Wheel.” Benevento continued to lead through the jam, diving headlong into some dizzying jazz piano work as Hamilton weaved around him with some weird accented sounds.
The guitarist eventually took the helm and drove into a darker, thumping space with fluid play from Russo, pushing to a massive sustained peak that cleanly dropped back into the final chorus of “The Wheel” to close it out. Without stopping, JRAD began to build into the next improvisational section with a swirling transitional space, Hamilton shooting distorted leads across the stage while Benevento once again swirled on delayed Rhodes.
Russo gradually brought in the pulsating disco beat of “Dancing in the Streets” as dissonant sounds continued, the resolution into the song proper – as always – coming at the perfect time. Metzger took off into the first solo section with gusto, letting loose rapid-fire run after rapid-fire run while Hamilton accompanied him on some tension-filled accents.
Bassist Dave Dreiwitz brought things way down heading into the second solo section of “Dancing,” dropping into a half-time zone that Hamilton capitalized on by way of a tease of David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance.” Benevento picked up the thread from the bass solo on piano and then Rhodes, introducing a motif of his own that he then built off of patiently. Hamilton then took the helm after a second run through the disco changes, his relatively short solo section featuring on-a-dime full-band teases of “Help on the Way” and “They Love Each Other,” the latter including a smooth half-time drop from Russo.
Ripping through the ending of “Dancing,” JRAD transitioned beautifully into the outro of “Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo,” playing around with the vocal melody before hitting into the song proper. More fantastic jazz piano work from Benevento dominated early on as the keyboardist continued to be right out front, his Rheem combo organ tones sparkling out into the calm outro as the quintet beautifully took their time once again. Hamilton took an emotive and anthemic solo before the jam fragmented into more tense space, JRAD formulating an absolutely DISGUSTING segue into “Estimated Prophet” – just jaw-droppingly good.
Metzger threw some wild fuzzed-out chords into the intro before crushing the vocal performance, supporting Hamilton’s massive solo with great rhythm work as the crowd cheered in response to the huge guitar leads. The first set then came to a close with a Russo-fronted “Box of Rain,” some nice “Half-Step” teases included for good measure as we went into setbreak.
The second set kicked off with yet another patient intro jam, Russo getting things started on some light shaker and tambourine work for several minutes while Benevento and Hamilton spaced out around him. The sparkling play eventually resolved into the beginning of “Foolish Heart,” beautiful guitar interplay taking place during the jam as the band gradually worked into a driving minor-key groove.
The intensity grew, though the jam felt laid-back, as Metzger took the lead and laid a path to a possible “Feel Like A Stranger” segue, though that was not to be as the band executed a beautiful segue into the beginning of “Franklin’s Tower,” eliciting a huge cheer from the crowd to go with the huge smiles sported by all five musicians.
Russo’s dog Ted made one of several on-stage appearances during “Franklin’s,” wandering around between the instruments as if there wasn’t a loud rock concert happening – which is pretty funny to watch.
Next up was a nice build into “The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion),” Metzger tearing viciously into a solo before the band departed the song proper into a tight funk groove. Benevento engaged in some whirlwind Rhodes work ahead of a slick Russo drum break, the two longtime collaborators working together as Hamilton watched with glee before the guitarist re-entered the fray and led a segue into “Scarlet Begonias” by way of its outro riff.
Flipping the script on the very tense and minor-key-driven vibe of “Golden Road,” the “Scarlet” jam opened into a breezy major-key space dominated by Benevento’s organ, though the band didn’t stay there long before slowing the tempo and modulating up into a cool-down in “He’s Gone.”
Benevento’s aggressive (and WILD) piano work on the outro led to an increase in the energy and intensity, resulting in a POUNDING segue into “Lost Sailor,” Metzger delivering his finest vocal performance of the night on the duo with the exuberant “Saint of Circumstance,” which easily could have closed the set on a high note.
However, JRAD was not done and opted for “Morning Dew,” a song they don’t play as often as some other Grateful Dead mainstays. When they DO play it, it’s incredibly special – and there’s always some extra amazing interplay between Hamilton and Benevento. In this case, nearly seven minutes of near-silence came with some absolutely captivating work between piano and guitar, and the crowd stood in rapt attention.
After the exemplary set closer, JRAD encored with a nice run through Bob Dylan’s “Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You,” sending the crowd home happy with the promise of more incredible music for their second show in Perinton tonight.
With it being the 30th anniversary of Jerry Garcia’s passing, I’m sure Almost Dead will have something special in store for us – and I can’t wait for another amazing night celebrating the music of the Grateful Dead.