Joe Russo Almost Dead
5/2/25 Fillmore, New Orleans, LA
Once again Joe Russo's Almost Dead returned to play New Orleans during the annual Jazz Festival, setting up shop two nights in the luxurious Fillmore downtown. On the first night, Friday May 2nd, the house was almost completely full as Festival goers and JRAD fans survived a few torrential rain showers just before show time, to catch the band get down.
The group, Joe Russo - drums, Dave Dreiwitz - bass, Marco Benevento - keys, Scott Metzger - guitar, Tom Hamilton - guitar, have been delivering their versions of Grateful Dead (and adjacent) music for over a decade now and have built up a sizable following. They opened this night, like most, with an easy flowing jam, to make sure everything was working/sounding properly, before moving into a version of "Second That Emotion" which was more on the rock side of things.
After the Motown excursion "Fell Like A Stranger" pumped out and during the tune a Pink Floyd-ish jam started to bubble up, this would be a reoccurring theme on the evening. The playing easily exhaled into "Loser" which was highlighted by Benevento's piano work after which the band melded into a clear "I Know You Rider" jam before resolving in a strong version of "Cassidy" that was pushed forward by Russo's fantastic drumming.
The group started dripping back into a spacey jam with angular guitar lines before "Help on the Way" thundered forward while "Slipknot" got out there with more Pink Floyd like space before touching on "Cumberland Blues" only to pivot into a set closing "Maggie's Farm" which saw everyone take a solo with Benevento and Hamilton shining brightest.
Overall the first set was fine, but clearly acted as a warmup for the band to get loose.
The start of the second set saw the playing increase into a dissonant jam before "Let It Grow" emerged. The track was a beast led by Dreiwitz's bass work and Metzger's crunchy guitar, roller coaster-ing up and down for almost twenty minutes, only to end up finally diving fully into an instrumental run through of Pink Floyd's "Pigs (Three Different Ones)". A great start to the set, the band was now in high gear as "Jack Straw" contained a huge build up and "I Need A Miracle" was a crowd favorite, big bluesy rocker.
Fully locked in the best was saved for last as a hugely dramatic "Wharf Rat" theatrically spilled out before the tempo was increased by a ripping spin through "Hot'Lanta" as Russo brought over the tune he played recently with The Brothers at MSG. That southern fried goodness got the energy high and it stayed that way for a pumped up version of "The Eleven" before a majestically soaring, set closing version of "Sugaree". This final four song collection showed the true range and ability of JRAD and was a clear show highlight.
The band didn't leave the stage for the encore due to time constraints so they thanked the crowd and dove right into "Samson and Delilah" with Russo's rumbling drums sending the appreciative fan base back out in the New Orleans night.
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