Article Contributed by Gabriel David Barkin
Published on January 22, 2026
Joe Russo’s Almost Dead | Capitol Theatre | Port Chester, NY | January 18th, 2026 | photos by Gabriel David Barkin
Joe Russo’s Almost Dead (JRAD) played three nights at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY this past weekend. So what else is new?
With exceptions for the Covid years, JRAD has played the Cap every year since 2013. They’ve got a long way to go to catch up to Phil Lesh, whose banner celebrating 100 shows hangs in the rafters of the venerable theater. But given the ardor of the fans who show up every time, and the passion JRAD exhibited on stage this weekend at one of the East Coast’s most jam’tastic venues, they just might get there.
It’s worth noting that this was my first time seeing a show – any show – at the Cap since it was renovated and the old theater seats removed from the floor. I saw Joe Jackson here a few decades ago, and more recently I attended a Scary Burton show with JRAD’s Dave Dreiwitz (bass) in Garcia’s, the bar attached to the Cap. I live in California, but that’s no excuse. What took me so long?!
Knowing this was the “House of Phil” and a Mecca for East Coast jam band fans, I was super excited to pay my respects and check out the joint.
Warren Haynes (guitarist for the Allman Brothers and Government Mule) had joined for the entire second set on Night One, so the bar was high by the time I arrived for Night Two on Saturday. (My wife and I went to see Allison Russell in Hadestown on Broadway Friday night, so we weren’t totally missing out on the good life.)
The marquee out front read “Thank you Bobby. Fare thee well.” We had been listening to the livestream of the San Francisco “Homecoming” celebration for Weir and feeling a bit of FOMO for missing our hometown gathering. At the very least, we knew JRAD was going to provide their own tribute to our dearly departed brother.
For Sunday, I had arranged a photo pass. (All the photos here are from the Sunday show.) Saturday I was “off” for the night. I wanted to soak up the local vibe, celebrate Bob Weir (as I’d been doing all week since we heard the sad news), and enjoy the fuck out of my favorite Grateful Dead cover/tribute/interpretive band.
Joe Russo’s dog Teddy made a brief solo appearance on stage just after the posted showtime of 8pm. Then at 8:15, the lights dimmed and the band took the stage.
Saturday’s guest musician was Stuart Bogie on woodwinds. Bogie’s resume includes a decade in Afrobeat jammers Antibalas (including a stint on Broadway as the house band for the musical Fela!) and a long association with alt-rock’s TV on the Radio. Onstage with JRAD, his clarinet helped kick off the evening with a mid-tempo jazz rhythm on clarinet. The tempo quickened as the band grooved along – and then Scott Metzger (guitar, vocals) started singing “Good Lovin’.” That’s all it took to heat the audience to full boil. The Cap was cookin’ with gas.
Here’s a California boy observation: East Coast Deadhead audiences are WAY louder than Bay Area crowds – in a good way. More singing. More rowdy applause. I remember experiencing that for the first time in Hartford at a 1984 Grateful Dead show. Many, y’all New Yorkers especially, you don’t hold back! Out west, we’re not always mellow. But by comparison, yeah.
“Bertha” added rocket fuel to the boiling mix after “Good Lovin’.” A spacey jazz exploration following that left Earth orbit, and the “My Brother Esau” took the band way out into the asteroid belt. Bogie’s baritone sax provided some gravity on the floor of the space capsule as we moved further out to the depths of the solar system.
“Fire on the Mountain” was next, and it felt like those volcanoes on Mars were erupting when Tom Hamilton (guitar, vocals) started singing “Long distance runner, what you standin’ there for?” And if you ever wondered what Fela Kuti would do with a solo on Fire, Bogie gave us a taste.
As he does often during his solos, Hamilton stepped close to the drum kit and faced Joe Russo (drums) during his turn on “Fire.” With all that smoke rising from the skins, it’s like Icarus daring to come close to the sun – but in the case of JRAD, instead of melting wax and falling wings, the guitar shredding just soars into an even higher altitude.
Friday night attendees got to hear JRAD’s take (with Haynes) of the Allman’s “Mountain Jam” and “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed.” We didn’t get any extended Allman Brothers songs on Saturday or Sunday, but we did get a total “psych!” moment when the band played the opening riffs of “Jessica.” Of course it was just a tease (a hallmark of JRAD jams), and Metzger instead started singing “The Race is On,” a George Jones classic covered often by Bob Weir and the Dead.
And boy, that race was on!
If I were to look for proof of my assertion that right-coasters know how to make noise, I’d point to the cheer for the line about “New York City!” in the set-closing version of “Dancing in the Streets.” This song is also a great example of how JRAD can take a cover song of a cover song (the Dead’s version of the Martha and the Vandellas hit) and make it their own. That middle section, the one where the Dead added their own funky musical bridge (hard to describe, but IYKYK) – JRAD mixes that section in along with the ingredients they add from their own pantry to make something old new again.
JRAD is an improv band covering another improv band’s music, but the Set Two opener on Saturday was something completely different. Metzger, Dreiwitz, Bogie (on flute), and Marco Benevento (keys) sat in front of sheet music to play the instrumental “Sage and Spirit,” from the Dead’s Blues for Allah album. An image of Bob Weir with the acronym “STFU” were projected on the walls above the balcony seats as if Bobby himself were here telling everybody to “Shut the fuck up” and listen to the magic. And gosh darn it, despite everything I said above about the loud crowd in the Cap, there was vast compliance with that command.
Russo and Hamilton joined in toward the end of “Sage,” playing softly at first in the spirit of thing, but then the ensemble veered into a spacey segue before landing on planet “Playing” (as in “…in the Band”) The ten-count in the jam went all wonky in the most delightful way with Bogie’s baritone sax throwing down avant garde jazz scales while Hamilton skated the fretboard with his slide to produce stratospheric guitar squeaks. Russo, ever the octopus, writhed his many limbs about in the swirling space-surf of music before the wave crashed back into the theme.
Later, Metzger sang Warren Zevon’s “Lawyers Guns and Money.” More crowd singing. The shit has hit the fan indeed!
Toward the end of the set, JRAD busted Weir’s “Throwing Stones.” As they usually do when playing their version of this anthemic gem, the band stopped playing altogether during one of the instrumental bits and the only sound in the venue was Russo pounding a single, steady, throbbing beat. Then the audience began to clap along (so typical of y’all New Yawkahs!) After a solid 30 seconds or so of this, Hamilton and Benevento led the way into a drifting field of delightful space debris and ultimately to a crescendo that took us back to the lyrics.
Time for an important message: JRAD fans may have noticed by now (the band has been playing “Stones” this way for some time) that the way they play the final part of the song steals a hard rockin’ riff from Led Zeppelin’s “How Many More Times.” Now if you don’t know this, you should: before there was a JRAD, at one point there was a Bustle in Your Hedgerow, with all the members of JRAD except for Hamilton, and all they played was instrumental jam versions of Led Zeppelin songs. And. It. Was. Fucking. Awesome.
When I interviewed Benevento last year, I asked him why they don’t do Bustle shows anymore. Or maybe even, like, a set of Bustle and then a set of JRAD? He said, “We talk about that all the time, like before every show!” But it never happens. So if you know Marco, or even if you don’t – send him a message saying, “Yeah, dude, kick out the Bustle!”
Okay, so now back to the Capitol Theater.
Saturday night’s second set ended with “Brokedown Palace.” I gotta say, even though this is a Hunter-Garcia song, it was the moment on Saturday when I felt the most emotional homage to Bob Weir. Hamilton sang with deep emotion, and there were some tears in the audience for sure. Fare thee well, brother Bobby.
The encore began with Bruce Springsteen’s “Thunder Road.” For those of us in the crowd who love the Boss, this is pretty close to a National Anthem, one of those songs that just makes us feel good! And when JRAD sings it, it sounds like a story about leaving home to follow the Dead on tour, which so many of us did.
“I’m pulling out of here to win!”
It was also a perfect song for Bogie to channel the great Clarence Clemons on a tenor sax solo.
As if that wasn’t enough – well, it was Saturday night after all. “One More Saturday Night” gave the crowd one last chance to celebrate Bob Weir. And man, that cathartic scream at the end when Metzger channeled Weir and every one of the thousands of people in the Cap joined in. Wow.
So that was Saturday. Which, my encapsulation of the night being over, makes now the perfect time to remind y’all of this vital life lesson (say it with me, in harmony):
Never miss a Sunday show.
If you’ve made it this far, I’ll let you know now that my review of the Sunday show below won’t be as long as the Saturday stuff above. That’s largely because I spent the entire first set on Sunday taking pics instead of writing notes. (From the pit for the first three songs, from the house for the remainder.) So I’ll go easy on you with just some highlights.
It’s truly a privilege to get to be in the pit shooting one of your favorite bands. Since JRAD gives us photogs a long stretch (thirty minutes on Sunday), I take the time to enjoy myself! And there was a moment when Hamilton was kicking off his solo during “Saint of Circumstance” when I put my camera down and soaked up the vibe. Hamilton looked right at me, and we both started rocking our heads back and forth, faster and faster, harder and harder as he picked up steam.
I mention this because (a) it’s always way cool when you connect with a musician you dig like that, and (b) the guys in this band – especially Hamilton and Benevento – do that with the crowd all the time. They connect, all night, every night, both with each other and also with their audience. They stay in the moment, and they partner with the fans to make each night special and real. They love this shit! Benevento in particular grins and laughs all the time on stage, like he’s having the time of his life. (Which I hope he is!)
And Russo. I mean, the guy’s dog Teddy is just hanging out with him and the rest of the guys for more than half of the first set! Like many golden retrievers (correct me if I’m wrong about his breed), Teddy just wants attention. He wants to be where the action is.
He comes out during (I think) “Eyes of the World” and drops a tennis ball at Hamilton’s feet. Tom tosses the ball toward the back of the stage. Teddy retrieves it, ambles across the front of the stage and lies down on the other side of Russo’s drum kit. He drops the ball and stares up at Dreiwitz. “Hey Davey, when are you gonna pick up the fuckin’’ ball and toss it already?!” But Teddy is nothing if not patient.
All of this says a lot about Russo, who brings his dog to the show and lets him join the band any time he wants. It says a lot about his bandmates, who all have shit-eating grins on their faces watching their hairy tour buddy get all the attention from the crowd.
And I swear to God, the biggest cheer of the night was during the Set One closer “Minglewood Blues” when Teddy got up from the floor to stretch his legs. (A close second was when Benevento played a snatch of Lorde’s “Royals” during his solo in “Eyes.”)
During Set Two, there were some notable snatches of cover tune teases. The jam before the final verse of “Jack Straw” morphed into Tom Petty’s “Running Down a Dream.” A long space segue before “Terrapin Station” hinted at old Pink Floyd. (A guy near me said, “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun?” I said, “Maybe, or Careful with that Axe, Eugene?”) And then there was some Floyd in the flesh when Hamilton played the opening melody from “Brain Damage” before singing the opening lyric from “Morning Dew.”
“Dew” came after “The Other One.” Here’s what I wrote in my notes when they launched into that iconic stomp near the end of the set: “What do they have left in the tank here at the end of Day Three? A whole shitload, apparently. Like the last volley of fireworks on the Fourth of July, the one that uses like three quarters of the entire night’s allotment. Balls out. Pedal to the metal. A ‘never-miss-a-Sunday-show’ epic freakout.”
And yeah, that “Morning Dew” was epic too, Hamilton really delivering the goods on both vocals and guitar. And Benevento – I realize that I’ve barely mentioned his contributions above, but that’s probably just because my jaw drops to the floor every time he solos. And, well, y’all know Dreiwitz and Russo are pictured in the dictionary under the entry for “fucktastic!”
I don’t know how many people in the audience on Sunday are familiar with Richard Thompson “1952 Vincent Black Lightning” (Also covered famously by the Del McCoury Band). Metzger was the sole member of JRAD on stage for the encore, and he played Thompson’s poignant tale of love, loss, and lamentation sitting on a stool with his acoustic guitar.
This one was for Bob Weir, and it was perfect. Weir helped create “this thing” – Grateful Dead music, the Deadhead community, all of this. And it ain’t over just because Weir, Garcia, Lesh, McKernan, the Godchauxs, and Mydland have taken their leave. (Of course, we hope Hart, Kreutzmann, Constanten, and anyone else you care to name sticks around for a while longer.)
If you don’t know it, “1952 Vincent Black Lightning” is a love story about a man, a woman, and a motorcycle. It ends with James on his death bed, his darling Red Molly by his side. His last words and deeds are these:
He reached for her hand and he slipped her the keys
He said “I’ve got no further use for these
I see angels on Ariels in leather and chrome
Swooping down from heaven to carry me home”
And he gave her one last kiss and died
And he gave her his Vincent to ride
Our “Vincent” is JRAD. And it’s all those other performers that continue to play the music of the Grateful Dead. It’s all of us Deadheads, our communities, our art, our souls. It’s the Capitol Theatre, one of many homes to this amazing scene. Bob Weir and all those others, they gave us this Vincent to ride.
With JRAD by our side, let’s ride the hell out of it.
