Photo by Vic Brazen

Joe Russo’s Almost Dead wrapped up their three-night run at the Westville Music Bowl run on Sunday, offering two sets chock-full of the Grateful Dead and The Band, plus sit-ins by Katie Jacoby on violin and members of the extended Antibalas family – Stuart Bogie, Jordan Maclane, Ray Mason, Cochema, and John Altieri – rounding out a killer brass section.

The brass was strong from the beginning of the Connecticut gig, with a nice, horn-laden trio of “Iko Iko”> “China Cat Sunflower”> “Ophelia.”

Other highlights included a freeform set-one jam into to The Beatles’ “Why Don’t We Do It In The Road,” which also gave way to the often-covered “Hard To Handle.”

Set two began with JRAD proper performing “Alabama Getaway,” but it wasn’t long before the horns returned and saxophonist Stuart Bogie played on the following “Feel Like A Stranger.”

Things really hit a highpoint later when Katie Jacoby – violinist for The Who, and The Showdown Kids bandmate/fiance of JRAD’s Scott Metzger – added her fiddle to a rockin’ “Rag Mama Rag.”

JRAD (plus the brass section) closed the show with a one-two punch of “Cats Under The Stars”> “CC Rider,” and encored with The Band’s showstopper “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.”

Check out a full photo gallery from JRAD’s Westville Music Bowl run here, as well as the setlist and Sunday openers below:

Joe Russo’s Almost Dead
June 20, 2021
Westville Music Bowl

Set I: Iko Iko^> China Cat Sunflower^> Ophelia^, Operator^, Jam^> Why Don’t We Do It In The Road^> Hard To Handle^, Casey Jones

Set II: Alabama Getaway> Feel Like a Stranger*> Misissippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo> Good Lovin’^, Let It Rock^, Roadrunner^, Rag Mama Rag^%, Cats Under The Stars^> CC Rider^

Enc: The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down^

Notes:
^ with Jordan Maclane, Ray Mason, Cochema, and John Altieri
* with Stuart Bogie
%with Katie Jacoby