Pro-Shot Video: Joe Russo’s Almost Dead Shares 45-Minute Sequence From 2016 Lockn’ Festival

On Friday and Saturday nights at midnight, Grateful Dead tribute act Joe Russo’s Almost Dead plays this year’s Lockn’ Festival in Arrington, Virginia. The band made their Lockn’ debut with a pair of performances at the 2016 installment and this week’s Rad Tracks Friday features a standout segment from one year ago today.

Guitarists Tom Hamilton and Scott Metzger, bassist Dave Dreiwitz, drummer Joe Russo and keyboardist Marco Benevento began their first ever Lockn’ set with a jam that gave way to “Truckin’.” The video below picks up at the start of the “St. Stephen” that followed. JRAD took a loose but intense approach to “St. Stephen” as they covered plenty of ground in the nine minutes before Hamilton started to sing.

Almost Dead embarked on more adventurous jamming ahead of the second verse coming in at the 20-minute mark. The quintet then took a jazzy turn towards “The Eleven” and toyed with the structure of the song before they began to sing the lyrics 30 minutes into the video. A particularly cool segment of improv links the end of “The Eleven” to “Brown-Eyed Women.” JRAD played “BEW” fairly straight, especially as compared to the craziness of the “St. Stephen” > “The Eleven” sequence.

Watch this week’s Rad Tracks installment: