Joe Russo's Almost Dead Add Two August Nights Outside Rochester

Three late-summer shows from Joe Russo’s Almost Dead were announced on May 8, 2025, two of them at the Perinton Center Park Amphitheater in Perinton, New York.

The band is set to play the amphitheater on August 8 and 9, then cross into Vermont for an August 10 date at the Stateside Amphitheater at Jay Peak Resort in Jay.

Jambands.com, which reported the announcement, said a presale began the same day, with the general on-sale set for May 9, 2025 at 10 a.m. ET through joerussosalmostdead.com.

A Monroe County anchor for the run

The two Perinton nights put the run’s center of gravity in Fairport, a Rochester suburb in Monroe County, rather than in a major market.

That gives the region a rare two-night stand from a band that more often plays single dates when it passes through New York State outside the city.

The shows are presented locally by Rochester Events. Perinton’s parks offer no overnight or daytime camping, so the promoter has pointed ticket buyers toward hotels reachable by car or rideshare.

Who the band is

Joe Russo’s Almost Dead formed in 2013 around drummer Joe Russo, previously of Furthur and the Benevento/Russo Duo, and played its first show on January 26, 2013 at Brooklyn Bowl in Brooklyn.

The lineup is Russo on drums, Scott Metzger and Tom Hamilton on guitars and vocals, Dave Dreiwitz on bass and Marco Benevento on keyboards. Dreiwitz is Ween’s bassist. Hamilton’s other projects include Brothers Past, Ghost Light and American Babies.

The group mainly covers the music of the Grateful Dead.

What came before the announcement

The three dates follow a three-night run at Brooklyn Bowl Las Vegas in April 2025 that featured guest appearances by Oteil Burbridge and Branford Marsalis.

From there the band played ACL Live at The Moody Theater in Austin on May 1, then two nights at The Fillmore New Orleans on May 2 and 3. Those New Orleans dates continue a tradition of Almost Dead shows during the second weekend of Jazz Fest that goes back to 2015, and the band made its Fillmore New Orleans debut there over three nights in May 2023.

Those three dates were announced on November 12, 2024, with an artist presale on November 13 and a general on-sale on November 15. The band’s tenth anniversary shows with Bob Weir at Brooklyn Bowl were covered here.

The rest of the summer

Summer dates already on the books at the time of the announcement include All Good Now in Columbia, Maryland on June 14 and Mountain Jam in Highmount, New York on June 20, which puts a second Upstate booking on the calendar in the Catskills six weeks before the Perinton nights.

A three-show Colorado run from August 21 through 23 is set to close out the band’s season.

Sources: Jambands.com, JamBase, JamBase, Rochester Events.

Photo: Scu ba, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.