Friends of Jerry take the Dead somewhere strange at Ruba Club

Philadelphia's indie-rock Grateful Dead band shares a Halloween-eve bill with Crickets & Cicadas at the Northern Liberties ballroom on Friday.

Most Grateful Dead tribute bands sell you a familiar feeling. Friends of Jerry are more interested in what the songs sound like when they're run through a Philadelphia indie-rock band. On Friday, October 30, the night before Halloween, they bring that version of the Dead to Ruba Club, sharing the bill with fellow Dead devotees Crickets & Cicadas.

Doors are at 7:00 PM at Ruba, 416 Green Street, with the night listed as running until 11. Promoter 4333 Collective lists tickets at $29.20.

Their Bandcamp releases list the lineup as Sean Reilly and Kevin Paschall with Tommy Fala, Andrew Meagher and Danielle Zabielski, and Zach Coleman on the 2024 dates (Johnny Klein appears on earlier releases).

A Humpday News write-up of their "Althea" said the band sounds very little like the Grateful Dead, pulling instead from punk, post-rock, shoegaze, krautrock and jazz. That's the hook for anyone who has never owned a tie-dye shirt: the songs are the Dead's, but the treatment belongs to people who came up in Philly's DIY rooms.

The songs are the Dead's, but the treatment belongs to people who came up in Philly's DIY rooms.

They haven't announced a new studio record. What they have done, in proper Deadhead fashion, is document their shows. Their Bandcamp holds a run of live recordings named by date and room: the Ukie Club in 2022 and 2023, Johnny Brenda's, Underground Arts, Spruce Street Harbor Park, the Abington Art Center, Phantom Power in Millersville, Anchor Rock Club in Atlantic City and, most recently, Ardmore Music Hall in November 2025. Some of those recordings were mixed at Studio North, according to the Bandcamp credits.

Philadelphia is their home turf, with more shows here than anywhere else in our records, and this summer they shared a Brooklyn Bowl Philadelphia bill with Shakedown Citi. Ruba suits them in a different way. The club calls itself a non-profit social club, venue and production space, with a cabaret bar and a ballroom theater. The Inquirer once described it as a longtime hangout for the city's Russian community that also opened its doors to Fringe events, poetry and indie bands.

Crickets & Cicadas make a good counterweight. They bill themselves as the finest Dead band in the land, a NJ/PA outfit with rotating players and no repeated setlists from month to month. Put the two on one bill and you get both sides of the scene: the faithful long-form jam and the art-school reinterpretation.

Wear the costume a night early if you like. Then stay for the second band.

Sources: 4333 Collective — Events in Philadelphia (4333collective.net); Ruba Club (rubaclub.org); Friends of Jerry — Bandcamp (music) (friendsofjerry.bandcamp.com); Friends of Jerry — 11-29-24 Underground Arts (friendsofjerry.bandcamp.com); Friends of Jerry — 08-18-22 Ukie Club (friendsofjerry.bandcamp.com); Humpday News — Friends of Jerry: “Althea” (humpday.news); Brooklyn Bowl Philadelphia — Shakedown Citi + Friends of Jerry, June 20 2026 (brooklynbowl.com); Crickets & Cicadas — Facebook (facebook.com); Philadelphia Inquirer — RUBA: Still old school but with new vibe (2015) (inquirer.com)