Joe Russo's Almost Dead keep their January date at The Capitol Theatre

JRAD's winter stand in Port Chester returns on Friday, Jan. 15, in the room the Grateful Dead made famous.

For a few years now, the middle of January has meant one thing to a lot of Deadheads in and around the city: Joe Russo's Almost Dead in Port Chester. The 2027 edition is on the calendar.

Joe Russo's Almost Dead play The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester on Friday, Jan. 15, 2027, at 8 p.m. The date was announced Oct. 26, and tickets are on sale through Ticketmaster. From Queens or the Bronx, Port Chester is a short trip up into Westchester, on the Connecticut line.

If you've somehow missed them: JRAD is a five-piece Joe Russo formed in 2013, after five years drumming in Furthur, that mainly plays the music of the Grateful Dead. Russo pulled together Bustle in Your Hedgerow, his Led Zeppelin band with bassist Dave Dreiwitz, guitarist Scott Metzger and keyboardist Marco Benevento, and added guitarist and singer Tom Hamilton to make Almost Dead. The band treats the Dead songbook as something to stretch and reshape rather than reproduce, and over the years it has also pulled in songs from well outside it, including the Rolling Stones and ZZ Top on one of its Capitol nights.

The January habit is well established. The band played the Capitol in January 2023 and January 2024, ran three nights there Jan. 17 to 19, 2025, and came back for three more, Jan. 16 to 18, 2026, all streamed live on nugs. The date announced so far for 2027 is the Friday, so watch the venue for anything added.

"There's only two theaters, man … the Fillmore and The Capitol Theatre." — Jerry Garcia

The room is why the run feels like a pilgrimage. The Capitol opened on Aug. 18, 1926, and became a rock venue in the 1960s and '70s; the Grateful Dead played there more than a dozen times between 1970 and 1971, and Jerry Garcia ranked it alongside the Fillmore. The building drifted into use as a catering hall before promoter Peter Shapiro, of Brooklyn Bowl and Relix, bought it in 2012, renovated it and reopened it as a concert hall. Port Chester has since renamed the corner of Westchester Avenue and Broad Street outside it Phil Lesh Lane, after the Dead's bassist, who played the Capitol often.

A JRAD show in that building, in the dead of winter, sits about as close to the source as this music gets in the New York area.

When to buy: now. The Capitol's January JRAD nights have been a fixture for years, and a Friday is the most in-demand night of any weekend.

See you on Phil Lesh Lane.

Sources: Joe Russo's Almost Dead — Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org); Marco Benevento — Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org); Joe Russo's Almost Dead first-ever show audio — Live for Live Music (liveforlivemusic.com); Joe Russo's Almost Dead: Rolling Stones, ZZ Top at Capitol Theatre — Live for Live Music (liveforlivemusic.com); Joe Russo's Almost Dead | Capitol Theatre | 1/27/2023 — Grateful Web (gratefulweb.com); Joe Russo's Almost Dead | The Capitol Theatre | 1/12/2024 — Grateful Web (gratefulweb.com); Joe Russo's Almost Dead Capitol Theatre 3 nights January 2025 — Live for Live Music (liveforlivemusic.com); Joe Russo's Almost Dead Announce Three-Night Run at The Capitol Theatre and 2026 Tour Dates — Relix (relix.com); Joe Russo's Almost Dead livestream 2026 Capitol Theatre — Live for Live Music (liveforlivemusic.com); Capitol Theatre (Port Chester, New York) — Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org); Historic Capitol Theatre turns 100 years old — News12 (newyork.news12.com); New York State's historic Capitol Theatre looks to a new era — American Songwriter (americansongwriter.com); Phil Lesh gets his own lane in Port Chester, literally — Chronogram (chronogram.com); Peter Shapiro, music producer — Tablet (tabletmag.com); Joe Russo's Almost Dead — The Capitol Theatre (thecapitoltheatre.com); Joe Russo's Almost Dead at The Capitol Theatre — tickets (Ticketmaster) (ticketmaster.com)