Neon Avenue (Grateful tribute) at the Rustic Barn- Recap: 3/25/23 -By: Shows Leary

After five nights of straight up jamming, Shows needs a night off…just from playing, not listening. Exit Grafton and arrive at the Rustic Barn Pub for a night with Neon Avenue

The guys take the stage, Danny Watson tweaks the sound, Jason Brenenstuhl tweaks the lights, a very good sized crowd is on board and they have a Bertha blast off.

You can certainly expect a lot of Dead and JGB tunes and there is no disappointment there. The first set is all of that with many rocking blazers and a set ending Dancing In The Streets that is so dripping in bass funk (Mike Cassals) and keyboard grit (Mike McDonald) that Jody has to mop the floor near the stage at set break as dancers are sliding all over that grease.

The second set starts out where they left off, with the drums (Doug Klein) terrorizing the intro to Samson and Delilah. The follow up song is a very stretched out Scarlet Begonias>Fire On The Mountain that moves the dancing crowd into frenzy levels as guitarists Mike Urbon and Joe Davis absolutely rip the jams.

The Not Fade Away wrap-around of GDRFB>We Bid You Goodnight>Throwing Stones>Not Fade Away to end the night leaves this writer with that classic old school Dead feeling.