Full disclosure: I’m a sucker for Grateful Dead cover bands. So when I stumbled upon Latin Dead’s debut album, which just so happens to be named after my favorite Dead tune Eyes of The World, I was intrigued to say the least. The album, after a handful of listens certainly had its moments of brilliance but there were other moments that were less than brilliant. All well and good as I would challenge any of you who might be reading this right now to name any “covers” album that happens to be brilliant from star to finish. I doubt if one exists. I any event when I saw that Latin Dead was playing everyone’s favorite Dead related venue, Brooklyn Bowl, I kind of knew that I needed to check these guys out. In hindsight, I quite glad that I did.
After a quite enjoyable set from Dodongo, a band based out of Brooklyn that put out Dead-like jams infused with inflections of jazz with an almost Steely Dan kind of vibe. All in all, they were actually quite good and I’d definitely check them out again in the future.
Latin Dead came out shortly afterwards and opened things up with “Feel Like A Stranger”, a song which I have to admit is not one of my more endearing Dead songs. But Latin Dead managed to put a spin on the tune which to say the least gave it a breath of fresh air to the Bob Weir tune. Following this up with a funkified “Mississippi Half-Step”, which they segued into an even funkier/dancier “Shakedown Street”. The band clearly had a method to their musical madness, making sure to delve into the more rhythmic and dance inducing of Dead material.
Oddly enough the highlight (for me at least) of the first set was a smoling hot version of “One More Saturday Night” which felt like Weir had grown up in East LA with the Mexican rythms and beats which Latin Dead infused into the song.
After a brief intermission the band rejoined us onstage and opened up with a funky jam which they called Charlie’s Rumba. They would take this straight into “Help On The Way” and “Franklin’s Tower”. The band’s clear affinity toward material from Blues For Allah was most defintiely hitting me right in my sweet spot.
After an absolutely mesmerizing version of “Looks Like Rain” we got to hear a super bluesy scorching version of “The Thrill Is Gone” into “Not Fade Away” which would bring the second set to a smoking conclusion. They would come out for an encore of the Pigpen masterpiece “Turn On Your Lovelight” which was musically adventurous and executed wonderfully but suffice it to say, there’s was only one person who could pull off Pigpen and that person was Ron McKiernan himself.
In any event, Latin Dead put on one hell of a show, one which I came into, with the full knowledge it could go either way. The bottom line is, I’m sure glad that I dragged my ubiquitous sorry ass out into the sweltering heat to get to hear what they had to offer.
W.S. Walcott Medicine Show 
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