Jawn Of The Dead: 118 North, Dec 16 2021

Jawn Of The Dead played to a packed house at 118 North last Thursday night.  The Delco 5 piece describe themselves as “An energetic tribute to the mystique and musical mayhem of The Grateful Dead”.  After watching their show, I couldn’t agree more. 

Rich Hill and Jim Tauscher are on guitars and share the bulk of the lead vocals.  Jim Shaflucas plays bass and vocals, Dean Sophocles is on keys and Drew Gerace on drums. 

I’ll mention that my relationship with the music of the Grateful Dead is casual at best…  I know some of it, and like what I know, but I’ve never caught one of their shows and couldn’t name more than one or two of their albums.  So I can’t really compare and contrast what these guys do vs. the real OG.  But it doesn’t really matter, does it?  It didn’t to me…  I loved it.

We arrived a little before the 2nd of 2 long-ish sets.  As the band took to the stage, the crowd came back in from the sidewalk outside and packed the dancefloor.  The band starts moving seamlessly from one song to another, with Jimmy and Rich sharing not only lead vocals but also lead guitar duties.  Both are playing clean tones, with the notes ringing out like bells.  The sound at 118 was spot on, as always.  Starting off with My Brother Esau, and rolling into West LA Fade Away, I’m noticing that Drew’s timing on the drums is rock solid and Jim on bass is locked in with him. 

Grateful Dead jams can cover such a wide spectrum of genres, sounds and feels.  JOTD continued on, blending smoothly and seamlessly from one Dead musical universe to another.  Yes, it has the feel of an improvisational jam, but they are tight!  Real tight…  I remember thinking during one of the extended segues, that they are so smooth – this must be orchestrated…  They must actually practice this shit…  But speaking later with Rich, he assured me that their jams are not orchestrated and barely planned.  They all know where they need to go, and they each have the chops to do their own thing, yet stay within their own lanes while getting there.  He calls it California Dixieland,  which after thinking about it for a moment, seems perfectly appropriate. 

They kick into Not Fade Away.  Somewhere in the midst of the Bo Diddley shuffle, began a fun little call and response between Dean on keys and Jimmy on his Strat.  Eventually this took us to Shakedown Street, but only after an extended transition with a jazz-fusion-ish rhythm section breakdown.  Drew, a technician behind the kit, calmly and methodically moves between rhythms while Jim S seems to be able to read his mind, deftly tracking the changes with a bass line that sometime mirrors and other times provides the perfect counterpunch. 

It’s now getting near the end of the night, but Jimmy is still bouncing around on the stage with frenetic energy.   Deal featured Rich and Jimmy harmonizing on the guitar lead. A bit later, on Going Down The Road Feelin’ Bad, they doubled a solo, flying through it together note for note, and dead on time.  A cooking version of US Blues closed the set and the night, with Rich singing lead and an Jimmy ably handling the high harmonies. 

As the band started packing their gear and the crowd thinned out, I was thinking that the key takeaway for me was that you don’t have to be a Deadhead to enjoy a set by these guys.  You just have to be a fan of good music played by a very capable, very tight band. 

Jawn Of The Dead are playing next at Trouble’s End in Collegeville on Jan 15, and at The Queen in Wilmington on Jan 29.