The Deadbeats don’t use set lists, and thirty-plus years into their run, that commitment to spontaneity is still the point. Every show is built in the room, with the audience shaping what gets played next — which makes them, in practice, less a tribute act than a working improvising band that happens to draw from the Grateful Dead’s songbook. Their pre-Thanksgiving show at Lark Hall on Nov. 21 is that proposition in a room sized for exactly this kind of music.
About the Show
A Grateful Thanksgiving with The Deadbeats is a pre-holiday event, and the name delivers what it promises: an evening shaped by the Dead’s catalog — plus the Garcia Band, Phish, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, The Band, Bob Marley, and Janis Joplin — with 300-plus Dead songs available to draw from and no fixed order for drawing from them. Denise Parent (drums, vocals) and guitarist Mike Johnson founded the band in the early 1990s around New Paltz; Parent is self-taught on drums, Johnson a Berklee-trained guitarist, a pairing that has held together for over three decades. The group built much of its early reputation through long residencies (12 years of Monday nights at Cabaloosa in New Paltz among them) and has maintained a sustained Albany presence for years since. As Parent has put it, the band uses the Dead’s version as the skeleton to follow — a frame that leaves plenty of room. The current Lark Hall lineup includes Brian Mangini (of Ominous Seapods and Raisinhead) and Tom Pirozzi alongside Ted Grey. In 2022, the band won the Listen Up Award for Favorite Grateful Dead Band in New York’s Capital Region; in 2026, the Listen Up Hero Award. Saratoga Living ranked them among the top five local tribute acts in 2019; the Capital Region voted them Best Jam Band in 2017. Parent also fronts Brown-Eyed Women, an all-female Grateful Dead tribute band that tours nationally.
Venue & Logistics
Lark Hall is the right room for this kind of show. The 1916 building at 351 Hudson Avenue — originally constructed by the Daughters of the Eastern Star as a chapter room and performance hall — carries 21-foot ceilings and a historic proscenium stage; the acoustics have a strong local reputation. Doors open at 7 p.m., with the show starting at 8 p.m. Expect approximately four hours of music. All ages; anyone under 21 requires a parent or legal guardian. The venue is in Albany’s Capital Region.
Tickets
Tickets are $13–$24. Buy tickets