If Utica is not already on your show-night radar, let October 16 be the reason to change that. The Stanley Theatre opened September 10, 1928, and nearly a century of operating later it is still doing what it was built to do: putting the right act in a room that actually deserves it. Melvin Seals and JGB at 8:00 PM is exactly the kind of Friday night the place was made for.
About Melvin Seals and JGB
Melvin Seals spent 18 years playing Hammond B-3 organ and keyboards with the Jerry Garcia Band — the longest-tenured keyboardist in the group’s history. Jerry Garcia called him “Master of the Universe,” and that was not a casual compliment. When Garcia died in 1995, Seals did not walk away from the music. He formed JGB with Garcia’s original background singers Gloria Jones and Jackie Labranch, with a clear mission: “to go back out and do exactly what we used to do with Jerry. Not change any of it.”
In practice, that means improvisation-driven sets pulling from blues, funk, rock, jazz, R&B, and gospel — anchored by Seals’ Hammond B-3 and different every single night. The current lineup features John Kadlecik on electric guitar and lead vocals, John-Paul McLean on bass, and Jeremy Hoenig on drums. Seals and the original Jerry Garcia Band helped pioneer what has become jam band music as a genre, and JGB carries that spirit forward. Expect “an exciting, often psychedelic musical journey that changes nightly” — which is just what happens when players this deep in the catalog let themselves go wherever the music takes them.
The Stanley Theatre
The Stanley Theatre seats 2,963 and sits right in the heart of downtown Utica at 259 Genesee Street. From the Syracuse area you are looking at about an hour east on the Thruway — a totally reasonable Friday night commitment for a show this good. Check the Syracuse / Central NY events calendar for more shows across the region.
Tickets
Tickets are on sale now through Ticketmaster. Melvin Seals and JGB have been moving through serious rooms in 2026 — Boston, Boulder, Berkeley, Atlantic City — and Utica is the next stop. Do not sit on this one.