I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: February 25, 2022] Marco Benevento

Almost exactly five years ago to the day I saw Marco Benevento headline a show at the Ardmore Music Hall.  That show blew me away, it was so much fun.  The whole band: Marco on keyboards, Karina Rykman on bass and Andy Borger on drums were terrific.  And the three of them laid down a fantastic groove all night.

The trio was almost the same tonight. This time Dave Butler was on drums, but it was still Marco and Karina.  I looked up Karina and found that she is 23, which means she was 18 last time!  She was fantastic then and even better tonight.

There was supposed to be an opening act: Deer Scout.  But for whatever reason, they didn’t come and it was announced a few days ago that Marco would play two sets.

I arrived a little later than I wanted to, but he didn’t go on exactly at 8, so that was fine.  I was also amused because for the first time in a while, I was one of the youngest people there.

Joe Russo’s Almost Dead had played three nights in Philly a few weeks ago and it was clear that people who were at that show were here as well (Marco plays with JRAD, although his music is not similar at all).  There was a lot of tie-dye and a lot of long gray beards.  I decided not to get mixed up with that crowd so I hung back a bit.

The band came out and they immediately started playing a relatively new song: “At the End of the Beginning” which opened with a Karina Rykman bassline.  The sound was perfectly mixed.  The keys were loud, but so was Karina’s bass.  And the lights were right in synch.  I actually wondered if Marco was controlling them himself.

He basically told us that this was going to be a kind of wild jamming night–and he was ready to have a lot of fun.

All of the songs went longer than they should have–Marco was riffing and jamming and playing with the multitude of effects pedals he’s got.

That song segued into “Dropkick” from The Story of Fred Short, an album I love.

Then they played a couple of instrumental jams.  I’m not sure if they were songs or just improvs.

Then Karina stepped up the mic and started singing “Out in the Woods” by Leon Russell.  She and Marco did a duet of this song, which was really fun–especially when Marco and Karina had a bass vs keyboard showdown.

They ended the set (which was about an hour) with “I Can’t See the Light” part VI of Fred Short.  It was odd to hear it out of place, but it sounded great anyway.

They left the stage and I figured they’d be gone fifteen minutes or so.  I decided to move over a little bit to get closer to Marco.  This was not such a good idea as the dancers all moved in there too and I had a lot of elbows in my ribs.  Evidently, the young people arrived mid set, so I was no longer the youngest one there.

The biggest surprise was that their set break lasted about 40 minutes.  Gosh, that’s a long time to stand around.

Then they finally came back out.

They opened with an older instrumental, “Coyote Hearing” and then played two songs from his new album Let It Slide.  Karina was on some vocals for “Oh Baby Can’t You See.”

Then came a moment I’d forgotten about.  Karina started playing the deep rumbling bass of a song that was really familiar.  It turned out to be the song “Heartbeats” by The Knife (covered by José González).  A simple piano melody and Karina’s gorgeous fuzzy bass.  They stretched it out for a pretty long time and every time Marco brought it to a crescendo, Karina would leap across the stage to land just as the bass kicked back in, laughing the whole time.

Then came an uncharacteristically mellow song, a new(ish) track called “Solid Gold.”  It was quite pretty.

Then they started playing The Story of Fred Short in full.  It was terrific.

During “Walking with Tyrone,” they did a lengthy jam where Marco stood behind the drums and Karina shifted a cool funky bass sound.

And of course Karina got to play a few cool, fuzzy, bass mini-solos throughout the suite.

When the suite ended, Marco started playing Pink Floyd’s “Fearless.” Which the band jammed for a while.  When doing covers, Marco seems to like to let his piano be the lead vocal line.  This segued nicely into a rollicking and lengthy “Benny and the Jets.”  After a few minutes, they jumped back into “Fearless” and ended the second set.

As the band left, instead of chanting “One More Song,” people were shouting “one more set” which was pretty funny.

After talking a bit at the back of the stage, they say back down and played “Limbs of a Pine,” a romping good time that got everyone dancing.  He followed it with his brand new song, the sultry “Winter Rose.”  They jammed those two songs out for about ten minutes and then waved goodbye.

But before we could leave, he held up one finger and ran back to the keyboard.   He started “At the Show” and I couldn’t believe I’d forgotten about this song.  The one that is chock full of call and response “Hey!”s.  It’s so much fun and such a great night-ending song.

The show ended much later than I thought it would.  I guessed two sets…maybe dine by 10:30?  It finished at 11:40 and I got home after 1AM.

An exhausting good time.

2022	2017
SET ONE	I Intro: The Story of Fred Short §
At the end of the Beginning	II: Seven Twenty-Two §
Dropkick §	III: Walking with Tyrone §
jam	IV: Live a Certain Life §
jam	V: Stay in Line §
Out in the Woods (Leon Rusell song)	VI: I Can’t See the Light §
I Can’t See the Light §	VII: Follow the Arrow §
SET TWO	If I Get to See You at All ⇒
Coyote Hearing ⇒	RISD ≠
Let It Slide £	All the Other Dreams
Oh Baby Can’t You See £	Heartbeats
Solid Gold	brand new song
I Intro: The Story of Fred Short §	The Real Morning Party (white Stripes cover) Ō
II: Seven Twenty-Two §	Turn on Your Love Light
III: Walking with Tyrone §	Limbs of a Pine ∞
IV: Live a Certain Life §	Mr. Doorbell
V: Stay in Line §	Dropkick §
VII: Follow the Arrow §	At the Show ⇒
Fearless (Pink Floyd cover) >
Benny and the Jets (Elton John cover) >
Fearless (Pink Floyd cover)
encore
Limbs of a Pine ∞
Winter Rose [new]
encore 2
At the Show ⇒

£ Let It Slide (2021)
§ The Story of Marco Benevento
≠ Between the Needles and Nightfall 
Ō Invisible Baby 
⇒ Swift (2014)
∞ TigerFace