By David Schultz

At first blush, keyboardist Marco Benevento and drummer Joe Russo, more familiarly known as the Benevento Russo Duo, do not appear musically intimidating. With a stage setup evocative of two outcasts who have staked a claim in the basement to privately create weird and unusual music, Benevento and Russo face each other rather than their audience. This past Thursday night at New York City's Bowery Ballroom, the Duo, feeding off each other's energy, pounded away like mad scientists showing off the inimitable sound that won them New Groove of the Year at the 2005 Jammy awards.

The BR2's "new groove" stems from Benevento's creativity with the keyboards. Like a demented Beethoven, Benevento musically shifts back and forth between the traditional and the innovative while physically shifting between his Wurlizter electric piano and synthesizer. Equally important, Russo displays his brilliance by never letting the percussion, essential to the mix, overwhelm or distract from the overall sound. Most of the compositions start with Benevento laying down a series of harmonious musical phrases over Russo's whip-quick, staccato drumbeats in a neo-prog rock montage. With interplay more familiar to a jazz duo, the Duo exhibit an uncanny feel for each other's musical style. Reminiscent of the Friends episode where Ross unveils his "sound," Benevento has a penchant for adding squelches, squeaks and other odd noises from his synthesizer into the mix. The comparison ends there though: Ross wasn't a ridiculously talented keyboardist and Chandler wasn't a kick-ass drummer. To the rowdy approval of the Ballroom audience, Benevento and Russo fused their distinctive amalgam of sound, building each song to impressive, majestic crescendos more characteristic of classical music.

The Duo dedicated a fair portion of Thursday's performance, the penultimate show of the eastern leg of their fall tour, to their debut release, Best Reason To Buy The Sun. The album fairly captures the musicianship of the band but only offers glimpses of the energy Benevento and Russo generate live. With Benevento wildly bouncing around between his multitude of keyboards and Russo a frenzied dervish behind the drums, the Duo fleshed out the 70's funk, blaxploitation-soundtrack feel of Becky, hit the harder edges of Scratchitti and brought a moodier, jazzier sensibility to Welcome Red. Slower songs like the Curtis Mayfield-tinged Mephisto and Memphis, a new song featuring Russo on guitar, provided a pleasant change of pace but fell flat with the audience which was politely appreciative but generally unmoved by the softer tunes.

Since their formation in 2002, BR2 has developed an interesting and creative repertoire of covers. They have been known to break out entire sets of guitar-free Led Zeppelin covers or lengthy free form versions of Phish tunes, often with Mike Gordon lending a hand on bass. On this night, the Duo closed out their show with a funky, upbeat rendition of Radiohead's Myxomatosis. During the encore break, Marco Benevento exploded the myth of the hedonistic, self-centered rock star when, through an open stage door, he could be seen receiving hugs and kisses from his parents. Perhaps still feeling the familial vibe, Benevento invited the audience on stage to circle around them for their encore of My Pet Goat.

The maxim that writing about music is akin to dancing about architecture aptly applies to descriptions of the Benevento Russo Duo. To truly appreciate the Duo's accomplishments, they need to be heard as they have created a different and refreshingly unique sound. The symbiosis that occurs on stage between the two is infectious and it is impossible to not be drawn in by their insanely inventive musicianship. At times Benevento and Russo can be baffling, at others they can make you see God – and in the end, isn't that little glimpse of heaven all we really want?

Labels: Benevento/Russo Duo, Joe Russo, Marco Benevento