By: David Schultz
Photo by by Michael DiDonna


In a fitting start to the 2nd Green Apple Music & Arts Festival, Marco Benevento and Joe Russo, otherwise known as the Benevento/Russo Duo, kicked off the New York festivities commemorating Earth Day with two stripped down acoustic performances at New York City's Knitting Factory. Befitting a celebration of nature and the environment, The Duo went back to the basics, setting aside the electronics and laying their considerable talents bare before an eager and hungry crowd. The acoustic dimension of the performance didn't have as much of an effect on Russo's drumming as it did on Benevento's normally variegated array of instruments. Customarily surrounded by a variety of keyboards, synthesizers and other electronic doo-hickeys, Benevento's acoustic arsenal consisted of simply a piano, a toy keyboard and a xylophone.

The acoustic Duo shows were originally scheduled to take place a little further uptown at Tonic, the home to a series of improvisational performances by Benevento and numerous guests this past November that have been commemorated in an upcoming Live At Tonic release. Unfortunately, the changing landscape of New York City's Lower East Side, which has left the corpses of many iconic concert venues in its wake, claimed Tonic, despite the best efforts of avant-garde guitarist Marc Ribot to prevent its destruction.

The Duo started their first set of the evening with a healthy dose of improvisation befitting the experimental history of the Knitting Factory, with both showing off jazzy chops that sometimes get lost in their mélange of sound. In contrast to Benevento, who predominantly played piano with his back to crowd, Russo bounced and lurched behind his kit with his typical innovative skill. Though more animated, Russo otherwise seemed content to let Benevento have the creative spotlight. With a limited number of instruments at Benevento's disposal, the Duo reinterpreted "Soba" and completely deconstructed "Becky," turning the funky rave-up into a jazzy odyssey. For "Play Pause Stop," Benevento replaced the squeaks and squiggles of the song's middle section with some improvisational piano licks and in the absence of stage mikes, the audience provided the piece's hymnal vocals. In the set's most impressive moment, Benevento inventively played the opening melodies of "Sunny's Song" on the toy piano and xylophone, accomplishing the difficult task of playing both simultaneously. After all their imaginative work, they finished by playing it straight, offering a melodious rendition of George Harrison's "Run Of The Mill."

The late show featured appearances from saxophone wizard Skerik as well as the horn section from Fat Mama, an earlier project of Russo's that reformed to close the Green Apple Festivities on Earth Day with their first show in more than six years. Rather than restrict themselves within the confines of an acoustic setting, Benevento and Russo seemed to take it as a challenge, using their prodigious skills to transform a presumably serene show into a momentous event. Perhaps imagining a more sedate performance, The Knitting Factory's main room was set up with folding chairs, diminishing the kinetic energy usually crackling within a Duo show. Despite calls from some to pack up the chairs halfway through the first show, they remained in place, leaving open the question the frenzy The Duo could have inspired in a solely acoustic setting.

Labels: Benevento/Russo Duo, Live Reviews