Marco Benevento arrived in Boston recently to deliver a set of music that touched on many aspects of the veteran pianist’s career. Playing nearly two hours with the Marco Benevento Trio, the keyboardist was augmented by Dave Dreiwitz (Ween; Joe Russo’s Almost Dead) on bass, and Andrew Borger (Norah Jones, Tom Waits, Ani DiFranco) on drums.
Benevento’s set explored a variety of territories, from the jamband fare of extended instrumentation to the indie-rock oriented material of his most recent album, 2014’s Swift, and points between. For certain, the moments at one end or the other of this spectrum were the most successful of the evening. Indeed, the material from Swift translates to a live setting exceptionally well: at one point, Boston-area vocalist Haley Jane joined the group for the album’s “Free Us All” and provided accompaniment with great ease.
Perhaps the highlight of the evening was the take on the album’s eerie “Witches of Ulster,” an experiment in retro synth-pop with fat, undulating bass lines from Dreiwitz. The track works so well on the album (and as a single) due in no small part to the technical prowess of the record’s namesake, Richard Swift – swirling electric pianos and driving, though deliberate drums create a pastiche of spookiness rife with pensive lyricism. Live, the song feels a bit truncated but nonetheless offers a glimpse into Benevento’s progressive songwriting style.
After opening with the leadoff track from Swift, “At the Show” the first half or so of the set focused more on the instrumental stylings of the Trio as jamband-cum-experimental rockers. Dispensing with the reverb-drenched vocals, the band launched into intense, cascading improvisations that culminated with incendiary keyboard solos.
Benevento is at a pivotal intersection of his career right now. His evolution as a player and the styles that he has explored seem naturally to have pointed him in the direction that his most recent album takes – translating the more jam-oriented material of his earlier era into more concise, song-driven territory not unlike contemporaries The Barr Brothers. Again, in a live setting this shift does not translate as effortlessly as has been accomplished on record.
There is a clear dichotomy to the live proceedings, which the audience is not only well aware of but possibly precipitates, in which Benevento is expected to “kick out the jams” and vamp endlessly on jazzy ninth chords while trading solos with his bandmembers over the course of the evening. And, again, if his discography is any evidence, then this is not the path that Benevento is destined to follow, as he continues to write more songs with an indie-pop feel and dip his dexterous fingers further into new genres.
The Trio’s set, when not getting lost in the rut of keyboard noodling – or at other times sublimely overcoming that expectation and playing some truly incendiary improvisation, which they are capable of at the drop of a hat – played some excellent rock and roll. Benevento is producing some of the best pop music of his career now, and it will be interesting to see how he pursues that thread in his playing. Their show in Boston concluded with a demented version of the Rolling Stones’ “Let’s Spend the Night Together,” played as though through a lysergic filter while ramped up on amphetamines, and almost seemed like a challenge to his audience – “I need you more than ever,” Marco sang, and time will tell if his audience follows him down the rabbit hole to more finer, experimental pop songwriting, or if they will continue to expect the jamband fare of yesterday’s Benevento.
