May 2009

Over the past decade, Longtime HT favorite Marco Benevento has performed at dozens of different venues all over New York City, but the 31-year-old keyboardist has never played in the

Okay, so there’s this band, Soulive, from upstate New York. (Why is New York the only state with an official “Upstate” section? This state is huge, diverse, beautiful and historic, but most of that is “upstate”, isn’t it?)

Anyway, Soulive, a band I had heard of but never actually heard. They appeared at Bonnaroo in 04 and 06, but you know how festival schedules are. Just like good television, they seem to program all the good stuff at the same time. I missed the Roo in 2004. In 2006 they appeared in This Tent after Mike Doughty’s Band. Problem was, I caught the first few songs of Be Your Own Pet in That Tent which led to an acoustic set by Rusted Root on the Sonic Stage and, boom, next thing you know Soulive is in the helicopter being ferried to the fancy Nashville hotel and I’ve missed the opportunity. Not that I’m complaining, you understand. I’m just saying.

So I go over to the Doug Fir lounge to finally check these guys out, and boy am I glad I did. Especially in the warm, cozy environs of the Doug. A basement space with real Douglas fir logs and a real retro feel was the perfect place for the set that Soulive put on Sunday night.

The opening act was billed as The Nigel Hall Band and announced from the stage (by Soulive drummer Alan Evans) the same way. Hall came out solo at first, sat behind the keyboard and half whispered to the crowd, “Lend me your souls for a while, I promise I’ll get them right back to you”.

READ ON for more of A.J.’s review of Soulive in Portland…

Going too far carries a gravitas that came to fruition in the excesses of 20th century rock. Hell, some of our favorite musicians have long straddled the line between life and death. Some, to such a degree (far too many great icons from Hendrix to Cobain), have died when that line was finally crossed. But this Rimbaud type tendency to burn across the poetic sky as some sort of mythical druggy superman before crashing down to earth as a lowly mortal dates back to the Dawn of Man (or the Dawn of Tripped-Out Man as I recently wrote, in reference to a heady band of new psychedelic warriors).

Johnny Depp has played many characters that willfully blur the line between life and death on a daily basis—characters as twisted and deformed as Raoul Duke aka Hunter S. Thompson, or the actor’s recent musical romp through the evil world of Sweeney Todd. But his characterization of John Wilmot, the 2nd Earl of Rochester, a 17th century poet, sex fiend and scoundrel, gave film buffs a real taste of pure pirate-like behavior that far overshadowed his work as the loveable rogue in the Disney Caribbean trilogy. Yes, but I prefer the Bad Guy on film (Vader over Kenobi) as the bent mind seems more human.

Indeed, Depp behaves like a man on his last waltz through Dante’s Inferno. Every Day. Every Footstep. Every Drink from the Bottle. Every Leer and Sneer. He has contempt for ordinary society, and in his cavalier way, Depp’s character towers above the film that documents his sordid life in this week’s Hidden Flick, The Libertine.

READ ON for more on this week’s Hidden Flick – The Libertine…