It’s hard to believe it’s been eight years since the Benevento-Russo Duo and Mike Gordon collaborated on a wonderful 54-minute version of Foam that got the Phish community talking about just how good this pairing was. The 54-minute Foam, in which the trio explored many different jam spaces and worked in teases of Lengthwise, served as the entire first set for Mike and The Duo.

Considering what a depressing time the Spring of ’05 was for Phish fans who were only eight months removed from Coventry, this version of Foam gave us hope. Gordon was clearly on top of his game and collaborating with two ridiculously talented musicians who pushed him to glory. This morning an exceptional video of the entire game-changing Foam has surfaced on YouTube. Enjoy!

You can buy an MP3 or FLAC of this Foam via LivePhish.com.

Marco Benevento @ Brooklyn Bowl – April 20th

Photos: Andrew Blackstein

Saturday, April 20th was a date many marked in their calendar for a variety of reasons. For many music-lovers in New York City that marked the date on which keyboardist Marco Benevento would finally bring his to the Brooklyn Bowl. Benevento was joined by his frequent trio of drummer Andrew Borger and Ween bassist Dave Dreiwitz for his debut at The Bowl. Diamond Doves and The Mike Dillon Band warmed up the crowd before Marco’s main course.

[All Photos by Andrew Blackstein]

Marco offered a career-spanning set that included four songs from his most recent album – TigerFace. The trio was joined by Benevento’s Garage A Trois band mate Mike Dillon on percussion for The Real Morning Party and worked a cover of The Bangles’ Walk Like An Egyptian into Two of You. With Dave and Andy laying down heavy soundscapes Marco was able to enjoy the luxury of interacting with the Brooklyn faithful. Whether it was lounging on his piano seat, wearing a plush tiger mask or inviting his friend Karina Mackenzie to dance on stage, Marco and his band were visibly enjoying the festivities.

Here’s a look at the setlist and photos from Marco’s performance at the Brooklyn Bowl…

READ ON

We once lauded the all-inclusive Equifunk Festival as “a model of how a festival should be run.” The event’s promoters will once again bring Equifunk back to the cozy confines of summer camps Equinunk and Blue Ridge in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains on August 16 – 18. Today, the initial lineup has been revealed and features a number of Equifunk favorites and a few newcomers.

While the main headliner will be announced in the coming months, we do know that The New Mastersounds will play two sets, The Motet will play a tribute to P-Funk set and a set focusing on original material while other Equifunk ’13 acts include Anders Osborne, Boombox, Marco Benevento, The Nigel Hall Band, The Main Squeeze and I’ll Be John Brown.

Tickets are currently available through the event’s website.

Soulive’s annual Bowlive Run at Brooklyn Bowl continued last night in Williamsburg. Special guests included keyboardist Marco Benevento, Los Lobos guitarist David Hidalgo, The Shady Horns and opening act The London Souls. For the encore, Soulive welcomed their guests up, with the exception of the horns, for a 20-plus-minute tribute to Neil Young.

Soulive, Benevento, Hidalgo and The London Souls kicked off the encore with the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young protest song Ohio sung by Tash Neal. The CSNY cover morphed into Neil Young’s Down By The River on which Tash shared vocals with Alan Evans. Once Tash, Soulive guitarist Eric Krasno and Hidalgo were finished taking turns soloing, the Los Lobos guitarist stepped to the mic to deliver a verse of Buffalo Springfield’s For What It’s Worth.

Our pal MKDevo captured the entire encore for our viewing pleasure…

Bowlive IV continues tonight with special guests Bill Evans and John Medeski.

As previously reported, Marco Benevento will be a special guest of the Midnight Ramble Band on March 2nd at Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock, New York. Marco’s old Duo band mate, and a regular at recent Rambles, Furthur drummer Joe Russo will also guest at the March 2nd Midnight Ramble.

[Photo by Jeremy Gordon]

Tickets, which run from $45 – $55, are available now through LevonHelm.com.

Back in June keyboardist Marco Benevento was part of the house band for “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” a concert honoring the life and music of Levon Helm. Benevento did a fantastic job that night, as he did at the Complete Last Waltz concert in San Francisco this past November. His familiarity with the music of The Band will come in handy on March 2nd, when the current Woodstock resident will head across town to Levon Helm Studios for a Midnight Ramble.

[Photo by Jeremy Gordon]

Benevento will be the special guest at the March 2nd Ramble which also features the Midnight Ramble Band. Tickets, which run from $45 – $65, are available now through LevonHelm.com.

Two HT faves have been added to the lineup for moe.’s upcoming Snoe.down Music Festival which is set to take place in Killington and Rutland, Vermont on March 21 – 24. Marco Benevento will play a separately-ticketed kick off party at The Wobbly Barn on March 21, while Tauk will perform at Killington on a date during the fest that will be announced.

moe. is set to headline on both Friday and Saturday night at the Spartan Arena. Dumpstaphunk will open for moe. on Friday, while Strangefolk Reunion will handle that task on Saturday. Other bands set to perform at Snoe.down ’13 are Jimkata, The Primate Fiasco, Floodwood and Eastbound Jesus.

Tickets for Snoe.down are currently available through FlynnTix.

Welcome to the fifth consecutive Best Albums of the Year countdown here at Hidden Track. Hopefully, you know by now that we pride ourselves on covering music that spans any genre, any age, any geography, and any instrumental makeup. To us, good music is good music. Period.

So, you can rest assured of the one thing that will always make our list a cut above the rest: we consider everything. Our submissions include all styles of music from bluegrass to jazz, jam to indie, electronica to rap, as well as everything in between. At the end of the day, we’re a diverse open-minded music blog. Our writers work here because they have great taste in music, and thus they are encouraged simply to write about what catches their interest. We have no motives, no editorial biases, and no strings attached. We hope that comes across in our picks.

We’ve hit day two of our week-long countdown of the 25 best albums of 2012. Let’s check out numbers 20 through 16…

20) Heartless Bastards – Arrow

Sounds Like: Drinking a good whiskey: that moment that straddles clear-headed sobriety and a warm-hearted buzz.

Key Tracks: Only For You, Skin and Bone, The Arrow Killed the Beast

The Skinny: To be a truly great rock band, at some point you need to stop sounding like the great rock bands of the past and chart your own path. With 2009’s The Mountain and even more so with this year’s Arrow, The Heartless Bastards have proven their greatness, staked out a path and delivered some truly kick ass rock and roll. As I wrote earlier this year, Arrow features “superlative songs with patient, build-to-climax construction and some of the most soulful female vocals to sing them.” Erika Wennerstrom has a special from-the-soul passion – when she sings here of life, longing, love, you wish she was singing about you. Listen again and again and you might just convince yourself she is.

- Aaron Stein

• Previously On HT: #25 – #21
• Spotify Playlist: Hidden Track’s Top 25 Albums Of 2012

19) Andrew Bird – Break It Yourself

READ ON

Back on June 2nd, recent Princeton University graduate (Class of ’12) Brian Lesh teamed up with his father Phil, his brother Grahame, guitarist Stanley Jordan (Class of ’81), keyboardist Marco Benevento and drummer Joe Russo to play a special show at Dead Head Night at Terrace Club. The one-time ensemble tackled classic Dead tunes and covers from the likes of Mumford and Sons, The Band and Kings of Leon. Audio of the performance hadn’t circulated…until now.

Thanks to our friend Ben Markowitz for sharing this pristine recording of the festivities…

As our friends at Relix remarked, this performance marked the first time the members of the Benevento-Russo Duo performed together in a band that wasn’t Led Zep tribute act Bustle In Your Hedgerow since January’s Freaks Ball. The audio above appears to only be part of the show, with most of the songs Jordan sat in on missing. Hopefully the Terrace Club will post the rest.

In just a few short weeks Phish will take the MSG stage for their traditional four-night New Year’s Run in New York City. NYC promoter CEG Presents has a full slate of late night after parties set to take place at a variety of venues from the 28th to the 30th for your post-show entertainment.

The shows feature a bevy of HT faves such as New Orleans’ Rebirth Brass Band at the Gramercy Theatre on the 29th, one-man-band Zach Deputy at the Gramercy Theatre on the 30th, avant-groove pianist Marco Benevento and Grateful Dead cover band Dead Sessions at the Highline Ballroom on the 28th and 30th respectively as well as a “multi-room club experience” featuring Wyllys and the New York Hustler Ensemble, Heavy Pets and Kung Fu at Rebel on the 30th.

Tickets to these shows and more, including Consider The Source at Rebel on the 27th, are available through PhishAfterParties.com. You can also try your luck at Glide Magazine’s giveaway.

Here’s a full list of CEG’s Phish After-Parties…

READ ON

…and he’s got us feeling alright.

The Bad Plus: Made Possible

Every time the Bad Plus comes out with a new album, I say the same thing, but this may be my favorite album of theirs yet. While they’ve staked their claim as a piano trio that delves into deconstructed pop covers of the nth degree, their strength has always been in their original material and Made Possible is all those strengths on steroids: powerful, cerebral calisthenics, off-angle freeform, jaunty groovers and their patented gloriously slow build to emotional climax. If for some reason you’ve spent the last decade ignoring one of the best things going in any genre, this is as good a place as any to start.

Spotify: The Bad Plus – Made Possible
MOG: https://mog.com/m#album/72956493
Amazon: http://amzn.com/B0093DNRY6
Rhapsody: http://www.rhapsody.com/artist/the-bad-plus/album/made-possible

Marco Benevento: TigerFace

READ ON

The second leg of HT fave Marco Benevento’s TigerFace Tour pulled into South Burlington, Vermont last night, where the keyboardist and his trio performed at the Showcase Lounge in Higher Ground. Local hero Jon Fishman of Phish emerged towards the end of the show to replace Andy Borger behind the kit on You Must Be A Lion from 2008′s Invisible Baby LP and Twin Killers by Deerhoof.

[Photo via Marco's Facebook]

Fish had previously teamed up with Marco as a member of his trio during a tour in Nov. 2008. The pair will reunite once again on October 26th for an Everyone Orchestra performance at Sullivan Hall in NYC.

The second leg of the TigerFace Tour ends tonight in Northampton, Mass.

The tributes to the music of Levon Helm and The Band continue with the announcement of what may be the best tribute yet – a concert billed “The Complete Last Waltz” which will be held at the Warfield Theatre in San Francisco on November 24th. Among the acts on the bill are members of Gomez, The Lonely Forest, The Submarines and The Antibalas Horns as well as Marco Benevento, Joe Russo of Furthur, Ira Elliott, Scott Metzger of Wolf!, Jason Abraham Roberts of Norah Jones’ band, Dave Dreiwitz of Ween, Yellowbirds’ Sam Cohen, Cass McCombs, Jon Shaw of Wolf!, The Warren Haynes Band’s Alecia Chakour, Trixie Whitley, Scott McMicken and Eric Slick of Dr. Dog, Eric Johnson and Blake Hazard. Also of note, the casts of Mad Men, Two Broke Girls and Man of Steel will perform at the event.

The participants will recreate the classic concert that ended The Band’s time with Robbie Robertson, song-for-song and note-by-note. Many of the participants in this event took part in the Brooklyn Bowl Levon tribute this past June. Tickets go on sale this Friday, Oct. 19th at 10AM PT.

Setlist…

Loud Prayer
Up on Cripple Creek
The Shape I’m In
It Makes No Difference
Life is a Carnival
This Wheel’s on Fire
W.S. Walcott Medicine Show
Georgia On My Mind
Ophelia
The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
King Harvest (Has Surely Come)
Stage Fright
Rag Mama Rag
Who Do You Love
Down South In New Orleans
Mystery Train
Caldonia / Mannish Boy
Mannish Boy
All Our Past Times
Further on Up the Road
Helpless
Four Strong Winds
Coyote
Shadows and Light
Furry Sings the Blues
Dry Your Eyes
Tura Lura Lural
Caravan
Acadian Driftwood
INTERMISSION
Poem
Poem
JOY!
Get Yer Cut Throat off My Knife
Revolutionary Letter #4
Transgressing The Real
Poem
Prologue to the Canturbury Tales
Genetic Method
Chest Fever
Evangeline
The Weight
Baby Let Me Follow You Down
Hazel
I Don’t Believe You
Forever Young
Baby Let Me Follow You Down reprise
I Shall Be Released
Don’t Do It

A month ago, keyboardist Marco Benevento began his tour in support of his new album, TigerFace, at Phil Lesh’s Terrapin Crossroads. Last night, starting in Cambridge, Mass. at T.T. the Bear’s, Benevento and his band (Dave Dreiwitz, best known as the bassist for Ween and drummer Andy Borger, who has played with Tom Waits among others) kicked off the second leg of the TigerFace Tour. From the first notes, it was clear that the band was already in their comfort zone and at times seemingly ecstatic to be ripping through tracks from TigerFace. Effortless communication led to deep grooves, audacious jams and stunning moments in an enthralling two hour set of music that had the crowd transfixed.

[Marco Benevento]

Psychedelic and trance-like jams, created with a huge array of pedals, effects, loops and other gadgets were at times hypnotic on such numbers as Greenpoint. Other times, the swirly acid jazz, with hooks so sharp it was impossible not to be jerked into the groove, had the crowd dancing in a wild frenzy. Benevento, lauded as one of the most exciting and vital figures in the experimental jazz scene, was on-point all night with high speed piano breaks, sultry melodies, uplifting grooves  and crisp execution that never wasted a single note. Despite plenty of improv in the power-jazz & straight out rock filled set, it all felt like it was moving in a purposeful direction. As was the case through much of TigerFace, Benevento’s extraordinary keyboard work shared the mix brilliantly with the bass and drums which were much bolder and in your face than on prior albums. This rich mix, with Benevento still clearly leading the way, led to a seemingly impossibly large soundstage for a trio.

Marco Benevento – Golden (My Morning Jacket Cover)

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In Ryan’s interview with Marco Benevento last month, the avant-rock-jazz-pianist spoke at length about the origins of the Limbs Of A Pine, the lead track from his fourth studio effort TigerFace. According to Benevento the track was originally called MIA, as he was trying to create a tune that had the upbeat energy of the British-bred Sri Lankan singer. Well Marco certainly succeeded, creating a high energy track that fuses bouncy world beats with heavy doses of dance-y electronica and squonky keyboard sounds, along with dreamy ethereal vocals courtesy of Kalmia Traver of Rubblebucket. Earlier this week Benevento dropped a music video for the track. Let’s check it out…

Marco Benevento – Limbs Of A Pine

Marco Benevento will kick off his 22-date cross-country fall tour on October 11 with a gig at TT The Bear’s in Cambridge, Mass followed by a headlining show at Bowery Ballroom in NYC on the 12th.