Marco Benevento 5/17/18 Spaceland

Jam veteran Benevento descends on Hamden with the same power trio that has been positively reviewed in this blog before. Marco dressed in white with an Easter Island head on his shirt, sparkly Doc Martens, day-glo rimmed shades, and a rumpled tophat looked like a hippie cross between Sir Elton and The Cat in the Hat played keys and knobs. Young female Karina, seemed to be in her teens, on bass was also dressed in white with a shirt that read "we're using time for fun". Drummer Andy rounded out the group. Marco has a permanent smile and looks like his drugs are kicking in before yours. MB holds down the keyboard end of Grateful Dead tribute behemoth Joe Russo's Almost Dead (JRAD), and seems to need this outfit where he is in charge. Some originals included some great teases, Livin Lovin Maid, Tom's Diner et.al. The originals sounded like Vintage Violence-era John Cale, Howard Jonesian B-sides, and one workout that reminded me of Rush where the drums were, well, peart-y. As usual, the cover songs added meat. Marco said they just came back from the Big Easy and did a rousing take on Nawlins staple The Clapping Song by Shirley Ellis (" the monkey chewed tobacco on the street car line, the line broke, the monkey got choked, they all went to heaven in a little rowboat"). Karina took over for a high energy "Pepper", by The Butthole Surfers. Closed the show with Nilsson's "Jump Into The Fire" that had Benevento conducting the frenzy while standing on his keyboard. Final tune was his popular original "At The Show". Chameleonic Marco displayed many styles and led the listeners through a Cat In The Hat type of concert.