Marco Benevento 11/18/22 Spaceland

Marco has been positively reviewed in this blog many times. Unfortunately, the blog was not around when I sat on a young Marco Benevento’s speaker and watched over his shoulder as he madly plunked piano, organ, and all manner of keyboards, including a Playskool Baby, Baby grand at a late night session in a sweaty ski lodge. Onstage with his musical life partner Joe Russo on drums, the Duo, as they were, manned the door at the dawning of the Jam revolution. At that time, a young Marco soaked in a variety of jazz, blues, and pop influences. Fast forward to today, Russo and Benevento head up the Grateful Dead cover outfit JRAD (Joe Russo’s Almost Dead). Occasionally, as on this evening, Marco gets free from JRAD, and takes the stage to do his thing. I’ve likened Marco to a drug thieving Cheshire Cat, but I think he’s more of a cross between Rick Wakeman and Captain Jack Sparrow. Joined onstage by drummer, and fantastic young female bassist, the trio barreled through a set of originals, teases, and some clever covers. Bassist Karina is of indeterminate age. She could be anywhere between 15 and 35, although I did see her  3 years back, so 12 would be ridiculous. There is a 20 year trove of solo material to pull from and teases like Suzanne Vega’s Tom’s Diner were welcome. Some excellent almost disco passages made good use of the muscular bass. Show highlight was a frenetic cover of Harry Nilsson’s Jump Into The Fire.

Qwanqwa 11/16/22 Cafe 9

 Billed as an Ethiopian Supergroup, Qwanqwa is a little multicultural. Electric violinist Kathe Hostetter was in Boston based African outfit Debo Band, and was decidedly Caucasian. The remaining 4 from Ethiopia played electric Krar, bass electric krar, “traditional drums/percussion”, and vocals. The sound was back alley Addis Ababa trance funk. The krar looked like a table leg stuck into a Kleenex box and had one string. The man played it with a tree saw shaped bow and got amazing tones with vibrato. The electric bass krar was even better, it looked liked a cigar box welded to an upholstery-free frame of a wing back dining room chair. It had six strings, and the man used his fret hand fingers between the strings to slur amazing bass riffs. “ Traditional drums” was a sit down drum kit with a series of toms and mini congas. The diminutive drummer was all over this set, with sticks or hands, he propelled the groove. The singer was a fireplug, and reminded me of Chaka Khan, in regard to her hair:body ratio. She sang in her native tongue and gyrated and vibrated when she was involved. She had a chair that she’d retreat to on off tunes, which was good, her contribution was tiring. The electric violin, is an odd duck. At times I got a whiff of 90s crew Afro-Celt Soundsystem, others, the vibe was down right Jeanlucpontyesque in a gypsy trance style. The highlight was Mela Mela, translated as “we can solve this together”, a drum centric rave, capped with ululating yelps. I can’t help but think of the Warren Smith rockabilly chestnut Ubangi Stomp, wherein the protagonist, a hapless, slightly racist sailor gets entranced by “the natives doin an odd lookin skip”. When the Captain yells “son we gotta go”, to which the sailor responds “ that’s awright, you go right ahead, I’m gonna Ubangi Stomp till I roll over dead” Now I’m not implying Kathe is a racist or a sailor, but she has been bitten by the rhythm. It was nice to note that their touring makes an effort to play to underserved communities. Highly recommend this group, traditional yet modern sound.

Mike Doughty 11/5/22 Harbor Park

When this show first hit the radar, I chided Manic Productions as to their wisdom of having an outdoor show on the 5th of November. Seventy degree day and gorgeous weather, thanks climate change. Mike Doughty, the recovering heroin addict, the door man at The Knitting Factory at the height of the No-Wave downtown movement, and oh yeah, front man for the seminal beat-groove-funk vehicle Soul Coughing. The star burned bright for SC, 3 or 4 critically acclaimed slabs of literate pop released between 94-98. While Mike claims the SC experiment “almost killed him”, it sure produced a body of work that was tapped on this evening. Doughty is joined on stage by longtime compatriot Andrew “Scrap” Livingston on guitar. The two barrel through screwed down workings of SC songs and chestnuts from Doughty’s excellent post SC solo career. The arrangements were a treat for a super fan like me, never straying into the kitschy MTV Unplugged realm. Setlist included  27 Jennifers, White Lexus, Tremendous Brunettes, Shunned and Falsified, St Louise Is Listening, Blame, Circles, Super Bon Bon, Soft Serve,, Lazybones, How Many Cans, Sugar Free Jazz.  He played my favorite anthemic ode “Busting Up A Starbucks”, which I urge all readers to give a spin. Ended the show with an excellent “I Hear The Bells” and encored with “True Dreams of Wichita”. Doughty is a wordsmith and had some fun with an AI story writing app. An industrious artist, it seems that Mike has been writing a song a week and posting on his website for free dissemination. Thanks to Manic for believing in the weather and delivering an excellent free outdoor show.

Loudon Wainwright 10/27/22 Wall St. Theater Norwalk

 It’s been a long time since Loudon struck novelty gold with “Dead Skunk In The Middle of the Road”. Just turned 75, and a grandpa for the fourth time, Loudon brought the comic troubadour to this renovated historic venue. I’ve followed his career intently since the release of History in 1992, a near perfect recording by my estimation. The comedy camouflages biting lyricism  as it pertains to family and relationships. A notorious partier and womanizer, Loudon grew up in Westchester, the product of a country club 60s upbringing, in fact he opened with Westchester County. The setlist touched on most of his career but left out some obvious gems. No matter, I was happy to be in the front row for this solo performance. The setlist included Be Careful There’s a Baby in The House, The Swimming Song, The Picture (about his sister), I’d Rather Be Lonely, Four Mirrors, White Winos (about his mom), The Shit Song, High Wide and Handsome (from the Charlie Poole project), My Meds, One Wish, Family Vacation, and Lifetime Achievement. Loudon played acoustic, banjo, and even some ukulele. At one point, he picked up the iPad and read a hilarious description as to his wishes for his memorial service. As with any comedy inflected performance, audience “participation” plays a role. Whether it be heckling, or calling out song titles, you just know it will happen. On this evening, we were seated near the cackler ( not to be confused with her male counterpart, the bloviator). The cackler cackled, chimed in, and apparently knew Loudon. At one point, Loudon had to de-cackle this woman, a good song in the making. Closed with an excellent version of Primrose Hill.

Chris Forsyth Meg Baird w/ Junk Orbit 10/26/22 Cafe 9

 Junk Orbit is a guitar duo with New Haven’s Kryssi Battalene and another guitarist from MA. Happy to say I’ve watched Kryssi come of age as a guitarist. Whether it be the psych noodlings of Mountain Movers, the harder shrapnel of Headroom, or an experimental set as on this evening. Two acoustics, some effects pedals, Kryssi had some sort of a Nintendo box on her lap, gave rise to some long form drone fuzz. The music gave off an eerie documentary film score vibe.

Next up was Meg Baird. She played seated acoustic and keys. Joined onstage by Doug Mccombes (from Tortoise fame), Ryan Jewell ( from Ryley Walker) on drums, and a guitarist. Meg’s vocal style is fragile Celtic or brit-folk, kind of like Jacqui Mcshee (Pentangle), or Annie Haslem ( Renaissance). I have seen her previous ensemble, baroque pop , Espers. She started with a haunting, wordless vocal piece. Capable, but understated drums and bass kept  the music grounded as Meg’s voice floated in the rafters. Chris Forsyth hopped on stage for her final tune giving a two guitar attack.

Chris Forsyth is a seasoned guitarist from Philly. He has played for years as a hired gunslinger in the avant-garde circles in Brooklyn. Lately, Chris has been leaning in to hypnotic rock jams. I’ve read that he was mentored by none other than Richard Lloyd from Television. About a year ago, I saw him grace the stage with Jersey face-melters Garcia Peoples. The set was compact  and pulled heavy from his recent release Evolution Here We Come.

Celebrating Bowie 10/21/22 College Street Music Hall

 The enigma that was David Bowie, is worth celebrating, for so many reasons. Bowie the fashion icon, the white boy funk purveyor, the prog noodler, the Eno compatriot, the theatrical song cycler, is responsible for the soundtrack of many music fan’s youth. Mine included. So I was happy to view  this ragtag cadre of Bowie acolytes plow through 2 hours of hits. The cast of characters was curious; Todd Rundgren on guitar and vocals, Royston Langdon from the 90s indie outfit Spacehog on keys ,guitars, and vocals, Adrian Belew on guitar and vocals, Angelo Moore, lead singer for Fishbone, a non-famous rhythm section with bass, drums, keys/sax, and a bandleader with the unfortunate uni-moniker “Scrote” on guitar. The setlist was epic and expansive: Moonage Daydream, Young Americans, John I’m Only Dancing, Changes, Ziggy Stardust, Space Oddity, The Jean Genie, Rebel Rebel, Fame, Golden Years, Ashes to Ashes, Sound and Vision, Fashion, DJ, Stay, Hallo Spaceboy, I’m Afraid of Americans, Let’s Dance, ended with All The Young Dudes, and encored with Suffragette City and Heroes. I’m sure I’ve missed some, but you get the idea. Todd Rundgren is a fantastic artist who I’ve seen many times back in the day. If this blog started in the 80s, it may well have been named “Just Another Onionhead blog”, or The Sons of 1984. Todd took on the theatrical Bowie, hamming up Space Oddity and going through a variety of costume changes. Langdon sang Ziggy Stardust playing tasteful acoustic. Spacehog carried the glam mantle in the 90s, and Langdon gave off the aura of an aging indie star. Belew is a master on guitar and was the only one on stage with a direct line to Bowie. He played on the under the radar Lodger, from which DJ was the hit. Fishbone is a 90s ska-funk outfit from LA. Frenetic frontman Moore took on the fashion icon Bowie, by wearing a wide variety of garish costumes. He prowled the stage and hopped in to the crowd, looking like some Tasmanian devil poofter with a Bowie delivery. The near capacity crowd sang along, just as they did in the 70s, after popping that new Bowie cassette in their Datsun’s tape deck. Bowie was taken from us too soon, but his fan base remains.

Stick Men 10/12/22 Spaceland Ballroom

 Stick Men is the trio of Tony Levin on Chapman Stick, Pat Mastelloto drums, and Markus Reuter on something called a U-8. Reuter a Berlin based instrument builder/prog nerd concocted the 8 string day-glo axe of sorts. I mean it had 8 strings, hung around his neck, had a guitar neck, but produced a multitude of sounds. The Chapman Stick is a 12-string contraption that looks like a picket fence post. The sinister high and low end stew of progfunk was described by Mastelloto as pianos hanging around their necks. Levin and Mastelloto play (ed?) in the progenitor of prog King Crimson. Levin held down the low end of most of the Peter Gabriel records, netting him credits on over 100 million sold. Mastelloto could not have possibly screwed together the behemoth drum kit he whacked at last year’s KC Westville show (he’d need Spaceland to apply for an addition permit), but still managed to squeeze out a gong solo. Levin is a sight, 76 by my count, he’s chiseled, cue-balled, and a black moustache, he appears like a cross between Mr. Clean and Snidely Whiplash. When he plays the Stick, both hands spider the neck for a wash of sound that normally plays to arena crowds. Reuter seems thirty-ish with a thick German accent, but as an instrument builder, you can see why he’s pals with these guys. The crowd was gray and grizzled, packed house was made even more tight by having it a sit down affair. The fans bobbed in awe to the display. I did not realize the group’s fairly prodigious output, but they had plenty of material to choose from. Mainly warped instrumentals, but Levin actually sang on one tune. Good version of Crimson’s “Red”, with Reuter playing the Fripp part. Another song from Fripp’s excellent Exposure record is making me want to dig through the vinyl stacks and locate that one. Encores with perhaps my favorite King Crimson tune from the modern era, “Sheltering Sky” from Levin’s first toe in the Crimson output, 1981’s Discipline.