Marco Benevento @ The Stone

Although I've seen Marco play a few times now, tonight was the first night seeing it through the lens of a camera (display screen actually). It was my second night of duty assisting the talented Karina Mackenzie (founder of www.shinealightproductions.com) The Stone is a very intimate venue, seating no more than about 40 people. I stood against the back wall and had a superb side angle view of Marco doing his thing. He played a nice mix of "Invisible Baby" and "Me Not Me" tunes including "Atari", "Golden", "Call Home", "Seems So Long Ago Nancy" and more that I can't recall. I apologize as my memory for setlists is usually much better, but I was focusing on keeping the camera steady and getting the right shots. It's amazing how well Marco's material works as solo pieces. Granted, he does use lots of looping and drumtracks, but their authentic enough to not make the music sound cheesy. I did miss the fantastic drumming of one Andrew Barr on a few choise tunes, most notably "Golden". As a surprise Marco did run through a rare cover version of The Shins "Kissing The Lipless" and he encored with a fan requested Ween song (not sure of the title). My favourite track of the night had to be a beautifully re-worked version of The Duo sing-a-long "Play, Pause, Stop". From where I was standing I could clearly hear Marco humming the "woahhhh ohhhh ohhhhh ohhhhhhh" part which was awesome. All in all the set was just around an hour, but it was powerful and like always, expertly played. Hopefully the video footage will make its way on to Shine A Light's website sometime soon.
Here is an awesome rendition of Leonard Cohen's "Seems So Long Ago Nancy" played with a psychedelic groove that only Mr. Benevento can deliver. Check out www.shinealightproductions.com and hit the Live Music Shoots section for select cuts from The Stone