Marco Benevento on Saturday staged the first-ever Follow The Arrow festival at Arrowood Farms in Accord, NY. The event located near the keyboardist’s home in Woodstock featured performances from Benevento’s eponymous trio, The Slip, Antibalas, a rare Surprise Me Mr. Davis set, and more.
Benevento was a busy man on Saturday as he played host and performer, taking the stage throughout the day for sets with Davis, the debut of the Benevento Family Band, and his trio featuring bassist Karina Rykman and drummer Chris Corsico (on loan from Karina’s own eponymous solo trio). The Joe Russo’s Almost Dead keyboardist was originally slated to debut a new duo with Alecia Chakour dubbed 40 Love, but scrapped those plans after Chakour was forced to cancel. Benevento still managed to fill what little free time he had on Saturday with sit-ins, including a guest appearance with Burnell Pines.
One of the highlights of Marco’s musical marathon was a performance from Surprise Me Mr. Davis featuring Benevento alongside Nathan Moore and The Slip’s Marc Friedman and Brad and Andrew Barr. The group had not performed together since High Sierra Music Festival in 2018 and surprisingly only played a single track, “Sissyfuss”, from its one-and-only album, 2010’s The Man Who Eats Morning For Breakfast. The rest of the set featured the band members exploring their respective catalogs with Moore’s”Rubber Ball” and “Bad Time To Be A Clown”, The Barr Brothers‘ “Sometimes There’s Wine”, and more.
Related: Do You Want Some Magic? An Interview With Marco Benevento
Another musical high point came during Benevento’s solo set with Karina and DB. The front half of the 14-song performance saw the trio explore Benevento’s expansive solo catalog, including “At The End Or The Beginning” from Benevento, which arrived the week prior, as well as the first three pieces of The Story of Fred Short movement.
After nearly 40 minutes, the stars came out over Accord as Benevento welcomed one special guest after the next for the Marco Benevento & Friends set including Scott Metzger, Stuart Bogie, the Barr brothers, Adam November, Cochemea Gastelum, Leon Michaels, and more. Together the constantly rotating ensemble weaved through covers of The Band and Dr. John alongside deep cuts from Marco’s own catalog including “The Real Morning Party” from his 2008 debut, Invisible Baby.
Marco Benevento – Follow The Arrow – Accord, NY – 6/18/22
[Video: cleantones]
Check out photos from Follow The Arrow—including shots of Benevento, The Slip, Surprise Me Mr. Davis, Karina Rykman, Mikaela Davis & Southern Star, Jayla Kai, Ratboy Jr., El Michaels Affair (DJ set), Scott Metzger, Stuart Bogie, Cochemea Gastelum, Sam Evian, and Burnell Pines—courtesy of photographers Bahram Foroughi and Chris Bryce. A number of fan-shot videos are available in addition to full audio of the Marco Benevento and Marco Benevento & Friends sets thanks to taper joaquin-p. Audio of the Surprise Me Mr. Davis set is streaming live on Nathan Moore’s website.
Marco Benevento – Follow The Arrow – Accord, NY – 6/18/22
