Marco Benevento and WOLF! Keep Albany Warm at Red Square

Marco Benevento last partied at Albany’s Red Square months ago on the first day of June. An exciting Saturday night at Red Square started off with the garage-rockabilly stylings of WOLF! Scott Metzger treated the crowd to his raw guitar work throughout the set, while Taylor Floreth kept the steady beat going underneath him. Dave Dreiwitz played bass with them for the second time ever and fit right in with them. Scott joked between songs with the crowd and it seemed as if the hour was over before it started. Hopefully Scott will bring the band back around to the Capital Region soon for a longer performance.

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With the cold weather quickly settling into Upstate, Benevento had the Capital District already excited for 2014 as he promised to announce the month of his fall residency at Red Square. Marco Benevento blasted off with “The Real Morning Party” a youthful tune with Nintendo charm that geared the crowd up for play time. The trio went on into a blur of covers throughout the night such as The Bangles “Walk Like an Egyptian” and “Jump into the Fire” by Harry Nillson. Benevento donned the big tiger mask for one of his newest songs from the album, Tiger Face, “Limbs of a Pine”, getting a big roar from the audience and bowing to bassist Dave Dreiwtiz. Andy Borger hit hard the petals with Benevento raising his mug in approval with a catchy verse leading the crowd to a repetitive “HEY/WOO” cheer.  The crowd was rowdy all evening, but really took it to an extreme during the song, with a few people walking on stage and dancing.

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Benevento and Dreiwtiz exchanged smiles during “RISD” as they played with upbeat and innocent lightheartedness. “Escape Horse” brought about a dark, dangerous side to the night as Benevento hit every note on his keybords with tremendous madness and Borger pounded deep beats. The band took a moment to thank the fans and asked for their vote on which month in 2014 their residency at Red Square should be. October got the loudest cheers and  Marco proclaimed, “As long as we have the ladies with red clown noses, we’ll be here next October, celebrating the release of a new album at that time!” The night ended with the group singalong of “Rainy Day Women #12 and #35” by Bob Dylan and the curveball of Britney Spears “Toxic.” It’ll be seem like a long year until Marco Benevento returns to Albany in October, hopefully he’ll return for another season starter. Until then, Benevento will be ending the year at The Capitol Theatre on Dec 27th with Joe Russo’s Almost Dead and a post-Phish Show at the Highline Ballroom on Dec 30th and he will be sitting in with The Midnight Ramble Band for a special New Year’s Eve Ramble at Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock, NY.

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