Benevento-Russo Duo Pairs Up With Scott Metzger For Zeppelin Set On This Date In 2003

The origins of Led Zeppelin tribute act Bustle In Your Hedgerow and Grateful Dead tribute act Joe Russo’s Almost Dead can be traced back to a boat cruise in New York City held in honor of promoter Jake Szufnarowski’s 30th birthday that took place on this night in 2003.

Jake and our own Aaron “Neddy” Stein came up with the format of having the Benevento-Russo Duo perform a set of Led Zeppelin tunes aboard the Half Moon on August 29, 2003. Szufnarowski had the masterful idea of adding RANA guitarist Scott Metzger to the mix and the set was so successful, the trio would go on to form Bustle with Ween bassist Dave Dreiwitz and have performed a number of shows as a quartet over the years with the most recent gig in 2016. Of course, in early 2013, the Bustle lineup was augmented by guitarist Tom Hamilton for what was supposed to be a one-off gig under the moniker “Joe Russo’s Almost Dead” and the band has since played over 100 shows with many more to come.

Joe Russo and Marco Benevento started the cruise with a Duo set. Here’s what Stein wrote for JamBase about the opening frame:

As the boat left the pier and took on the thick air of a sleepy summer, Joe and Marco took their place and got the crowd moving with a handful of originals, most featured on their excellent, go-pick-it-up-now live album Darts. Marco seemed to control the waters itself as the boat seemed to lurch in time with the music, making dancing either easier or more difficult, depending on how quickly your sea legs were kicking in. Legs or not, the tunes were cutting to the crowds core inciting the tight group of a couple hundred to yelp with glee as the jams battled for time with the towering architecture of the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges above. A telling sign of the power of the evening was the heavy hitters in attendance, e.g. Stanton Moore, Cheme Gastelum and MOFRO’s JJ Grey amongst others were all there just checking out the music and getting down like the rest of us. When the music is this good, we are all together looking on in amazement.

There is nothing quite like a band who knows the perfect balance of well-penned originals and perfect-choice covers in their repertoire. The Duo exemplifies this in my mind. The second set we’ll get to in just a sec, but even within the first set this phenomenon manifest itself with tasty tunes like “Big Whopper” and “Marzipan” butting heads with covers of The White Stripes (Seven Nation Army) and Ozzy (The Wizard) and a little Radiohead would pop up in the encore as well. Thrown in all over the place were literally dozens of jolting teases of Zeppelin tunes popping up in the unlikeliest of places. I can’t recall if I’ve ever heard of a drummer doing teases, but Joe Russo was even getting in on the fun as he teased a couple of tell-tale John Bonham licks getting the audience amped with each rat-a-tat-tat. But with each tease the pair would pull back and when the crowd finally chimed in with some Robert Plant imitations, Marco continued to give us musical blue balls with the biggest tease of all: “not yet… not yet!” Finally a little taste came in the form of a jumping the gun play of Zep’s “Four Sticks” which rivaled any version I’ve heard Joe and Marco play.

Metzger took the stage with Marco and Joe for the historic second set of Led Zeppelin covers. Here’s Neddy on a set that laid the groundwork for Bustle and JRAD:

The word was that the now-trio had rehearsed the crap out of the material and it showed all the way through. This was no simple jog-through a few covers kind of set, but was rather a full-contact, burn the final drops of summertime oil experience. Joe, Marco and Scott took a quartet plus’ worth of music and transformed it into a three-man tour-de-force. While Scott took the guitar parts and Joe took the drums, Marco was free to reinterpret both the bass and vocals and miscellaneous and his arrangements were blissful experiments in redefining classic rock and roll. The song choices explored both your standard FM radio fare as well as some more heady choices; fast, head-banging rock and roll and slower, melodic grooves. I haven’t had that much fun both dancing my ass off and trying hard to concentrate deeply on how these guys were pulling it off. What surprised me the most was how the set was mapped out with teases and stop-starts and segues and sandwiches all punctuating the covers themselves. The “What Is and What Should Never Be” which is a standard Duo cover (and even appears as a hidden track on Darts (pick it up now!)) took on new life both with Scott on guitar and late in its life when Marco dropped the trio into “Out On the Tiles” then back again and then back into “Tiles.” The crowd was pleasantly seasick at this exchange which segued tightly into the quintessentially Zeppelin “Black Dog.” This brought out the biggest shocker, which was Sir Joe Russo falsettoing, his best Plant imitation on the lyrics that he playfully screwed up to the delight of the crowd. My second JoRu highlight was “Ramble On” in which he replicated the hand-clapping percussion from the original with a heady hands-on-knee drumming which hit the spot perfectly.

As the boat slowly made its way back to shore, the band appropriately started up the slow blues of “Bring It On Home” which made way for more fortified rocking out. This segued smartly into a monster “Good Times, Bad Times” which had the entire crowd singing along once again. Back into “Bring It On Home” and we were all quite sure we didn’t want to go home yet.

For the encore, the Benevento/Russo Duo performed a cover of “Paranoid Android” by Radiohead and then brought out Soulive guitarist Eric Krasno for The Duo original “Mephisto.” A recording of the show is available for streaming/downloading on the Live Music Archive thanks to Chip Auchincloss and Peter Costello:

Setlist

Set One: Abduction Pose*, Big Whopper# > Impact@ > Batman Theme > Impact, Selmas March > Seven Nation Army > Selmas March&, High Noon, Four Sticks, The Wizard*

Set Two (w/ Scott Metzger): The Song Remains The Same, Heartbreaker, Moby Dick, Rain Song, Ramble On+, What Is & What Should Never Be > The Crunge > Out On The Tiles > The Crunge > Out On The Tiles > Black Dog^^, Bring It On Home^^ > Good Times Bad Times+ > Bring It On Home^^

Encore: Paranoid Android, Memphisto**

• * W/ Heartbreaker Teases
• # W/Four Sticks, Heartbreaker, & What Is & What Should Never Be Teases
• @ With Rock and Roll & The Crunge Teases
• & W/ Immigrant Song Teases
• + W/ Audience on Vocals
• ^^ W/ Joe Russo on Vocals
• ** With Eric Krasno on Guitar