Marco Benevento and Joe Russo were only a few feet apart, staring into each other’s eyes, lost in silent communication. Separated by Benevento’s keyboards and Russo’s drums, The Duo (as their collaboration is otherwise known) produced an unlikely tidal wave of sound that seemed impossible coming from two scrawny white guys. For the tune “Memphis,†(off a forthcoming album, explained Benevento before randomly proclaiming “I like girls!†to the crowd), Russo added an acoustic guitar to the mix, slamming out bluesy chords over his own crushing stomp groove and Benevento’s harmonica-like organ wails.
Welcome to the Langerado festival, which kicked off with a Friday evening Soundcheck featuring sets by The Duo and Savannah, Ga.’s, Perpetual Groove. Occurring through the rest of this weekend (March 11-12) at Markham Park in Sunrise, Fla., and at a few venues in nearby Ft. Lauderdale, Langerado is expected to draw some 15,000 music fans interested in dancing and (in some cases) camping under the South Florida sky. An eclectic mix of bands is set to appear. Saturday night headliners Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals are preceded by recent Bank-busters The Disco Biscuits, fearless freaks The Flaming Lips, prog-nuts Umphrey’s McGee, New Orleans’ funk kings The Meters and about 16 other bands spread around four stages.
This article appears in Mar 8-14, 2006.