Marco Benevento and Joe Russo sat in with Frequinox during their second set on Saturday, May 14 at the Galaxy Theatre in Santa Ana, California. The two were in Southern California as both bands would be playing the Joshua Tree Music Festival on Sunday. Benevento slipped in from the wings on ‘Chicken Licken’ as Robert Walter exited stage right. Walter returned after a few minutes for a tasty turn on his Hammond B-3 while Benevento extracted layers of demoniacally crispy sounds from the Rhodes.

The next song, ‘Aqua Fresh,’ had Joe Russo tapping Stanton Moore on the shoulder. Russo reached a peak chaotic level on Moore’s Gretsch drum kit and never lowered the tempo. At one point, a hysterical Moore jokingly tossed water on Russo when he knocked one of his cymbals off balance. Moore fixed the cymbal, picked up drum sticks and started to pound a tom tom and the bass drum from the front while Russo thrashed from behind the kit. Moore ran off laughing, threw his drum sticks at Russo, retrieved another pair, and went to the back of the kit to double dip on percussion.

The aptly titled ‘The Switch’ featured Benevento returning to the stage while Walter exited again. Benevento played the B-3 and Rhodes simultaneously in one of the highlights of the evening as the entire band reached out and grabbed an X-factor moment that lasted several minutes before Stanton Moore plowed into a furious drum solo. Walter returned as he commanded the B-3 once again while Benevento attacked the Rhodes. Report by Randy Ray