The Slip hit the road for the first time in two years this past Wednesday as part of a four-night run that included stops in Northampton, MA, Boston, New York and Philadelphia. The group drew from a similar set of songs throughout its mini-tour, alternating between numbers from the bands earlier, jazzy era (The Weight of Solomon), experimental, progressive mid-period (Get Me With Fuji) and vocal-oriented recent indie work (Even Rats). Unlike the groups final pre-hiatus tour, however, most of the evenings selections were stretched out considerably, including tight pop numbers like the euphoric Airplane/Primitive and the rocker Children of December.

At Friday nights Bowery Ballroom performance, Marco Benevento stepped onto the stage to play accordion on a set-closing If One Of Us Should Fall. Benevento has been a close friend of The Slip camp since the trios college days and often tours with Andrew Barr and Marc Friedman as the Marco Benevento Trio. The Slip also honored Michael Jackson Friday on three separate occasions: Brad Barr took the stage wearing a lone white glove at the start of the night, the group teased Jacksons Man In The Mirror during Paper Birds and the clubs DJ spun a selection of Jacksons hits after the group closed its set with the new song England. The Slip will appear at Quincy, CAs High Sierra Music Festival this weekend.