Above: The Slip’s Brad Barr, Western New England College, Springfield, MA, 4/21/06. Photo by Shannon Plaquet

The Slip and the Marco Benevento Trio will help New York’s Sullivan Hall celebrate its two year anniversary on January 2. Benevento’s band for this gig will include one of the keyboardist’s heroes, Billy Martin. Benevento, Martin and the members of The Slip all helped the New York club mark its transition from the Lion’s Den into Sullivan Hall in January of 2008.

This past weekend Benevento also opened for The Slip at Providence, RI’s Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel. In addition, the keyboardist returned to the stage to play piano on “Get Me With Fuji” a few songs into the trio’s set. Benevento returned during the group’s encore for the new song “England” and Led Zeppelin’s “Heartbreaker.” After jamming informally with The Slip for years, Benevento recently joined their folk-rock group Surprise Me Mr. Davis in a more formal context.