"I can almost guarantee I am the only man in the world with a marmoset on my head right now," Jay Bennett joked, to a sparse but attentive and enthusiastic crowd at the Mohawk Place on Wednesday evening.
On tour with the other half of his duo, Edward Burch, Bennett entertained the audience with over two hours of full-on, enjoyable, acoustic rock music - all while sporting a large, beige fur cap swiped from Mohawk head Marty Boratin.
Thus far, Bennett is best known for his work in the standout indie rock band Wilco. But he left the group without playing a single song from last year's critically acclaimed release, "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot."
But taking into account the way he works with Burch on stage, it looks like Wilco lead singer Jeff Tweedy is going to be missing something special whenever his band is ready to make a follow-up.
Burch and Bennett played material from everything they had, from their latest album, "The Palace at 4am (Part 1)" to new selections from their upcoming May EP. The duo also played a wide selection of covers and rarities.
"I wrote this in the bathroom before you all got here," said Bennett, at the show. "So someone had better be brave and hold the lyrics up for me. You'll see where to turn pages."
Bennett then launched into a brand new, tear-jerking track about the pain of divorce. Joking that he was sporting "a head full of beaver," Bennett mentioned his ability to "write music that can even depress a place like Buffalo on a Wednesday evening."
Burch is the perfect complement to Bennett, and in most regards, they are equal in presence and importance on stage. Both have powerful lead voices, from Bennett's deep, dark voice to Burch's Elvis Costello-esque high harmonies. In concert, they usually take turns playing solo for a song or two while the other grabs a drink, a smoke, or, as Bennett put it, "Edward, why don't you play that new song you wrote? I think it's as fine a time as any, I have to use the bathroom."
Dressed in black-rimmed glasses, a matching wool hat, a brown unbuttoned cardigan sweater and a five o'clock shadow, Burch proceeded to level the audience with a quick, two-minute emotional ride in a song dealing with the return of a soldier's body to his mother.
Although they touched upon issues like war, it was not all that serious. Toward the end of the show, they finally granted a fervent audience member's plea to play "Junior," their old tale of a drunk driver. Bennett and Burch did it on one condition: they could call the song "Dubya."
The duo closed out the show four times, as the enthralled crowd demanded more every time they ended.
"Just two more, okay, three more. If we're doing more songs, I'm going to set the number," Burch lightheartedly commanded.
Bennett and Burch brought Dolly Varden, a male and female duo, on stage. Dolly Varden joined Bennett and Burch for the song they contributed to the soon-to-be-released George Harrison tribute album. The sweet tinged female vocals worked well with the twangy folk guitar, but did little to appease a fairly impatient crowd.
Opening the show was Buffalo's own Semi-Tough, featuring Erik Roesser of Starsick, Brad Solly and Donny Kutzbach. The tracks that featured Roesser's lap steel guitar and Kutzbach's unique voice were the highlights of the rare acoustic set, as were their jokes about messenger bags and their cleverly worded T-shirts that state: "Semi-Tough, semi-rock, semi-punk, semi-country, semi-drunk."
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
