Two Bands Achieve Liftoff

In front of a packed house that was ready to have fun, two touring acts at Space Ballroom — the New York City-based Ghost Funk Orchestra and the Woodstock, N.Y.-based Marco Benevento — brought humor, relaxation, and armfuls of danceable beats to the Hamden club on Wednesday night.

Ghost Funk Orchestra — a nine-piece band of Josh Park on guitar, Rob Mellinger on bass, Mario Gutierrez on drums, Billy Aukstik on trumpet, James Kelly on trombone, Jared Yee on tenor sax, Camellia Hartmen and Romi Hanoch on vocals, led by guitarist and bandleader Seth Applebaum — took the stage first. They opened with an ominous guitar flourish from Applebaum, then hit a big groove, the horns blasting away. Applebaum took a tasty, spacious guitar solo as the singers shimmied onstage, completing the band.

“It’s so nice to be here in my favorite parking lot in Connecticut,” Applebaum deadpanned. It was his group’s second appearance at Space Ballroom; he thanked those who had seen the group before and welcomed those for whom it was their first time. He mentioned the group would be leaning into songs from its newest record, A New Kind of Love. ​“We seem to be on about a record-a-year pace,” he said. ​“Who knows what kind of natural disaster we’ll be covering then?”

“Is it too early in the set for a sales pitch?” he added. ​“Probably.”

The band moved easily between harmonically dense funk workouts and moody psychedelica and back again, for all that the music gave the sense of being unbridled, it was notable upon closer listening for its restraint. Park, Mellinger, and Gutierrez were a tight, flawless rhythm section. The horn section laid down intricate, well-thought-out horn lines. The singers unfurled close harmonies. Applebaum’s solos on guitar (when he took them at all) were built on solid, simple phrasing, an idea stated cleanly. The music’s sense of raw energy came from the ensemble, the way the musicians played together, making the rhythm breathe.

“Now that we’ve taken you on an emotional journey,” Applebaum said after a few slower numbers, ​“it’s time to party.” And party they did, getting the robust audience to move. Ghost Funk Orchestra’s thick sound was right on time to warm up the evening.

Keyboardist Marco Benevento then took the second set, accompanied by Karina Ryckman on bass and Chris Corsico on drums. The trio’s energy came from a different place than Ghost Funk Orchestra’s did; where the first group found strength in compositional complexity, Benevento and company improvised off of simple melodic and harmonic ideas and found complexity — often textural — in them. 

Benevento, armed with significant keyboard chops and an array of keyboards to choose from at any time, led the charge. But Ryckman and Corsico were ideal wingpeople. Ryckman held down the bottom end and created a lot of propulsion, and never seemed to stop smiling while doing it. Corsico locked in with Ryckman, amplifying the momentum. 

Together the band lifted off together, whether they were riding rhythms from the go-go 1960s, surging forward on a straight-up rock beat, or ranging from disco to blues. At times Ryckman and Corsico settled into skittering funk, letting Benevento fly over it. The crowd, already dancing to Ghost Funk Orchestra, kept it up for Benevento, creating a mass of movement across the room.

“This is really hip in here! I love it,” said Benevento. ​“And it’s only Wednesday!”