Noodled Hammond organ. Equal parts coffeehouse and thunderstruck drums. Anchoring basslines. Pealing walls of distorted guitar. Hazy electronics.

With all those elements, you’d think the Benevento/Russo Duo would have at least four members. But there’s nothing deceiving about their name. Keyboardist Marco Benevento and drummer Joe Russo do all those parts themselves, somehow combining it into one heady aural experience.

“Even though there’s just the two of us, there’s more than two people’s parts going on,” Benevento says.

The two started out modestly enough. Childhood friends from New Jersey, Russo asked Benevento to join him at his Thursday night residency back in 2002 at New York’s Knitting Factory.

“They were pretty open,” Benevento says of those shows. “We would do a lot of improv. Joe and I were amazed at the sort of mind-reading that was happening. We would look at each other like, ‘Whoa, this is fun and easy to do, just the two of us.’”

It also was more lucrative to keep it to just them. The gig only paid $100 a week.

“Fifty bucks was like groceries for a week when I first moved to Brooklyn,” Benevento says.

It soon became apparent there was no sound reason to expand the operation. They embarked on early tours using Benevento’s Subaru station wagon. They did eventually add a tour manager and sound guy, necessitating the need for a van. Otherwise, “It’s sort of like this impenetrable force that Joe and I have as far as communication,” Benevento says. “We really enjoy the two-piece, and it’s just easier with the two of us.”

They’ve augmented their sound by adding bass pedals on Benevento’s side, and a keyboard and a drum pad with loops on Russo’s. Now Benevento uses his feet and plays chords with his left hand and melodies with his right. While others have been occasionally added to the mix (most notably former Phish bassist Mike Gordon on one tour), Benevento and Russo have largely kept it a two-man operation.

“We’re always up for the challenge,” Benevento says. “If anything, the limitations stop us from doing anything that we obviously can’t do. As soon as our four limbs are used up, we can’t go any further. It’s exciting to try and make a full sound.”

But even sonic architects like Trent Reznor employ a full band when translating their music to the stage. So seeing such intricate fervor from only two people can elicit a varied response.

“Sometimes we get flowers thrown at us,” Benevento says. “Then sometimes we get a really quiet audience that’s watching us like, ‘How is all this going on?’ There’s also an overall element of people just happy to be there.”