Moon Hooch is an interesting concept – two saxophones (Mike Wilbur and Wenzi McGowen) and one drummer (James Muschler) combine energies to create a fusion of jazz and EDM with intensely high energy. Focused and committed to their craft, Moon Hooch are dialed in when they perform, driven by Muschler’s powerful drumming and phenomenal interplay between Wilbur and McGowan, leading to gyrating crowds pumping fists to the beat. “Number 9”, the first track off their eponymous debut album garnered an intense response from the audience, along with many other choice compositions.
It will be interesting to see how their live performance translates at music festivals this summer. In the meantime, go see Moon Hooch on tour this winter. Opening the night was Ampevene, a new local act from Albany who are slowly gaining ground with their progressive rock with a hint of open ended jamming. The young band are not to be missed and will be back at The Hollow next month.
One can see why they have been welcomed with such great acceptance in blues-aware England and played with T-Model Ford in the Delta. They have been awarded first place in the On The Rise competition at the 2014 Floydfest and are currently number one across the board on 
Touring in support of Phosphorescent Harvest The CRB, as they are known by their fanbase, played a few highlights of the album with “Meanwhile in the Gods…” and “Jump the Turnstiles” in the first set. The band was tight throughout the evening, which was great to see as they are breaking in new drummer Tony Leone. Sometimes when bands change members it takes a while to gel as a group, but The CRB was in fine form. Chris Robinson was in vocally great, as he always is, and even showed off some impressive guitar playing from time to time. Neal Casal handled much of the work on the guitar and it was wonderful to listen to his playing all night. He can solo with the best of them, but can also intricately shape songs without taking over the whole sound. “Tulsa Yesterday” closed the first set out with a thrilling jam that was a preview of what the meat of second set was going to be.
After a short break they came back out and hit the ground running with “Try Rock & Roll”. Everyone in Bearsville was tuned in to what the band was giving them and smiles were seen on everyone’s face, including the band between songs. Adam MacDougall seemed to be steering the jamming ship throughout the second set with some great work on the keys. The psychedelia was strong from his side of the stage and only pushed the others to join in. Chris Robinson is of course no stranger to that sound, so it was easy to see why he recruited Adam into the band. Mark Dutton may have gone unnoticed by many throughout the evening on the bass, but he has mastered being the grounding sound during the intense jams that happened. The biggest jam of the night took place during “Vibration & Light” that bled into “Hard to Handle” with a beautiful transition. The two songs were great, but the middle area where the band got weird and just jammed for a while was the clear highlight of the evening. This was followed by “Rosalee” where they once again went off the rails of the traditional song and let the space around them dictate where the song would go. Coming back with a live debut cover of Van Morrison’s “Call me up in Dreamland” was a fitting end to the evening.
Set 1: Good Rockin’ Tonight, Jump the Turnstile, Shore Power, Roane Country Blues, Star or Stone, Meanwhile in the Gods…, Tulsa Yesterday
