It had been well over a year since moe. graced the Town Ballroom stage, when they arrived at Buffalo this past weekend. With their annual 2-night stay, fans were happy to have the band “home” again and this time with a last minute opening act Floodwood, featuring Vinnie Amico, Tony Markellis, Jason Barady, Nick Piccininni, and Chris Eves. Floodwood picked, kicked, and hollered with delight to a sold out anxious crowd, which included an original debut by Eves, titled “Green and Blue” featuring some warm vocals and smooth fiddle. This top-notch group flooded the room with enough hip-swinging rhythms to warm up any venue in western New York.
Night one started off rocking with “Rainshine,” a straight-forward rock song, not played enough in rotation. Without “huddle,” Rob led the group into “Jazz Wank,” segueing into a more than an hour long “Buster” sandwich including a seamlessly paired “Lazarus > George” and Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb.” Garvey captivated listeners with his silver-tongued vocals as Schnier lead out the solo with lust and emotion. Since their late-night tribute set at The Peach Fest, the guys have been working more Floyd tunes into their sets for the Fall tour.
Second set sluggishly took off with “Lost Along the Way,” picking up momentum during the instrumental section. The crowded Town Ballroom was then treated to a thick tasty “MEAT” sandwich, doubling up for the evening. The peak of the evening was surely this mamma-jamma, stuffed with tight-fitted solos from each member during “Akimbo” and “Silver Sun.” Topping off the night, Loughlin delivered radiant vocals on Frank Zappa’s “Cosmik Debris,” a tune first debuted at last years Halloween show in Philly.
Sparing little time and energy on Saturday, moe. returned to the stage of the Ballroom and hit-the-deck running with “Blue Jeans Pizza.” Chuck took it upon himself to set fire during the jam, enough to slap a consistent smile on Rob’s face for the duration. Al’s fun piano chops held together an interesting yet playful segue jam before switching to guitar for “Mexico,” which led into Merle Haggard‘s “Mama Tried.” Having only played that twice as a band (Once in 1997 and again last April), the majority of the audience sang along and danced their cares away. Acknowledging the culminating energy, Garvey simply stated “Round 2.”
Next, came a massive “Opium” containing plenty of sustained twang-ish slide guitar work, carried over by Chuck from the previous tune. A lengthy version allowed Vinnie to change up drumming styles, easing his way into “Understand.” Garvey took to the voice box for an honorable rendition of David Bowie’s “Fame” followed by “Same Old Story” to round off the first set.
Commencing the second set with “In the Flesh,” moe. proved how much they’re enjoying playing Pink Floyd as well as utilizing Jim’s voice. Given the opportunity, the ensemble intensely kicked up the energy with “Spaz Medicine.” Next came the last “sandwich” of the weekend with “Yodelittle > Down Boy > Yodelittle” featuring some notable lighting work by Pulse Lighting‘s own Justin Casey, who’s been having too much fun with the Clay Paky B-Eyes and Chauvet Rogue R1 FX-B series lights. After a brief pause, Garvey worked up some slide guitar again for “Shoot First” before segueing into an impressive “Billy Goat > Kids.”
Just before moe. took to the stage one last time, Schnier proceeded with the nightly “Al.nouncements” tradition. Unable to resist, he riled up the Buffalo crowd asking “So, here’s the question, are we gonna win tomorrow?” referring to the Bills vs. New England Patriots game on Sunday. With some New England fans scattered throughout the audience and on stage as well, the response was a little heated tho undeniably entertaining as Al had to explain that Bills Nation lasts year-long. moe. finished up their two-night “hometown” run with “Not Coming Down” and “Spine of a Dog,” giving Buffalo another win of the weekend.
Friday Night Photos by Tim Merrill
[ngg_images gallery_ids=”134″ display_type=”photocrati-nextgen_pro_slideshow”]
Saturday Night Photos by Jim Houle
[ngg_images gallery_ids=”136″ display_type=”photocrati-nextgen_pro_slideshow”]
The venue sits on Onondaga Lake, once the most polluted lake in the country. After decades of remediation it is just now re-emerging as a viable natural resource for the city. The opening of the amphitheater is just one of the signs of the lake’s renaissance.
With enough imagination, every song seemed to have a connection to his Syracuse roots: past, present and future. Lyrics like “A statement from his former life,” “I’m going to be a genius anyway,” “He buried all his memories of home” and “Gonna give you one last chance to see, gonna shrug demands off of me” spoke directly to his mentality. Other songs like the beautifully rendered “Winterqueen,” just referenced the city known for it’s brutal winters. The bust-out of “Destiny Unbound,” played on this night with a punchy exuberance, could be in reference to Destiny USA, the mall that sat just a couple of miles down the lake shore. Or maybe, and perhaps more likely, there was no rhyme or reason to the song selection at all. We should just ask the Axis, he knows everything.
Diving back into their Chilling Thrilling material, a late-set “Martian Monster” featured some instrument-swapping by the band. Anastasio played on Fishman’s Marimba Lumina, bassist Mike Gordon picked up the guitar and McConnell grabbed the bass, in what became a rhythmic and jaunty jam. The members have pulled this stunt a few times over the summer tour already, making it perhaps the least surprising element of this full-of-surprises show, though still quintessentially quirky and exciting. Determined to get Fishman his big drum solo moment, the band did push through “Frankenstein” to close the second set, even without the signature keytar lead, with more excited exhortations from Anastasio about the drummer’s high school and hometown.
Wandering into the large building, hundreds of glorious beings milled about, most of which standing like a rippling ocean of rhythmic movement at the base of stage. And just as stood there in awe of the spectacle, you heard a noise above you and looked up, only to realize there was a full balcony of music freaks overhead. Sure, there were two full sets of music, roaring like a freight train across the spectrum of the band’s career, making musical stops ranging from reggae to hip- hop, gypsy to nitty-gritty blues. And yes, it a performance that sent a chill through your body, where you raised your arm and could see the goose bumps emerge. But, that wasn’t what the evening was about, at least for those in the band and their inner circle.
And as I stood there on the side stage, watching my musical brothers take their final encore for may be awhile, I was struck by how loud the standing ovation was from the enormous crowd. It wasn’t surprising, it was more so awe-inspiring, this never-ending roundabout circle of passion and energy shooting back and forth between the band and the audience — the essence of what music is, always and forever. Lucid chose “Whiskey Dreams” for their encore, a song whose word ricocheted around the depths of my heart when the lyric “we are them, and they are us…” catapulted out of the speakers, tying a bow on a career that, to at least myself, still
Aside from their famous 
The band has been celebrating its 25th anniversary throughout 2015 and sound as cohesive as they ever have. A relationship this long, no matter what the scenario, is difficult to maintain at any level, yet it seems as if moe. has found new life in this trip around the sun. Onstage smiles were continuous during this run; it’s obvious that this is a band still having fun playing together.
Busting out with a rare “
Following a half-hour break, the band opened the second set with a tribute to the 
This led to the surprise of the night as Loughlin left the confines of his kit at the back of the stage to drop some mad rhymes to 
As the band members took a brief break, microphone stands were brought to the front of the stage for the encore. Schnier played his acoustic, while Garvey plucked on his electric. Amico played the tambourine and Loughlin the maraca, as Derhak, with the assistance of a lyric sheet, sang the Talking Heads’ “This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)” with help from the crowd on such lyrics as “Home is where I want to be.” As moe.’s adopted hometown, the collaboration was a fitting end to the show capping off the band’s silver anniversary year.