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And you thought North Carolina was only humid in the summertime? Last Friday night, moe. played to a capacity crowd at Raleigh's Ritz Theatre. Calling this venue a theatre is a bit of a misnomer because there's no seating to speak of, but "Ritz Warehouse" doesn't have the same ring. In any event, the temperature inside was matched only by the intensity of moe.'s performance.
The Ritz is notorious for poor sound and talkative audiences, but the band grabbed everyone's attention immediately, opening the show with guitarist Chuck Garvey's rendition of Money. The Nebraska which followed seemd to hype the audience more, getting us up for a new tune entitled Crab Eyes that featured some strong instrumental workouts. moe. was clearly ready to stretch out and jam at this point, and the Punchline that came next did not disappoint, traversing through a long, slow solo by Garvey as Al Schnier (guitar) picked off high bending notes behind him. The jam slowly picked up momentum before Rob Derhak's bass propelled them forcefully into the reprise.
A solid Happy Hour Hero was then tossed out as a crowd pleaser, setting up a very strong Mexico to close the first set. Clocking in at 15 minutes, each guitarist traded solos, before Schnier steered into the coda and finished the tune off cleanly. I've often found Schnier's solos kind of loopy and repetitive, but on this night he displayed a versatility that really changed my opinion of his playing, taking ripping leads while still complementing all of his bandmates during the first set.
This trend would continue in the second half, as the band tore into Timmy Tucker to open the set, with Schnier adding some spacy keyboard effects on the intro. Timmy picked up where the Mexico left off, stretching out into controlled abandon before dropping perfectly into the dual-guitar intro of Big World. The energy level of the crowd had reached a climax; a point that was obviously not lost on the band. "You people are good screamers," quipped Derhak, before counting off a Moth that saw the normally reserved Chuck Garvey lunging towards the edge of the stage like an early eighties' Bob Weir.
Al Schnier got in on the act, playfully teasing Big World before Derhak and the percussion tandem of Jim Loughlin and Vinnie Amico guided the band into an Opium that alternated between moments of sheer volume and textured brilliance. The communication skills between the members of moe. were truly on display here, as Derhak concentrated on low, floor shaking notes and Schnier layed down reverb drenched washes of sound behind Garvey's soloing. Laughlin filled in the spaces with precise percussion work while Amico held the whole thing down. It looks simple on paper, but what these guys manage to pull off must be heard to be understood.
In the course of the jam, the boys got away from Opium enough that they seemed a bit lost on what to play next so Al, in a seeming gesture of gratitude to the crowd, began toying with the intro to Rebebula. As the rest of the band joined in and powered through the lyrical segment, Schnier turned to his keyboard again and really helped flesh out the jam before closing it with a blistering solo of his own. This Rebebula was short but sweet, and the audience responded loudly in appreciation. moe. was quickly drawn back on stage by the raucous cheering and served up a Seat of My Pants that came out of nowhere. A standard In A Big Country served as a nice bonus, satisfying old and new fans alike.
It seemed as though moe. could tell there were a lot of new fans in the house, evidenced by the way they bookended the show with covers. Still, there was enough successful risk taking going on to keep everyone's attention focused on the stage. At a place like the Ritz, this is uncommon, which makes the fact an obvious testament to moe.'s talent. Get out and see them as soon as you can!
Tim Leadem
JamBase Ham Face Correspondent
Go See Live Music!
moe. is currently the cover story in the current issue of Relix Magazine. Pick it up on newsstands today!
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