Double Feature At The Fillmore: moe. Hosts Tarantinoe. Halloween Shows In Philly – Review, Photos & Audio

Words by: Frank Imburgia

Images by: Paul Citone

moe. :: 10.28-29.16 :: The Fillmore :: Philadelphia, PA

Quentin Tarantino’s movies, while critically acclaimed, are not for everyone. But nearly everyone can agree that the soundtrack to Tarantino’s body of work is exceptional – not only for the eclectic selection of songs, but also for the way that music is employed to set the mood for a scene. Who can forget the sight of Michael Madsen bogeying down to Stealers Wheel’s “Stuck in the Middle with You” as he gleefully tortures a duct-taped cop in Reservoir Dogs? To a band looking for a concert theme, Tarantino’s portfolio of classic songs represents a nearly inexhaustible vein of music that can be mined for pure gold. Indeed, there’s enough there for multiple shows.

Thus moe. put on a Halloween “Double Feature” Friday and Saturday night at The Fillmore Philadelphia: a Tarantinoe. Halloweenoe. Party. The shows were infused with sound samples from films. moe. originals were re-titled and lyrics were changed to fit the theme. Video clips from various Tarantino movies were played on the screen behind the stage, and Steve Young, moe.’s Front of House Engineer and chief prop-designer, (who is continually raising the bar, year after year), set the stage with impressive decorations. Combine all that with an audience full of black-suited criminals, ninja and samurai warriors, sexy one-eyed nurses, and the weekend was one that the moe.rons will long happily remember.

Friday’s show wore a movie-night visual theme, with red velvet ropes and a popcorn machine gracing the stage. The band entered dressed in black suits, ala Reservoir Dogs, and the show opened with a sound-bite from the diner robbery scene of Pulp Fiction: Amanda Plummer’s voice screeching “Any of you fuckin’ pricks move and I’ll execute every motherfucking last one of you!” as Chuck Garvey launched into the blistering opening of surf-guitar legend Dick Dale’s “Miserlou.” Fellow lead guitarist Al Schnier, played a spaghetti-western inspired lead while percussionist Jim Loughlin kept pace with his mallets flying up and down the vibes. “Crazy 88,” usually known as “Crab Eyes,” was the first moe. original repurposed for the weekend. The new lyrics – telling the story of the epic Kill Bill Vol.1 battle to protect O-Ren Ishii – meshing nicely with the song’s normal refrain of “Boom boom boom, bang bang bang, boom boom boom.” “Cissy Strut,” the Meters song featured in Jackie Brown, is right in moe.’s wheelhouse, and the band ran the jam out a good 15 minutes.

In 2012, Al wrote and submitted a new song to Tarantino for consideration to be included in the soundtrack for Django Unchained. Ultimately the song was not used, but moe. debuted “Django” in the first set, giving the under-two-minute, home-produced demo the full treatment it deserved. After the almost obligatory cover of the aforementioned “Stuck in the Middle with You,” moe. closed the first set with a rollicking “Gimp,” at any other show known as “Meat.” The song took its usual twists and turns, at one point slowing down and dropping in volume to almost nothing, before Rob Derhak copped a Mu-Tron effect on his bass and started dropping bombs. Drummer Vinnie Amico, deftly picked up the tempo as Rob began slapping and plucking and generally abusing his instrument. The band careened toward a climax: Al playing a wild screaming lead, lighting director,Preston Hoffman flashing the lights at strobe-like speed while spotlights dizzyingly swept the crowd, the audience roaring in approval, bouncing up and down, bringing the first set to a manic close.

Set two began with a relative rarity, Vinnie singing lead on Steppenwolf’s “Magic Carpet Ride,” fulfilling the wish of the at least three people I spotted in the crowd sporting “Let Vin Sing” t-shirts. The first segue of the night came as the Reservoir Dogs selection morphed into the choppy beat of “Wolf Song” (“Bear Song”). Lyrics were once again changed to tell a Pulp Fiction story “Into the ‘burbs the Wolf must go.” After an appropriately howling instrumental where Chuck played an expansive power lead that delighted the Chuck-side loyalists, the guys brought the jam back around to a reprise of “Magic Carpet Ride.”

With the lights down, another diner conversation was played over the PA: Jules and Vincent discussing why the one assassin would not eat pork. Jules concludes “well, we would have to be talking about one motherfucking charming pig.” Thus cued, Rob strummed the opening of the song about a charming pig personified, “Buster.” The segment of “Jazz Wank” into “Four” represented moe. jamming at their finest. The instrumental “Wank” dropped to near inaudibility before building into a climaxing swell, with Jim and Vinnie combining on percussive beats punctuating the transition. The “Four” was the moe.ment of the evening: slow and sweet and bluesy, with Chuck playing his most heartfelt, weepy guitar of the night. I glanced around and every face I saw was rapt. “Pussy Wagon” (“Paper Dragon”) closed out the set, and Al, now wearing a gold lamé and sequined dress, came back out for Al.nouncements. It was the first of two leggy drag appearances for the guitarist on the weekend, and prompted some woman nearby (not necessarily my wife) to remark: “Geez, his legs are better than mine.” A lighthearted cover of the Rock-A-Teens 1959, and Kill Bill Vol. 1 selection, “Woo Hoo,” was followed by a Top 10 of all time “Godzillas”– throbbing and funky and extended to a full 10 minutes with a deep and dark bass line and reverb-effected guitar.

Saturday night saw The Fillmore stage with a completely different look. Steve Young had placed Vinnie and Jim’s stations inside two halves of a vintage Cadillac. A double yellow line divided the stage into two “lanes” with the Crown Pawn Shop – a bevy of Fender and Becker guitars hanging in the window – gracing Chuck-side, while a Jack Rabbit Slims façade marked Al’s side.

First up was a 10 minute take on Tomoyasu Hotel’s dramatic “Battle Without Honor or Humility,” the musical accompaniment to O-Ren Ishii’s entrance in Kill Bill Vol. 1. As openers go, the song was a revelation, and let the capacity crowd know that moe. was bringing the fire. Simply put, “Battle” kicked some ass. As the jam developed, Chuck and Al met Rob in the center of the stage, grinning at each other and trading one scorching lead for another as the band set a suicidally fast pace. It was live music at its highest energy, audience-thrilling best. It is why we go see live music.

The jam of the weekend came on the “Shot Marvin” (“Shoot First”) > CalifornIA > “Ear” (“Head”) sequence to close out the set. “Shot Marvin” had its lyrics changed to the Ezekiel bible quote that Jules was so fond of in Pulp Fiction: “You’ll now my name is the Lord, When I lay my vengeance upon thee.” Chuck gets credit for making the tough lyric/cadence matchup work. The song began with Al picking the rhythm on mandolin and Chuck playing lead on the slide, but finished with a segue into “CIA” that saw Al wring an amazing flourish of notes from the little instrument. It was an over-the-top demonstration of the man’s incredible talent, and prompted much gape-mouthed, “Wow, can you believe that?!” eye contact in the crowd. But the jam out of “CIA” and into “Ear” was perhaps even better. It was the type of song-to-song transition that moe. has mastered and built a career upon, and that no band on the jam scene does better. The music moved through a quiet section while Vinnie and Rob made gradual subtle alterations to tempo and key, building and swelling as Chuck’s rhythm became more prominent. Al’s lead ramped up and when he teased the “Ear” chorus, triggering recognition by the crowd, the audience went nuts, ending the set on a high and raising expectations for the close of the weekend.

The second set opened with a three minute video. Al, dressed in a schoolgirl blue skirt and showing off those fabulous gams, makes a phone call for an army. Rob and Jim, as black masked, black suited assassins, answer the call, along with Vinnie “Vega” Amico, in a black pony tail, and a Jheri-curled Chuck “Jules” Garvey, both in white T-shirts and gym shorts. After some Keystone Kops style hijinks running amok in The Fillmore, a gun battle ensues, the Reservoir moe. gang is gunned down and left for dead.

Now attired as the triumphant gang, moe. took the stage for the final set, starting with “Girl You’ll be a Woman Soon,” the Neil Diamond song covered by Urge Overkill in Pulp Fiction. Up next was a rousing “Vinnie Vega” (“Timmy Tucker”) which proved to be one of the best songs of the weekend. Both Chuck and Al made the most of their respective segments of the song, with Chuck playing a screaming, distorted, soaring lead that had The Fillmore crowd yelling itself hoarse, while Al melted faces with a spacey, echoing thrum that reverberated through the venue and the minds of the audience. A sweet and always welcome “BUDD” (“Bring You Down”) led into Kool and the Gang’s “Jungle Boogie.” Samples of some of the more memorable Samuel L. Jackson quotes from Pulp Fiction including “ENGLISH MOTHERFUCKER! Do you speak it?!” and “And you will know my name is THE LORD!” were mixed into a long and funk-based instrumental jam that lead into “Watching Pulp Fiction” (“Stranger than Fiction”). “Kill Bill” (“Billy Goat”) closed out the set.

For the encore, there was a twist contest on stage. Couples danced and “Nurse” Jessica Wiegand, moe.’s marketing and merch director, walked from one to another, gauging the applause and enthusiasm of the audience for each performance, while moe. played the Chuck Berry classic, “You Never Can Tell.” It was great fun, especially when a pair of guys, one of whom was gradually stripping, looked as though they might just win. But not to be outdone, the girl in the final couple (dressed appropriately as Vinny Vega and Mia Wallace) lifted up her shirt and brought the house down. Congratulations to Jeremy and Claudette who not only won an autographed bowling pin, but got a seat at Jack Rabbit Slim’s on stage.

The Tarantinoe. Halloweenoe. spectacular closed out with a stellar “Recreational Chemistry,” that blew the doors off The Fillmore and sent the crowd out into the night reflecting on a well-conceived, expertly executed weekend. Props all around to the band, the crew and the fans on making this an experience that will live on in the annals of moe. history.

. [Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”402″ gal_title=”20161030 moe Citone”]

October 28 Audio (Taped by Marcus)

Setlist

Set One: Misirlou*, Crazy 88^, Cissy Strut, Django#, Stuck In The Middle**, gimp.^^

Set Two: Magic Carpet Ride*** > Wolf Song^^^ > Magic Carpet Ride***, Buster > Jazz Wank > Four > Pussy Wagon^^^^

Enc: Woo Hoo****, Godzilla

• * FTP (cover – Dick Dale) > Pulp Fiction
• ^ alternate lyrics Crab Eyes
• # FTP – (original al. song)
• ** FTP – (cover – Stealers Wheel) > Reservoir Dogs
• ^^- alternate version of meat.
• *** FTP (cover – Steppenwolf) > Reservoir Dogs
• ^^^ alternate lyrics for Bearsong
• ^^^^ alternate lytics for Paper Dragon
• **** FTP (cover – 5.6.7.8.’s) > Kill Bill

October 29 Audio (Taped by Marcus)

Setlist

Set One: Battle Without Honor Or Humanity* >(nh) Annihilation Blues, Bullwinkle Part II**, Shot Marvin^ > CalifornIA > ear.^^

Set Two: Girl You’ll Be A Woman Soon***, Vinny Vega^^^ > Rumble**** > Budd^^^^ > Jungle Boogie% > Watching Pulp Fiction#, Kill Bill#

Encore: You Never Can Tell%%, Recreational Chemistry

• {* FTP (cover – Tomoyasu Hotel) > Kill Bill
• ** FTP (cover – The Centurions) > Pulp Fiction
• ^ alternate lyrics to Shoot First
• ^^ alternate lyrics to head.
• *** FTP (cover – Neil Diamond) > Pulp Fiction
• ^^^ alternate lyrics to Timmy Tucker
• **** FTP (cover – Link Wray & His Ray Man) > Pulp Fiction
• ^^^^ alternate lyrics to Bring You Down
• % FTP (Kool & The Gang) > Pulp Fiction
• # alternate lyrics to Stranger Than Fiction
• ## alternate lyrics to Billy Goat
• %% FTP (cover – Chuck Berry) > Pulp Fiction}