Update

Feb 26, 2018 • 11:00 am PST
Check out Paul Citone’s photos from Saturday night’s moe. show in Albany below.

On Saturday night moe. concluded their three-weekend return to the road with the second of two sold-out shows at the Palace Theatre in their home away from home – Albany, New York. The band’s deep roots in the capital city were officially honored on the stage prior to the two-set affair, which saw them continue to dig into their catalog for fan-favorites and rarities.

Prior to the start of the show, Albany’s mayor Cathy Sheehan declared February 24 “moe. Day” with an official proclamation. “The biggest honor that has ever been bestowed upon us. We have our own day, so every February 24th if you’re in Albany what are you gonna do?” declared bassist Rob Derhak. “Perhaps we should make this an annual event, a parade maybe” joked guitarist Al Schnier, who then went on to talk about their first show at the local club Valentine’s.

With the formalities out of the way, the band got the night rolling with a short take on “Rebubula” playing just the opening instrumental portion before segueing straight into “Buster.” The quintet used the Derhak-sung tune as a launching pad, stretching the song out past the 15-minute mark as it then moved into a sequence of “Haze” > “Y.O.Y.” > “Who You Callin’ Scared,” marking the second take on the new Chuck Garvey-penned original. The familiar sounds of “Akimbo” kicked off the back end of the opening frame, as the setlist staple from Head Seed, worked its way into “Rise” before moe. closed things out with a take on “In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed.” It was the band’s tenth performance of the Allman Brothers Band instrumental classic from Idlewild South, which had sat on the shelf for nearly seven years before it was revived in January of 2017.

A quick rendition of “Stranger Than Fiction” which has become a rarity in recent years, got moe.’s second set of the night rolling. A jammed-out take on “Faker” began a lengthy, nearly hour-long seamless stretch as the quintet then served up “CalifornIA.” The Jim Loughlin-sung rarity “Farmer Ben” and “Don’t Fuck With Flo,” another old-school favorite that was once in heavy-rotation, but now only gets trotted out a handful of times a year followed before moe. made their way back to “Faker.” A 22-plus-minute “McBain” came next with moe. bringing their two-nighter in Albany to an end by playing the rest of “Rebubula” to close the second set and throwing in the reflective rocker “Letter Home” as the encore.