moe. Plays ‘meat’y ‘Moth’ & Welcomes Saxophonist Shannon Lynch At Higher Ground

moe. conducted a two-night sold-out run at Higher Ground in Burlington, Vermont over the weekend. The long-running jam outfit fluttered in and out of “Moth” and “meat” among other tunes on Friday and welcomed frequent collaborator Shannon Lynch on saxophone for a Rolling Stones classic on Saturday.

moe. — guitarists Al Schnier and Chuck Garvey, bassist Rob Derhak, percussionist Jim Loughlin, drummer Vinnie Amico and newly minted keyboardist Nate Wilson — got Friday, April 14 underway with “Head” from the Schnier songbook, which clocked in at around 24 minutes. Derhak’s “Billy Goat” and “Opium” came next, with the sextet stretching the latter out to 16 minutes. moe. sandwiched a substantial “George” within “McBain” to wrap the first frame.

The second “all Al set” launched with, “Tailspin.” The beginning of the aforementioned classic “Moth” came next before the band flipped the script on “meat,” performing the ending first, which then flowed into “Bearsong.” The band continued the setlist sorcery with the beginning of “meat” and ending of “moth” to cap the second set. moe. returned to encore with Blue Oyster Cult’s “Godzilla.”

Vinnie chose “Dangerous Game” to get night two going. Derhak’s “LL3” came next followed by “Crushing,” The first three songs were tunes debuted in 2018 or later. The band then returned to vintage material with “Water” and “Bring You Down.” Next, moe. brought out Shannon Lynch for The Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers (1971) cut “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking.” Lynch handled Bobby Keys’ iconic sax solo on the rocker to seal the first set.

A pair of Al songs, “32 Ways” and “The Road Song,” began the second frame. The sextet then paired up “Kyle’s Song,” which boasted some spicy guitar stylings from Chuck, and “Silver Sun.” The Derhak staple “Plane Crash” brought the five-song second set to a close. moe. concluded their Higher Ground run with a debut, as per Phantasy Tour, of the Blind Mellon favorite “No Rain” into oldie “Happy Hour Hero.”

Listen to full show audio from night one via Phil Fernandez below:

Also, check out video of “Water” and “Kyle’s Song” from night two:

April 14 Setlist (via Phantasy Tour)

Set One: Head, Billy Goat, Opium, McBain > George > McBain

Set Two: Tailspin, Moth[1] > Meat[1] > Bearsong[1] > Meat[1] > Moth[1]

Encore: Godzilla

Notes:

[1] Moth beginning > Meat ending > Bearsong > Meat beginning > Moth ending

Al & Mike Messina wrote setlist.

April 15 Setlist (via Phantasy Tour)

Set One: Dangerous Game, LL3, Crushing, Water, Bring You Down, Can’t You Hear Me Knocking[1]

Set Two: 32 Things, The Road, Kyle’s Song > Silver Sun, Plane Crash

Notes:

Encore: No Rain > Happy Hour Hero

[1] With Shannon Lynch on sax.

Vinnie wrote setlist.