New Year’s Eve In Remote Locations: 5 moe. New Year’s Eve Shows In Small Cities

Upstate New York jam-rockers moe. raised eyebrows when they announced they would ring in 2017 at The Wilma in Missoula, Montana for performances on December 30 and New Year’s Eve. Guitarist Al Schnier hinted at the year-ending visit to Montana during an interview ahead of the announcement, when he told Made In Utica, “We have something really out of the ordinary planned for New Year’s this year. We’ve been talking about doing something in a random location for a while.” Schnier went on to say “we’re going to play (somewhere) that’s random and out of the way. Just play in a remote location and if you want to come you can come and if not we’re going to be somewhere random and out of the way.”

While Missoula is certainly out of the way, moe. has a long history of playing small cities on December 31st that dates back to their first New Year’s Eve performance from 1994 in New Paltz, New York. Prior to this year, moe. has performed 20 times on New Year’s Eve in 14 different cities. The group has celebrated NYE in New York City, Philadelphia, Boston, Las Vegas, San Francisco and Chicago, but today we’ll look five places moe. has rang in the New Year that aren’t within the list of the 300 biggest cities in the U.S. The order is by the size of the city from smallest to biggest and in cases where the band has played multiple shows in the city we focused on the oldest one.

1. December 31, 2001 – Asbury Park, NJ @ Convention Hall (Population: 15,855)

Full Show Audio (Taped by Eric Vandercar R.I.P.):

The Skinny: The Jersey Shore is a very nice place to visit, during the summer. Unfortunately for moe. fans the band brought their New Year’s Run to what was at the time a dilapidated Asbury Park for a pair of shows at Convention Hall on December 30 and 31, 2001. To be fair, it wasn’t the group’s first choice as NYE ’01 was originally scheduled for the Times Union Center in Albany. Jambands.com reported curfew issues led moe. to move the shows to Asbury Park. Musically, the band delivered a show filled with impressive versions of originals as well as a cover of “Money” by Pink Floyd. moe. also enlisted a horn section to help out during points of all three sets including on fan-favorites “Don’t Fuck With Flo,” “Plane Crash” and “Happy Hour Hero.”

Setlist:

Set One: Godzilla, Blue Eyed Son, Money* > Time Ed, Don’t Fuck With Flo#

Set Two: Plane Crash#, Gone#, Spaz Medicine#, Head, Nebraska#

Set Three: Auld Lang Syne#, Time, Akimbo#, Happy Hour Hero*# > Seat Of My Pants** > Recreational Chemistry

Encore: Brent Black#

Encore2: Low

• * With “The Other One” (Grateful Dead) tease
• # With horn section: Jeff Petit (Yolk) on alto saxophone, Brian Kaplan (Brian Kaplan Band, Conehead Buddha) on trombone, Shannon Lynch (Lynch, Conehead Buddha) on tenor saxophone, Terry Lynch (Lynch, Conehead Buddha) on trumpet. Horn charts and arrangements by Jeff Petit.
• ** With “Sesame Street” theme tease.

2. December 31, 1999 – Poughkeepsie, NY @ The Chance (Population: 30,639)

Full Show Audio (Taped by Eric Vandercar R.I.P.):

The Skinny: What nicer place to ring in the millennium than Poughkeepsie, New York? With tens of thousands of jam fans heading down to a big field in the middle of Florida for Phish, moe. invited fans to a much more intimate affair for three nights at The Chance, which holds about 1,000. The New Year’s show was originally scheduled for the much larger Mid-Hudson Civic Center, but the scare of Y2K disasters and lack of city policeman available to help secure the venue led to The Chance. This would be the group’s first New Year’s Run featuring the lineup of guitarists Al Schnier and Chuck Garvey, bassist Rob Derhak, drummer Vinnie Amico and percussionist Jim Loughlin. All these years later the lineup is still intact. Original moe. drummer Ray Schwartz made a rare appearance late in the show.

moe. had plenty of treats in store for fans, though for the second year in a row they only played two sets following three set shows in 1995, 1996 and 1997. Loughlin led the group through a debut of AC/DC’s “Hell’s Bells” to kick off the show and later in the first set Schnier would front moe. on a wild version of “It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” featuring the Ominous Seapods. There’s also a full-on “That’s It For The Other One,” an adventurous “Meat” that devolved into a full-band drum jam and a cover of “Fire” by Jimi Hendrix with guest Peter Prince (Moonboot Lover).

Setlist:

Set One: Hell’s Bells*, St. Augustine, Mexico, Spaz Medicine, Waiting For The Punchline, Time Ed > Brent Black, It’s The End Of The World*#^@, Cryptical Envelopment# > The Other One#** > Cryptical Envelopment#

Set Two: Plane Crash, Meat## > Low Rider Jam > drumz### > Meat > Head

Encore: Holiday Ramblers’ Theme, Fire, Seat Of My Pants, Farmer Ben

• Ray Schwartz on percussion & drums entire second set
• * Jim on vocals, first time played
• ** Al on acoustic guitar, Jim on washboard
• *** Jim on flute
• # with Ominous Seapods, first time played
• ## Low Rider tease
• ### all on drums & percussion
• @ Peter Prince on guitar & vocals

3. December 31, 2011 – Portland, ME @ State Theater (Population: 66,318)

Full Show Audio (Taped by Marcus):

The Skinny: moe. didn’t play New Year’s Eve shows in 2008 and 2009 before continuing the tradition on December 31, 2010 in Boston. Then, on December 31, 2011 they played the State Theater in Portland, Maine and would return again the following year ahead of a move to Albany for NYE 2013 – 2015. moe. was firing on all cylinders on New Year’s Eve ’11. There’s so many highlights including a moving moment when Vin’s daughter Marley Amico came out to play the iconic sax part during Pink Floyd’s “Money,” a glorious “Recreational Chemistry” featuring the countdown to 2012 and “Auld Lang Syne” in the middle and a take on beloved rarity “Johnny Lineup.”

Setlist (via PT moe.):

Set One: Not Coming Down> Wormwood> Deep This Time, Backwoods, Suck A Lemon, 32 Things

Set Two: Money1,2> McBain, Hi and Lo> Big World, Skrunk> Zed Nought Z3

Set Three: Recreational Chemistry> Auld Lang Syne4> Recreational Chemistry> Johnny Lineup5, Haze> Buster> Tubing The River Styx> The Pit> Timmy Tucker

Encore: Godzilla6

• 1 – w/ Marley Amico on sax
• 2 – Last time played 08/30/2003 (697 shows)
• 3 – completes 12/30/11 version
• 4 – Last time played 12/31/2005 (486 shows)
• 5- Last time played 07/04/2010 (101 shows)
• 6 – w/ Cass Libbers on drums and Vin on percussion with Jim

4. December 31, 2003 – Camden, NJ @ Convention Hall (Population: 76,903)

Full Show Audio (Taped by Chris Clark):

The Skinny: What is it about downtrodden cities in New Jersey that makes moe. pick them for New Year’s Eve performances? While Asbury Park has rebounded, it was a dark time for the city in 2001. The same holds true for Camden, where moe. held their New Year’s Eve show on December 31, 2003. Unlike the other cities on this list, at least Camden is miles away from a huge city – Philadelphia. Fans are split on the quality of moe.’s lone Camden NYE show, but their cover of “Let It Be” by The Beatles, well-jammed “32 Things” and outrageous “Plane Crash” are all worth hearing.

Setlist:

Set One: Mexico* > Happy Hour Hero, McBain**, Tailspin#, Captain America

Set Two: Let It Be#, Okayalright > Gone > 32 Things, Opium > Plane Crash

Encore: Down Boy#, Rebubula

• * With “Recreational Chemistry” tease.
• ** With “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed” (Allman Brothers Band) tease.
• # First time played.

5. December 31, 2005 – Asheville, NC @ Thomas Wolfe Auditorium (Population: 87,236)

Full Show Audio (Taped by Eric Vandercar R.I.P.):

The Skinny: moe.’s only New Year’s Eve south of the Mason-Dixon line took place at the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium in Asheville, North Carolina on December 31, 2005. The show is a winner thanks to an acoustic first set, a debut cover of The Who’s “Join Together” out of “Auld Lang Syne” and three welcome bust outs. In the unplugged opening stanza the band dusted off “That Country Tune” after a 67-show layoff. The second set ended with the return of “Lazarus” after a whopping 294 shows and Derhak sang “Auld Lang Syne,” moe.’s first take on the traditional song since New Year’s Eve 2001.

Setlist:

Set One: New York City, Okayalright, Conviction Song, Shake Your Hips, That Country Tune, Not Coming Down > Four, Rise, St. Augustine

Set Two: Wind It Up, Bring You Down > Kids, Spine of a Dog > Yodelittle > Lazarus

Set Three: Auld Lang Syne, Join Together > Buster > Dr. Graffenberg > Not Coming Down, Hi and Lo > Brent Black

Encore: Letter Home, Kyle’s Song