Review: moe. Celebrates New Year’s Eve In Albany

Words & Images by: Frank Imburgia

moe. :: 12.31.15 :: Palace Theatre :: Albany, NY

moe. closed out their Silver Anniversary year with a New Year’s Eve show at Albany’s Palace Theater that proved even after 25 years, the band can still surprise their devoted fans. Thursday’s show featured debuts, bust outs, never before performed covers, classics, and of course, the stand-out improvisational jamming that has propelled moe. to the upper echelon of the jam-music scene.

moe. dug deep into their catalog in the first set. Every song harkened back to the early days in the 1990s when moe. was playing the bars in the University of Buffalo area. The evening opened with “Defrost,” an instrumental song played only once since 1996, and featuring the duo-tempo that was a signature of the band’s early songwriting. From there, the guys segued into “Akimbo” with Al Schnier and Chuck Garvey trading off rapid fire lead guitar licks. After a “Y.O.Y.” where Rob Derhak played a surprisingly complex bass line all the way up the neck of his Ritter, moe. opened the cedar chest and hauled out two more rarely heard early numbers.

Resurrected at moe.down 15 as a loyalist reward, the instrumental “Canned Pastries” had two distinct feels to it: an Al side and a Chuck side. The quick pace, the intricate interplay of rhythm and lead, and the unpredictable directional changes of the song represent moe. at their best; the cognoscente in the audience gave each other knowing looks and nodded. For only the fourth time in 25 years, moe. played Al’s reggae influenced “Po’ Sadie.” In the middle of the song, Al retold the legend of Sadie, the world’s most beautiful woman and greatest lover, who, in disappointing reality is actually a man, “old, like … 47,” bald, who sits around watching Jeopardy and eating Cheetos. A self-portrait? One of the segues of the night came as set one ended and “Timmy Tucker” transitioned into the jazzy intro of ”Don’t Fuck with Flo.”

After a quick break, moe. opened a four song, but full-length, second set with the classic pairing of ”Happy Hour Hero” deftly switching into “Seat Of My Pants.” SOMP gave Al the opportunity to do his trademark rock-star impersonation at the very edge of the stage, playing power-chords on his knees, right above the heads of ecstatic fans riding the stage rail. The debut of “Montego” – another Al instrumental – came next, followed by Chuck’s delicate “Four.” The band promised to be back out for the midnight countdown and took their final set break.

With the New Year nigh, the band opened the third set with their interpretation of Pink Floyd’s “Time,” now a NYE tradition, but for the first time, extending the song to the end with a reprise of “Breathe.” At midnight, after the obligatory countdown, the confetti guns discharged their payload, Rob played a solo “Auld Lang Syne” and family members of band and crew came out on stage to share in the moe.ment. Maybe the highlight of the night came when Jim Loughlin left his percussion station and grabbed a mic to lead a house-razing cover of House of Pain’s anthem, “Jump Around.” moe. is planted very solidly in the Jam-rock tradition, but when they want to bring the hip-hop, Jim is their man. As he boasted his way through the rap, band children came out from the shadows and cavorted on stage, jumping, dancing and generally loving life, as did the audience.

A rocking reprise of “Auld Lang Syne” was followed up with Rob striking the bass line of “Billy Goat,” the first and only (not counting debuts) post-2010 song of the night. The jam out of the song led into the hard rock portion of the show with a solid “Meat” in which Jim once again took the spotlight with an extended double-mallet vibe solo. Drummer Vinnie Amico finally got a little time to show off his mad skills during a rollicking “Brent Black.” All the band members left the stage while Vin pounded out a driving solo that featured some complex timing schemes overlaid on a relentless foot-tapping foundation that brought the entire auditorium to its feet. Rob finally joined in with a dangerously fast finger-picking bass solo that pushed the crowd over the edge of euphoria, while Chuck’s guitar screamed like a cat on fire and the guns blew a last load of confetti into the air. The wavering opening of “Wind it Up” signaled the end of the show, but the boys had a final surprise in store.

After the Al.nouncements, the band came out to the front of the stage where 5 mic stands had been placed, and covered the Talking Heads brilliant “This Must Be the Place.” Al strummed an acoustic, Chuck very quietly punctuated on his Becker electric, and Jim and Vinnie kept time with hand-held percussion. Rob (armed with a lyric sheet) bravely sang the octave-breaking words: “Home is where I want to be, but I guess I’m already there,” which brought shouts of assent and approval from the audience. As Rob struggled to hit the high notes, the crowd pitched in their voices in support and it became a legitimately touching moment.

Happy New Year everyone.

Setlist (via Phantasy Tour)

Set One: Defrost > Akimbo, Y.O.Y., Canned Pastries, Po’ Sadie, Timmy Tucker > Don’t Fuck With Flo

Set Two: Happy Hour Hero > Seat Of My Pants, Montego, Four

Set Three: Time > Breathe > Countdown/Happy New Year> Auld Lang Syne, Jump Around 1 > Auld Lang Syne, Billy Goat > Meat > Brent Black, Wind It Up

Encore: This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)

1 Jim on vocals.