News

moe. Returns To The Tabernacle + Jams With Ivan Neville Of Dumpstaphunk January 30, 2016 15:47

Words by Taylor Pack :: Photos by Jordan Kirkland

With night one at Terminal West in the books and two more to go, the guys from upstate New York set their sights on The Tabernacle as their 25th anniversary continued to roll along in Atlanta, Georgia. The band wasted no time diving into classic moe. material and opened with “Stranger Than Fiction”, the opening track on their 1996 release, Tin Cans and Car Tires, and followed it with “All Roads Lead to Home”. Next was “Downward Facing Dog”, the chorus of which featured a couple thousand moe.rons enthusiastically chiming in “and in the end… I’m going down swinging!” Jim Loughlin (percussion) led us bravely through the appropriately titled “Chromatic Nightmare” before welcoming Dumstaphunk’s Ivan Neville on stage for the only cover of the night, The Rolling Stones' “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking.”

Neville remained on stage as the band broke into “Puebla”, yet another track from the 2012 release What Happened to the La Las. Neville and the band rounded out the first set with “Recreational Chemistry”. I used the last few minutes of this tune to get a jump on the set break frenzy and head down to the merch table. For anyone going to Saturday’s final show, moe. is currently offering all CD’s studio and live, for $5/each. You can thank me later.

Watch moe. jam on "Recreational Chemistry" with Ivan Neville here:

The second set of the night will be a topic of conversation amongst moe.rons and jam band enthusiast for all the right reasons.  Awesome song selection, mind bending jams, and peak performances by the musicians themselves will keep these nugs circulating in CD players for years to come. “Bullet” was played first but in my mind it meant only one thing: next moe. would be singing one of my favorite tales about a moe.ron named Kyle getting plowed into by a car as he attempts to go see his favorite band. “Kyle’s Song” did not disappoint in the least.

With the band singing “crushed in green velour” and Vinnie Amico (drums) tapping away on his symbol, I looked around and could tell by all the smiling faces I was not alone in loving this little ditty. It would only get better from here and once the opening notes of “Kids” hit there was no more hiding it, this was a full blown “heater.” Chuck Garvey (guitar/vocals) and Al Schnier (guitar/vocals) took turns melting faces throughout the extended jam and the band as a whole appropriately showed the fans what 25 years of playing together sounds like by mesmerizing the audience with impeccable precision and fluidity. Moe. eventually transitioned "Kids" effortlessly to "George" and after that the audio feast, continued with a raucous "Haze" > "Rebubula" that will be hard to top.

The second set ends there, but the crowd needs and receives more. “Letter Home” is first and although they typically only play the song a handful of times a year, the song seems to find itself on setlists when they play Atlanta, and tonight is no exception. Maybe it is a nod to the lyrics ("Atlanta at 3am, New York city tonight"), or maybe Al just gets a kick out of changing the lyrics to “one more trip down Peachtree, wondering where it is” and hearing the crowd delight in his reference to Peachtree Street, which runs through the heart of Atlanta. The band ends with “The Ghost of Ralph’s Mom” and thanks the fans again for a great night.

moe. will play one final show at The Tabernacle on Saturday night (01/30) with special guests Earphunk.  Limited tickets will be available at the venue.