Photos by Rob Chapman
Now in it’s 12th year, moe.down returned for the second year in a row to its new home, Gelston Castle Estate, in Mo(e)hawk, NY. Though the historic castle, once home to the Roosevelt family, has been in a state of ruins since the late 20th century, the views from the top of the ridge overlooking the steep, lush and green concert hill, once past the castle, are majestic. And the festival retained its fun for all, family centric environment, with family camping and a very popular kids tent that provided all sorts of activities throughout the day.
Less than a week before the event, Hurricane Irene stormed up the east coast, dropping bucket loads of rain on the Connecticut/New Your border. Though the venue was too far west to have sustained damage, the ground was saturated with rainwater. Weather reports indicated more rain was in store for the holiday weekend as well, though for the most part we were spared another storm till mid Sunday afternoon, which brought lightning and a twister touching down nearby, putting a bit of a damper on one of the event’s premier sets.
Friday, September 2
As there is no carside camping, organizers wisely pushed the first sets till later Friday evening, kicking things off at 8 p.m. on the buzz (smaller) stage with The New Mastersounds, marking their return to moe.down for the second time in three years. This Leeds, England based quartet has got groovy, soulful American jazz and funk down pat. By the end of its second set, the band had heads bobbing and swaying in a funky rhythm, as moe.rons were getting warmed up.
Aaron Freeman and Mickey Melchiondo, AKA Gene and Dean Ween, have been performing as Ween since 1984. Playing with a full band, these seasoned, experimental rockers knew exactly how to get weird at their first moe.down. Equal parts fired up and energetic and absurdist and quirky, they presented a psychedelic mélange of classic rock, “Captain Fantasy,” obscure punk, “Papa Zit,” humor infused reggae, “Bananas and Blow” and everything else in between. By the end of its set, the band had stirred up the bizarre dissonance on songs such as “Mushroom Festival in Hell,” “Spinal Meningitis” and the drunken punk rock closer “The Blarney Stone,” which felt as though it might not end at all.
moe. kept it simple Friday night – no surprise bust outs nor super improvisational jams. Here’s what I personally find most enthralling about moe. as a performance band: no other group out there these days makes such fine use of the instrumental space and jazzy, freeform interludes from one song to another. They moved from the pop rock flavor of “Down Boy” without skipping a beat into the more frenetic “Skrunk,” which wound its way slowly into “George” on a rolling bass vamp. Jim Loughlin’s MalletKAT led the move from “Where Does The Time Go” into “Dr. Graffenburg.” And lastly, a sentimental favorite of this reviewer, “Deep This Time” moved into a dark, fluid excursion that segued into the pop rocker “32 Things.” The popular “Plane Crash” brought the night to a close in a mesh of wailing guitars and a funky groove.
Saturday, September 3
Savvy festival veterans Railroad Earth, drew fans to the stage early on Saturday morning, with a speedy, rambunctious bluegrass instrumental, “1759.” The upbeat ditty “Drag Him Down” was laced with lovely mandolin and fiddle picking that ignited the crowd. RRE gave moe. a run for its improvisational money with a Celtic tinged intro, “The Green Roofs of Eireann,” featuring exquisite flute interludes, which segued right into the buoyant “Smiling Like A Buddha,” on which the crowd sang along on the exuberant and cheerful chorus of ““a-woo-hoooo,” as guitars, mandolins and violins weaved in and out of melodies. The band rocked out with wailing electric guitar on the harrowing tale of native peoples being driven from their land, “Black Elk Speaks,” before closing out its set with the jubilant instrumental jam, “Spring Heeled Jack,” that left a large crowd gathered for the afternoon Moe. set shuffling their feet.
moe. – parents themselves – embraced the family vibe as always. After a few fan favorites, they started “Nebraska,” this year’s kids tent theme, as a parade of children, who had marched from the kids’ tent dressed in farm gear, straw hats and some in a cow or pig costume, arrived on stage. “Puebla” is a fairly new song that has developed from a slow dirge to a rocker over the last year, while “Mar DeMa,” made a real interesting transition into the classic “Timmy Tucker,” the improvisational jam vehicle of the day. It’s always awesome to listen for the slightest musical teases from one member or another signaling where they’ll take the improvisation.
The Brew is a young band from the Boston area that seems to have its act together. The band was invited to play 3 sets on the Buzz Stage, between Moe’s sets. It’s the second year in a row the band has been on the festival line up, as well as being chosen to perform at the Snoe.Down festival in Vermont last winter. A trademark for The Brew is spot on, classic rock covers. And a week prior to the event, the band set out to learn Pink Floyd’s The Wall, and peppered all three sets with songs like “In The Flesh Part 1,” and “Young Lust,” between their own originals.
The Brew has certainly taken a little bit of a cue from moe. as they too, are quite good with the segues, as a five song segment of their own “Chance Reaching” moved through Floyd’s “The Trial,” into their own “Birds On The Window,” back into “The Trial,” then into their own “What I Want.” Keyboardist/vocalist Chris Plante has a raspy but melodic singing voice, and when backed by guitarist/vocalist Dave Drouin on sensual rockers such as “Hunters Moon” provide some mighty fine harmonies. Like the well fermented, frothy ice cold $4 Saranac’s sold at the festival, The Brew continue to tap into a barrel full of new fans at moe.down festivals.
moe. was certainly in excellent form on two Saturday evening sets. Though “Good Trip” was first performed in 2004, it has yet to make a proper studio release. Live however, the tune has developed into a quirky rocker with a bit of a country twang. It collided with a wash of feedback and dissonance moving into the funky rush of “Akimbo.” Though only a year old, the pop rocker “Downward Facing Dog,” featuring the dual guitars of Chuck Garvey and Al Schnier, and the more rock-centric “Haze,” with a thumping bass groove, have both benefited from repeated performances and are growing into a fine songs. Loughlin’s MalletKAT once again led the band out from a dark and ambient interlude into “Rebubula” to close the first of set.
For the late night set, moe. stuck to some tried and true classics, including instrumental opener “Meat,” the first of several extended jam vehicles. Garvey’s guitar work here was particularly melodic and fluid. “Yodelittle” slowed to a mellow groove as it moved seamlessly into the harrowing excursion “Lazarus.” It was the encore, however, that broke the new ground. During a nearly 12 minute break, crew members hustled about setting up five iPads, and the band came back out and performed its song “Crab Eyes” entirely on the touch interfaces sans real instruments. Jumping back to their respective instruments, moe. then tore through “Bearsong” to bring Saturday night to a euphoric conclusion.
Sunday, September 4
Since he burst onto the music scene in the mid 1980s, pianist Bruce Hornsby has been a band leader, an in-demand studio session player, a part time member of the Grateful Dead, a solo artist, a bluegrass musician and so much more. In all contexts he thrives in the live performance setting, as his set with The Noisemakers made clear.
“King Of The Hill” was just the right mix of upbeat jazz and improvisation to draw a large crowd down the hill Sunday morning. “Preacher In The Ring Parts 1 & 2” were played with a thick New Orleans gospel vibe, and included a spiritual sax solo. When Hornsby mentioned that being in the area brings up thoughts of The Band, a large cheer went up as many were hoping for a guest spot from the legendary Levon Helm, whose own group was set to appear directly after Hornsby’s. It was just a tease however, as he went into “Go Back To Your Woods,” a song co-written by Robbie Robertson, while dark clouds began to move in overhead. A surprise guest did appear for his set closer though, as he invited out Bob Weir, also on hand to play with Helm’s band, to join him in a rousing set closer of the Grateful Dead’s “Jack Straw.”
And then, with a loud boom of thunder overhead, the rains came. An electrical storm and a downpour blew in and put a hold on the Levon Helm Band’s set for just under an hour. Eventually the storm passed and the group began to play as fans made their way back to what had become a muddy bog in front of the stage. I personally arrived just as Bob Weir joined in. Despite the rain still falling, it was a highlight of the event to hear the music of the Grateful Dead performed with a twelve piece band and including a horn section.
With the rain still falling, moe. took the opportunity to bust out a brand spanking new song, the ironically titled “Rain/Shine,” that began with a meandering, dark guitar groove then moved into more upbeat rock and featured three part vocal harmonies. Mid-song, Garvey and Schneir were absolutely wailing amongst each other’s parts. It’s another fine, new song from moe. that holds great promise as a jam vehicle.
Coming out of the upbeat instrumental “Ricky Martin,” moe. moved into dark and ambient improv, and a huge cheer went up as Bob Weir joined the band on stage with a wave to the crowd. The slow groove came around into The Grateful Dead’s “The Other One,” with Weir lighting it up. With a simple nod from Weir that seemed to say “follow me now, boys,” they moved through the straight electric blues of “Smokestack Lightning” and back into the same, slow ambient improv that lead back into “The Other One.” A nearly 16 minute romp through set closer “Feel Like A Stranger” provided a dense canvas for jams amongst the six musicians and drew several cheers from the crowd throughout the improv. There was a stunning contrast of styles between Weir’s New Orleans boogie woogie set with Helm and his more electric rock set with moe.
Anti-climatic though it may have been after Weir departed, moe. did return for one final set of the weekend. “Wind It Up” always makes an excellent choice as an opener or a closer, as it begins with a slow, melodic melody, and builds to a blazing crescendo and a sing-along chorus that gets a crowd going, as it did here. “Paper Dragon” is a bellowing rock song and among the best of the new tunes the band has been playing for the last few years, featuring bassist Rob Derhak’s reverberating vocals and a dynamic guitar and MalletKAT jam. Derhak’s rumbling bass then moved the song into the classic fan favorite “Recreational Chemistry.” After the tired tradition of the Mayor of moe.ville elections, moe. ripped through a two song encore of “Spine Of A Dog” > ”Seat Of My Pants,” bringing the weekend to an upbeat and rocking conclusion.
Once again, Gelston Castle Estate proved to be quite successful as far as a host site for a festival. The long walk from parking to the designated campgrounds was a bit of a challenge, and the up and down of the concert hill certainly provides one with several weeks’ worth of physical exercise. But the scenic view from the top of the hill is stunning and many fans found comfort right there through the whole weekend with no need to make the trip all the way down and then back up. Indeed, in its twelfth year and its second at this new location, moe.down certainly maintains a special, unique vibe.
