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.
No Comments comments associated with this post