Fans who stick around the live-music scene long enough have the strange pleasure of watching the young kids who once walked through doors opened by their elders morph into veterans who open doors for the next generation.
In 2024, that band is moe., which lit bars and clubs on fire in the early 1990s, got its first big-time exposure in the opening slot on the ’97 Furthur Festival and this year is sharing its stage with Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country on what it calls the Best.Summer.Ever tour.
And while the Grateful Dead are no longer on the mid-year circuit, the term applies to moe., who are making sheds in ’24 feel like bars of the late-previous century while Donato and company are laying the groundwork for a long career like their patrons.
Having been through a variety of personal tragedies and challenges, moe. are playing more like a young band looking for a career path rather than a group with more than three decades under its belt and a devoted fan base of moe.rons. Whether that’s because of Donato or the joy that comes with survival doesn’t matter. What matters is moe. is thriving.
They came out aggressively as 2023 enlistee and keyboardist/flautist Nate Wilson lead moe. through a grinding rendition of “Yellow Tigers” and never let up as they flawlessly executed the quirky arrangements and shifting time signatures that mark their music.
“White Lightning Turpentine” and “Tomorrow is another Day” followed and signaled that July 19 at suburban Dayton, Ohio’s, Rose Music Center would not – despite a small audience and a one-set show to accommodate Donato – be a run-of-the-mill gig.
Following the jungle grooves of “Mar de Ma” and “Lazarus’,” which gave percussionist Jim Loughlin and drummer Vinnie Amico a marathon-worthy workout, “Four” cooled things down a bit and led to “the Pit,” during which Donato emerged. As “Moth” took flight, Donato, without a net, settled in with the sextet and eventually got himself involved in a guitar duel with Al Schnier that turned so intense, he shot a ginormous, shit-eating smile in Garvey and Derhak’s direction before the main set came to a close.
And moe. remained so hot and unflappable that when Garvey’s talkbox failed to talk during the “Rocky Mountain Way” encore, the band carried on as if nothing was amiss.
Donato and company sauntered on stage at 7 sharp for hourlong set that had the audience on its feet from beginning to end. Donato played lightning-fast runs on his blue Telecaster guitar without ceding a note or a bit melody for speed. He instead wrangled out twangy leads that were Garciaesque in their tone and approach to improvisation as the rest of the quartet laid down funky support on keys, bass and drums and at the mic.
“Weathervane” found clavinet adding a groove to the spacey interludes; while “Blue Skies” brought things down. And things rose right back up when Nathan Aronowitz stepped out from behind his keys to play lead guitar and sing “Sugar Shack” as Donato moved into a supporting role.
Stick around, someday it’ll be Donato inviting a new generation to open for him. In the meantime, don’t be a moron – be a moe.ron; the band is on fire once more.
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