Each night of the tour features an extended one-set performance from moe., and promises a blend of classic jams and a vibrant celebration of live music — three-and-a-half to four hours worth.
This tour welcomes back moe. guitarist Chuck Garvey to the stage after recovering from a stroke that took him off the road for almost two years. In addition, keyboardist Nate Wilson has been added to the lineup.
“When [Garvey] wasn’t there, it was like we had a limb amputated,” said Vinnie Amico, moe.’s drummer. “There was like this phantom sort of sound happening… We’d get to certain parts of songs and you’d hear Chuck’s part even though he wasn’t there. So having him back, it’s just completed the sound. And he rips.”
Amico says that playing music together again will be good for everybody because being together is how they heal.
Amico is moe.’s fifth, and ostensibly permanent, drummer. In the Nineties, before joining moe., he was in a Grateful Dead tribute band. The first studio record Amico performed on, “Tin Cans and Car Tires” (1998), just celebrated its 25th anniversary last year.
moe. has headlined countless tours, festivals and sold-out shows, and continues to redefine the idea of the jam band in the third wave of the genre — like Phish (second-wave) that came before and Grateful Dead (first-wave) before that.
moe.’s 12th studio record, “This Is Not, We Are” (2020), along with the EP “Not Normal” (2020), showcase the band’s consistent inventiveness and genre fluidity it’s cultivated over these past three decades. The band attributes its longevity to the family spirit shared between its members and its engaged fanbase, the Famoe.ly.
“Thirty-some years we’ve been a business and a band, together longer than most businesses… or most marriages,” Amico said. “We’re kind of a combination of both. We spend so much time together on the road… we’ve been through a million things in the world and we still enjoy playing together.”
moe. has been reintroducing classics and rarities into its recent shows — including some covers from Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and Camper Van Beethoven — but the setlist changes every night, creating a unique and fresh experience for every audience, so even Amico can’t speak to what’s in store.
“I’ll write a [setlist] one night and then someone else runs the next one,” Amico said. “We open up our whole repertoire. There might be songs on there we haven’t played in 20 years, or we might pull out some covers that we’ve never played.”
moe. improvises setlists as much as they improvise with each other on stage, constantly maneuvering from song to song, nary giving the audience a chance for a restroom break without missing a few notes. The band seamlessly improvises segues, whereas other jam bands may have improvised sections and rely on stops and starts.
Each show is a one-of-a-kind adventure in moe.’s musical symbiosis, each song an exercise in resonant impromptu songcraft.
One dollar from each ticket sold on this tour will be donated to Backline and Sweet Relief’s Music’s Mental Health fund to support mental health services for touring musicians and their families.
How to go
What: moe. with special guest Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country
When: Friday, July 19. Doors 5:30 p.m. Show at 7 p.m.
Where: Rose Music Center 6800 Executive Blvd., Huber Heights
Tickets: rosemusiccenter.com
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