moe. rocks Artpark
Jam bands aren’t exactly a new phenomenon, especially when you consider the liberties taken with a song’s bones by blues and jazz musicians. Just consider what happened with George Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm,” where the players took the basics and created variations so diverse and plentiful that some of those variants were blessed with titles of their own.
Still, most of today’s jam bands seem to trace their lineage back to the 1960s and early 1970s, when groups such as the Grateful Dead and the Allman Brothers Band played extended versions of country and/or blues tunes, building on a song’s melodic structure and stretching it to (and sometimes past) the breaking point.
Today, one of the finest and most popular groups playing this intensely free-flowing style of music is moe., a group with Western New York roots and a national fan base affectionately known as moe. rons. Band and fans came together at Artpark on Wednesday evening, and the results verged upon the magical.
When it looked at first as if people hadn’t shown up at Artpark in the kind of numbers one would expect at a free outdoor concert with a big-time headliner and near-perfect weather, George Osborne, the venue’s president, was a bit skeptical about having booked the band. About half an hour after moe. hit the stage, all doubts were banished as more and more people filtered in.
The moe. rons were out in full force, either perched in front of the Artpark stage, engrossed by moe.’s musicianship, or bouncing around in a sea of jam-induced bliss. They were packed so closely together that it wouldn’t have been surprising if someone had jumped into the air in exultation and then remained off the ground due to the extreme proximity of their mates in the audience.
Over the course of two long, drawn-out sets, moe. played songs from its back catalog, along with some newer material. All of this was greeted with astonishing fervor by an audience who roared with familiarity whenever the band switched from one catchy rhythm riff to another.
The improvisatory spirit of Jerry Garcia and Duane Allman found a home in Chuck Garvey and Al Schnier, moe.’s two guitarists, while drummer Vinnie Amico and percussionist Jim Loughlin engaged in polyrhythmic duets in much the same way that Butch Trucks and Jaimoe did with the Allman Brothers. And then there were the bracing harmonies of Garvey, Schnier and bassist Rob Derhak, sometimes as a trio and sometimes as a duo backing up whichever of the three was singing lead.
When all was said and done, both moe. and the moe. rons were in top form and it was an amazingly fun time all around.
Concert Review
moe.
Wednesday night as part of Wednesdays on the Gorge series at Artpark.
