Monday, January 31, 2000
moe.'s fans jam away the night at Bogart's
BY CHRIS VARIAS
Enquirer contributor
Deep into the second set of moe.'s 31/2-hour show at Bogart's Saturday night, Chuck Garvey tried to butter up his newly adopted hometown crowd. The only problem was half the crowd wasn't from these parts.
Moe.'s operation is typical of most jam bands. They play shows more days a year than they take off, and those shows are three-hour-plus affairs. This approach appeals to the music fan who thinks nothing of hopping in his or her car and driving 400 miles just for the dancing.
So at Bogart's the near-sellout crowd was made up of kids from the East Coast — moe.'s strongest fan base — and kids from other Midwest states. There were even a few Cincinnatians who knew what Mr. Garvey was talking about.
“I moved here two years ago. Cincinnati's cool,” said the singer and guitarist to a smattering of cheers. He went on to salute Arnold's (“on East Eight Street,” he noted) and local bands Ma Crow and the Flock and M.C. Blue. He even offered a random dining suggestion: “You gotta get the chili four-way.”
Chili-talk aside, the crowd reacted wildly to the entire show. There was enough tribal energy in Bogart's — chemically induced or otherwise — to fill the Firstar Center. Couples square-danced in the back of the room. Others, taking advantage of the right to tape the show, hunched over recording machines and adjusted microphones. Kids with pupils dilated to the size of bowling balls gathered around the concession stand only to “smell the food.”
The music was trippy enough to work on fans with normal-size pupils, as well. The show opener was the 20-minute “32 Things,” a fast-paced hybrid of skiffle, bebop and psychedelia.
Like most of the other songs moe. played, this one was an actual song, not the type of shapeless jam that bands of similar ilk play. If all the guitar-solo battles between Mr. Garvey, guitarist Al Schnier and bass guitarist Rob Derhak were eliminated, a solid four-minute song would remain. But the jam wasn't fat that needed trimming. It had multiple climaxes, and if anything it could have gone on longer.
Comparisons to Phish are justifiable, in that moe. jumps genres from song to song. There was the reggae-flavored “Happy Hour Hero,” electrified-bluegrass of “Waiting for the Punchline,” the Grateful Dead-style, mid-tempo rocker “Moth” and the straight-country “Queen of the Rodeo.”
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