moe. will ring in their 25th year as a band with a two-night run at the Palace Theatre in Albany.
This will be the second year in a row that Jim, Vinny, Rob, Al and Chuck will take the stage at the Palace Dec. 30 and 31. Fans are hoping for a special pair of shows to start moe.’s silver anniversary. Band members wore suits for every show in their 20th anniversary year.
Last year, moe. opened the New Year’s Eve show with the band rising out of the stage and playing five acoustic songs before a sweet segue into the electric part of the set. In their third set, after midnight, they were joined onstage by the horn section from Conehead Buddha, plus the Paul Simon cover “Late in the Evening” was aided by a few of the band members’ children on various instruments. The show included three debut covers, including an amazing version of “Spanish Moon” by Little Feat, plus two bust-outs that hadn’t been heard since 2012. Each of the moe. band members donned furry animal costumes for a set, some of which showed up again in other 2014 shows.
The Conehead Buddha horns are slated to join moe. again this year for the 12/31 show. That late announcement, coming two-and-a-half weeks before the run, has been a bit controversial among moe.rons. The horns were an exciting addition last New Year’s Eve, but they’ve joined the band for a number of New York shows in the last year including moe.down, Buffalo and the Saranac Brewery shows in Utica, all of which are considered hometown shows for moe. in one way or another and tend to be highly attended by regular fans. Some .rons who value the unpredictability of a moe. show have complained that the setlists are too similar when the CB horns join the band, but others have faith in moe. to bring the heat and continue to surprise their fans.
moe. formed at the University of Buffalo in 1989, and they moved to Albany in the ’90s to develop as a band. There they grew alongside Conehead Buddha on the Albany jam band scene.
On the 30th, the popular Vermont-based jam band Twiddle will open for moe.
It’s been too long for many moe.rons. The band has been taking a break from the road since they wrapped up a West Coast tour Nov. 8 and played at, One More for the Fans, a concert celebrating the songs of Lynyrd Skynyrd, in Georgia in mid-November. They haven’t played an East Coast show since September.
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