On Saturday at the Wilbur Theatre in Boston, moe. traveled back to 1976. The band drew on Richard Linklater’s 1993 film Dazed and Confused, which is set during the summer of ’76 for its Halloween theme.
The band members appeared in costume for the performance. Guitarist Chuck Garvey with Mitch Kramer (Wiley Wiggins), bassist Rob Derhak was David Wooderson (Matthew McConaughey), guitarist Al Schnier was Mike Newhouse (Adam Goldberg), drummer Vin Amico was Randall “Pink” Floyd (Jason London), percussionist Jim Loughlin was Ron Slater (Rory Cochrane) and keyboard player Nate Wilson was Fred O'Bannion (Ben Affleck).
Over the course of the show, moe. blended its originals with songs that appear in the soundtrack to the film. The first set opened with Aerosmith’s “Sweet Emotion,” which carried additional resonance since that band is based in the Boston area (and reunited at the Hollywood Bowl two nights earlier). moe. had last played the tune on 10/16/05. Following “Not Coming Down” and “Wormwood” moe. made some slight adjustments to “Okayalright” with Rob Derhak changing the lyrics from “Back in the summer of '88” to “Back in the summer of '76.” Beyond this, Derhak, who was dressed as Matthew McConaughey’s character David Wooderson replaced “Okayalright” with McConaughey’s signature “Alright, Alright, Alright” a phrase that originated with the film. moe. then offered a debut version of Alice Cooper’s “School's Out,” followed by War’s “Low Rider,” which the band had previously performed on 11/15/97. “Low Rider” led into the group’s own “Bat Country” a tune that preceded another first-timer, Edgar Winter Group’s “Free Ride” before “Plane Crash” closed out the set.
The second frame began with Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid,” which moe. has performed just four times, followed by a debut of ZZ Top’s “Tush.” The band’s own “Opium” came next prior to two additional covers new to the band’s repertoire: Peter Frampton’s “Show Me the Way” and KISS’ “Rock And Roll All Nite.” Then, the band played its composition “Silver Sun” which bookended an instrumental take on Ted Nugent’s “Stranglehold.” The group’s premiere performance of Lynyrd Skynyd’s “Tuesday's Gone” then segued into a set-closing 19-minute version of “Recreational Chemistry.”
The encores were moe’s “Moth” and then finally another FTP, Foghat’s “Slow Ride,” which Wilson sang, as he had on “Free Ride.”
moe. is off the road until a series of intimate gigs that will run from December 11-20.
