moe. and The Infamous Stringdusters Quest for the Holy Grail on Halloween (Gallery + Recap)
moe., photo by Paul Cittone.
On Friday, Oct. 31, moe. Rolled into New Orleans for their highly anticipated co-headline engagement with The Infamous Stringdusters. Onstage at the historic Joy Theater, the foundational jamband and their progressive bluegrass peers presented a very special Halloween engagement themed as “Jamalot: A Quest for the Grail.”
The Infamous Stringdusters commenced Friday’s staging with an opening set that stayed true to their strengths, matching some tried and true originals wit rarer covers, including treatments of the Grateful Dead’s “Casey Jones,” The Police’s “Walking on the Moon,” Flatt & Scruggs’ “Polka on a Banjo” and the year’s first quick picking rendition of “Also Sprach Zarathustra.” Some highlights within the 16-track cycle included selections from the band’s forthcoming album 20/20, including “Working Man Blues” and “Dead Man Walking.”
After settling into the Halloween spirit with two sets at Suwannee Hulaween on Thursday, moe. fully embraced the holiday spirit in their Friday staging; the storied sextet more than matched the crowd’s commitment to the theme from the moment they crossed into the spotlight, costumed as Monty Python and the Holy Grail characters like King Arthur, Tim the Enchanter, Sir Galahad, Sir Bedevere, Sir Lancelot the Brave and Sir Robin, the Not-Quite-So-Brave-as-Sir-Lancelot. The traveling party set a tone for the evening with an introductory theme, then shared special takes on classics like “Meat” (retitled “Ni!”) and “Bud” (“Bring out Your Dead.”)
moe.’s set was an action-packed 22-track homage to the classic medieval comedy with unique songs inspired by sequences from the film and reenactments of key scenes, spilling blood in the crossing with the Black Knight and battling the Rabbit of Caerbannog. Amid the commotion, the band snuck in a litany of thematically appropriate debut covers, including the Eagles’ “Witchy Woman,” Thelonious Monk’s “Blue Monk” (featuring The Infamous Stringdusters as the singing monks), and Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit.” To close out the show on a high note, moe. committed their encore to a first-time rendition of “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life,” drawn from Monty Python’s Life of Bryan.
moe. and The Infamous Stringdusters concluded their stand in The Crescent City with a less zany but still thrilling show on Saturday; Dusters guitarist Andy Falco supported moe.’s treatments of “St. Augustine,” “32 Things” and Jerry Garcia’s “Deal,” then the full Infamous Stringdusters ensemble joined in for an encore of The Band’s “Ophelia.”
Get an inside look at moe.’s Halloween festivities in the gallery below, courtesy of photographer Paul Cittone. Find tickets and more information on the four remaining shows in the band’s 2025 live itinerary at moe.org.
