moe. delivers a scorching four-night run at The Sinclair in Boston

We are still processing ourselves after all of the rock and roll fire that just scorched Boston’s The Sinclair this past weekend, but we’ll walk and talk through the best moments of moe.’s amazing four-night run here the best we can.

Night one of four kicked off on Wednesday with a great segue between the opener, “Happy Hour Hero” and the rarer moe. tune “Johnny Lineup,” which flexed out nicely for some solid early playing. A “Ricky Martin” got some steam to head into  a good-length “Timmy Tucker” that traded off big, screeching peaks with murkier funk. This end to their first set of the weekend was a sure sign that the band had come to Boston to throw it down right.

What next? moe. answered with a mini musical sandwich within a giant sandwich. Things blasted to a start with “Rebubula” opener, which circled out to segue neatly through Pink Floyd’s “Happiest Days of Our Lives.” The band doubled this gift for the crowd, in following up immediately with this tune’s counterpart classic, “Another Brick in the Wall.” The crowd was spinning at this point already, as they jumped off the worked up funk into a “Spine of A Dog” sandwich. Nestling inside of this moe. staple was another rare offer, “Canned Pastries,” which zinged off expertly with tight, start-stop action.

The band came out to give what would be one of four nights of truly amazing encores. Starting with a cool “Karma Police,” the real first night prize in the box came in continuing the Floyd with “Interstellar Overdrive,” and with it commanding another tight and inspired segue into the rarer gem “Awesome Gary.”

Night 2: Thursday afternoon had witnesses so far scratching their heads across social media, wondering if this first night might have accidentally been too hot to follow up on. But not so! Night two opened with the fun combo of “Crab Eyes” sandwiching a “Threw It All Away” within itself. After a couple timeless moe. tracks, a real highlight came quickly with “The Road” surrounding a long and hard-grooving “Head” within. Fans were too busy getting down to the improv-heavy heat to giggle at the band’s joke innuendo joke here.

After a couple of more rare moe. offers in their Tori Amos cover “Cornflake Girl” and “Cathedral” to follow, the jamming climbed to a musical head in the three-song-swing of dreams, “Yodelittle” right right into a “Don’t Fuck with Flo,” and then finally a smooth sail into “Silver Sun.” These three extended funk-outs mingled the worlds of dark groove and focused playing to take this second set into musical heavens. The band closed with a “Kyle’s Song” in the encore slot, but this previewed the kicker that really floored fans, a rocking version of the Allmans’ “One Way Out,” sung by the band’s drummer, Vinnie Amico no less.

Night 3: On Friday night, it became clear that both the setlist creativity and all playing from the band was still on the ups. The very cool Zappa tune “San Berdino” dropped like a banger first, then quickly invited beautiful segue into an adventurous “Recreational Chemistry.” As if this pushing-26-minutes heavyweight jam to come as song two of this evening wasn’t thrilling enough, the band followed up with a first set “Godzilla.” You’ll see nothing but wide grins on the faces of die hard .rons whenever the band offers this crazy fun tune, and to be hit with it after that chemistry put the Boston crowd in very high spirits early on. After rounding out this segment with a hard rock dive through the classic “Plane Crash,” moe. put the cherry on top of one of the wildest first sets you could ask moe. for.

The second set was a hard-edged yet gooey follow up that didn’t disappoint as a next segment. A “Puebla,” to follow, sizzled up nicely with some really gritty guitar action. Coming off of this, “Bullet” and “Prestige Worldwide,” one of the newest moe. songs, continued the great playing from the whole band. This second tune features at the depth of its groove the really uncanny vibraphone playing of percussionist Jim Loughlin, that just hits like a musical bow tie on a fine-looking suit. A third set, and a pretty returned to some Floyd for the thematically uplifting pairing of their original, “Not Coming Down” with “Fearless.” 

The true hammer throw, for this show though, was the pairing of “Brittle End” that cooked up into a truly raging, hell-bent “32 Things,” which saw especially heated soloing from guitarist Chuck Garvey. This last jam lofted the exalted energy one more time for the night and The Sinclair, here on the third set of night three, was still flailing with excitement and admiration. The band continued what would be a streak of just terrific encores, as they started they’ve nailed just a number of times over the last year or so, Bowie’s “Ziggy Stardust.” This preceded a very fine version of “Downward Facing Dog,” which had the crowd dancing still, until the brittle end of night three.

Night 4: As Saturday night came around, fans were a at this point already a happy kind of weary, rocked with the sparkling momentum that hit for three nights in a row, and the band must have been wiped themselves now, so it’s any mega fan’s guess as to how they made their final performance at the Sinclair not only as good, but a rival for their previous three shows.

“Zed Nought Z,” one of the definitely niftier moe. instrumentals, combined pretty guitar playing with more from that vibraphone. Things grew heavy with a shift through the next combo of “Same Old Story” and “Bring You Down.” Chromatic Nightmare featured a “Water” fake out that romanced the crowd. They threw the curveball of “Montego,” which blended great guitar work with just a bit of funk, into the mix. The band eventually landed in great, cathartic fashion on the previously teased “Water.”

The second and third sets of this last night stood tall as another musical bevy, with more surprise sandwiches abound, linked together and strengthened with more standout segues. Things were fun from the get-go on a short-lived “Kids,” before hitting a hopped up take on the always fan-favorite “Lazarus.” Then came a breath as they wound through “Letter Home” and “Faker,” where the low, easeful sounds of both these songs worked as a beautiful matchup. Drifting through a reprise turn on “Same Old Story,” they rode their impressive improv even farther down this great musical road, into a closing return jam on “Zed Nought Z.” As fans were reeling with sheer wonder here, the band circled out the wormwood album material with a “Gone” into “Deep This Time.”

“Shrunk,” opened another third set for the weekend, and this cooled off with a very nice, collected segue into a second go around on “Kids.” The happy shouts from the audience kept coming as the song danced along in an upbeat jam in lieu of it’s usually subdued territory. “Buster,” too, was a real zinger, a fine version among the many rest they’ve played in awhile. The flair just kept coming, on a great closing pair of “St. Augustine” and a surprise reprise on “Same Old Story” for a third time.

After a quick break from this absolute whirlwind, Aqueous walked out to close this last night out. Yep, that’s right – as the 90s Buffalo jam stalwarts left the stage, up and coming Buffalo hard-rockers Aqueous surprised The Sinclair by taking the stage to start off the encore, giving a pumped up version of their tune, “Random Company.” Moe. soon swapped places with the quartet, and opting for another yet another beautiful Floyd number, they played “Comfortably Numb” to reign in this monster of a weekend in grand style.

Bleary but glistening were the eyes and ears of fans that caught even one or a couple nights of this four night journey. A number of those that did have been heard in the ensuing past couple of days as calling this weekend one of the greatest multi-night runs they’ve ever gotten from moe.

When you place this last run in context of the great shows they’ve been delivering this past couple of tours, it’s not an overstatement to say: moe. is truly killing it right now.

Written by Miles Hurley
Photos by JD Cohen

Setlist moe. 4/05/17 ~ The Sinclair ~ Cambridge, MA
Set I: Happy Hour Hero > Johnny Lineup > Annihilation Blues, Hi & Lo > Big World > Ricky Marten > Timmy Tucker; Set II: Rebubula > The Happiest Days Of Our Lives > Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2) > Spine Of A Dog > Canned Pastries# > Spine Of A Dog > Rebubula; Encore: Karma Police > Interstellar Overdrive > Awesome Gary