When mentioning artists that emerged from Buffalo, of course the Goo Goo Dolls or Billy Sheehan or even Ani DiFranco usually top the list. The one that sometimes gets forgotten is that band formed out of the University of Buffalo in the last 1980’s, “moe.” Its this band that has become a force on the touring circuit amongst jam bands. Moe. consists of Rob Derhak (bass and vocals), Al Schnier (guitar, vocals, keyboard), Chuck Garvey (guitar, vocals), Vinnie Amico (drums), and Jim Loughlin (percussion).
As they took the stage, they immediately showed they had been keeping up with current events, Garvey asked “How you doing Albany?” amidst of a lot of laughter. Ed note: Shaggy was last week’s featured performer at Canalside, where he mistakenly addressed an Albany, NY crowd, though he was in Buffalo, which is about 250 miles away!moe. left little to chatter about and let their music do the talking as they went into “Y.O.Y” off of 1992’s “Fatboy” disk. Loughlin made use of the xylophone on the next track, “Skrunk.” Schnier who is the most diverse musician in the band, played keyboards on a few tracks including “Understand.”
The music flowed seamlessly all night and after celebrating 25 years on the road, they are still going strong. They wrapped up the night by doing a fresh version of the Ramones song “I Want to be Sedated.”
Buffalo is where the band cut their teeth and by the looks of it the band didn’t forget the city who gave them life. There is a certain chemistry when the band plays here and it’s evident by the performance they gave to their fans at Canalside.
Brining joy to their fans is what a band is supposed to do and it seems sometimes it gets lost in the big picture of the music business. moe. made sure for one night it was about the tunes. Bravo moe.!
Setlist:
Y.O.Y
Skrunk
Blue Jeans Pizza
Understand
32 Things
Same Old Story
Rebubula
Can’t You Hear Me Knockin’
Akimbo
Threw it All Away
Wizard
Encore:
I Want to be Sedated (Ramones cover)
We would like to thank Sara Serafin from Canalside for the credentials to review the show.
