Review: moe. Asbury Park / Bethlehem
moe. @ Stone Pony Summer Stage – July 15
Words: Kahlil Katool
Photos: Rob Chapman
The five guys named moe. gave the staple Not Coming Down > Wormwood as their opening offering to Asbury Park with bassist Rob Derhak’s signature slapping and dual lead guitarists Al Schnier and Chuck Garvey’s heavy metal shreddings. The New York-based rockers got right down to it and tightly made their way into a very patient, yet spacey segue filled with several teases that marked the transition into one of Schnier’s newer songs, Downward Facing Dog. Schnier then sat down at his Wurlitzer piano for the intro to a prime version of Garvey’s Wind It Up, which then saw, the human metronome, drummer Vinnie Amico, drop the band right into Timmy Tucker. With strong soloing from both guitarists and high-speed mallet-katting (electric xylophone) from percussionist/multi-instrumentalist Jim Loughlin, the band closed the first set nicely leaving the Asbury crowd wanting more.
[All photos by Rob Chapman]
Garvey’s melodic Hi & Lo opened the second set, which usually signifies that good things are yet to come as was the case at the Stone Pony Outdoor Stage. The jamming segue out of Hi & Lo saw the band throw down some major Brent Black teases right before Schnier’s major riffs barreled into a solid version of Big World. This take was sans the big finish at the end, but rather featured another on-point drop into the instrumental Ricky Marten. Next, there was no more teasing about it, Brent Black had arrived and again the Jersey crowd saw the quintet firing on all cylinders, with exceptional work from all members of the band. During Derhak’s bass solo he even scatted along with his bass as he added a little Peter Gunn Theme from the ’70s tv show at which point Garvey used his Talkbox to scat very briefly (video).
Schnier then debuted a new one of a kind 1974 double-neck Gibson he recently added to his extensive arsenal of guitars. Giving a slightly different tone and being able to switch tuning and keys, the band closed the set with the newer rocking anthem Haze that went into the always crowd pleasing Rebubula.
moe. ~ 7/15/11 ~ Stone Pony ~ Summerstage ~ Asbury Park, NJ
{7:23 PM > 8:38 PM EST}
I:Not Coming Down > Wormwood > Downward Facing Dog > Deep This Time, Wind It Up >(nh) Timmy Tucker
{9:04 PM > 10:23 PM EST}
II: Hi & Lo > Big World > Ricky Marten > Brent Black, Haze@ > Rebubula@
Enc: New York City
{BB included jim. solo > vin. solo > rob. solo > rob. playing and scatting the theme to Peter Gunn in which chuck. came out and scatted it as well for a minute before rob. finished his solo
@ al on brand new (to him) ’74 one of a kind Gibson double-neck guitar
al on wurlitzer for WIU}
- Audio: Scott Bernstein’s AUD
READ ON for Kahlil’s report from Bethlehem…
