moe. can't properly punctuate, but they can jam their asses off, which they will do Sunday at HOB.
Ever since Jerry Garcia joined that great gig in the sky, dirty hippies with too much time on their hands have been looking for a band to replace the Grateful Dead. For a while, Phish were the tokers’ group of choice to follow around the country. Then they called it quits. A few other bands with really awful names like the String Cheese Incident threw their hats into the hackey-sack-strewn mix, but no group really ever united jam-band nation quite like the Dead.
Let’s give it up then for
moe., the Buffalo-based group with a penchant for weird punctuation (yes, that is a period after those three lower-case letters) and funky grooves. Over the past couple years, moe.’s records have been more like most artists’ records: that is, they actually include three- and four-minute songs with real melodies and other things that make a song a song. In concert, though, moe. still tends to drag songs out to nod-triggering lengths. Jam-band fans like that. Last year’s The Conch and the new Sticks and Stones throw in some hooks with the jams. We like that. --
Michael Gallucci
Moe perform at 8 p.m. Sunday, March 2, at House of Blues, 308 Euclid Avenue. Tickets are $22 and $25, available by calling 216-523-2583. For a preview, listen to “Captain America” below.
