 moe., a progressive rock band, performs at Legends at 8 p.m. tonight. Al Schnier, Chuck Garvey, Rob Derhak, Jim Loughlin and Vinnie Amico have produced 17 albums over three decades. Photo provided by moe.
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All Information Compiled by Ben Hostetter | Intern Lifestyles Reporter
Appalachian Popular Programming Society Concerts will present moe. at Legends at 8 p.m. tonight. Admission is $18 for students in advance and $22 for guests and at the door.
The Appalachian: How would you describe a moe. show?
Chuck Garvey: We love what we do, we care very deeply about what we do and we also don’t take ourselves too seriously. We’re just there to have fun. I think that’s what the audience comes for. They come for the community, the opportunity to have a good time and hopefully to see something that’s never been done before.
TA: Do you have a favorite moe. song?
CG: One of my favorites is from the album “Sticks and Stones” – “Queen of Everything.” I love playing that song live. I don’t know what it is about it, but it’s just really fun to play. As far as older stuff goes, I’ve always liked playing “Buster,” “Rebubula” and the crazy songs like “Meat” and “Recreational Chemistry.”
TA: If you had to compare yourselves to other bands or musicians, who would they be?
CG: We improvise a lot, so in that way, we sound like other jam bands. At times, we’ll sound like Phish, the Grateful Dead, the [Allman Brothers Band] or Santana with real classic jamming, but on the other hand, I kind of feel like we have a pop influence in how we write songs and arrange things. We might actually sound a little more like a pop band, such as Wilco or even Rush.
TA: In what ways do you think the band has grown since the release of your first album, “Fatboy”?
CG: Our song writing has definitely changed. Our influences were a
little bit different and our styles were a little bit different. We
were kind of more into being weird just for weird sake, [and] we would
just do things because it made us laugh or because we thought it
couldn’t be done. Therefore, we thought we had to prove it otherwise.
We would put really odd things together and I think that definitely
came from all of us having a broad taste of music styles. I think the
arranging is a little more mature now, and the subject matter, like the
lyrics, [has] changed. There’s a little less of the wacky stuff, and
things are a little more straightforward.
TA: How do you guys keep things interesting and fun after almost 19 years of being together?
CG: A lot of ball busting helps. We were just talking about how
everyone has a threshold – like, we can all bust each other’s chops to
a certain point and everyone has a limit. For example, Vinnie, our
drummer, doesn’t have a limit. We’ve never reached his threshold, where
he just snaps or he’s had too much. We just don’t know what it is. It’s
all about just entertaining ourselves and not taking ourselves too
seriously. We just try and keep it fun.
TA: How do you guys mark your success as a band?
CG: At one point, I thought we had made it and everything was, like, we
had totally arrived when we were signed to Sony [Music Entertainment]
in ‘96. That was definitely not it. It was one of those things where we
thought we were going to get a lot of help from the label, and it
turned out that they kind of figure out which bands they’re going to
push and what bands they’re really going to help out. It’s kind of a
backwards thing. You pretty much have to be successful for them to push
it further. For us, one of the major things that confirm that we have a
successful career [are] festivals like moe. down and [the] Summer Camp
festival. Having these festivals, [in which] we’re the main draw and
[there are] 10,000 people coming to camp and [listening] to music for
an entire weekend is really a great feeling when we’re organizing it
and being a part of it.
TA: If there was an album of yours that you thought really summed up the essence and vibe of the band, what would it be?
CG: [There are] a couple albums where I really like all of the songs.
“No Doy” is a classic album. In that, it has a bunch of great early
songs, but I also think “Wormwood” is a really good example. In that
album, it feels a little more like how we play the songs live. I would
think it’s either “No Doy,” “Wormwood” or “Dither,” just because I
really like the songs on “Dither.”
Photo provided by moe. | Special to The Appalachian
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