#chuck garvey

Song Review: moe. with Jake Brownstein - “Happy Hour Hero” (Live, Aug. 7, 2025)

With Eggy’s Jake Brownstein on stage, moe. had one more guitar for this “Happy Hour Hero.”

Performed and captured on video Aug. 7 in Illinois, this version of the early-days number has even more of the Allman-esque, six-string harmonies one expects from moe.’s “Hero.” And the handing off of solos, beginning with Chuck Garvey’s talkbox showcase, is a slow build to sonic drunkenness.

Which is appropriate; for despite the song’s reggae roots, “Happy Hour Hero” is a drinkin’, rather than a smokin’, song.

But there is some fire here, weak vocals notwithstanding.

Grade card: moe. with Jake Brownstein - “Happy Hour Hero” (Live - 8/7/25) - B+

Song Review: moe. - “Rocky Mountain Way” (Live, March 23, 2024)

Though it is known for stretching songs waaaaay out, moe. stayed close to home on “Rocky Mountain Way.”

As captured on professional video March 23 in Colorado (natch), moe.’s interpretation follows Joe Walsh’s instructions carefully. The band’s newest member, keyboardist Nate Wilson, handles the mic, proving himself the group’s most-tuneful lead singer in the process; guitarist Chuck Garvey provides the requisite talk box; and the rest of the band works hard to give Wilson a solid floor.

And they do.

It’s the kind of thing that might make hard-core moe.rons pine for a more-adventurous sonic exploration. And it’s also the kind of thing that might make softer-core fans think, finally.

Grade card: moe. - “Rocky Mountain Way” (Live - 3/23/24) - B+

Rewind: moe. - Tin Cans and Car Tires (1998)

You know you’re getting long in the tooth when you followed the Grateful Dead and the bands that came behind them have now been around for more than a quarter-century.

moe. - lower case with a period - is one of those groups. And as it preps the 25th-anniversary, remastered vinyl edition of 1998’s Tin Cans and Car Tires, Sound Bites listened back to the original LP to determine if he still loves it like he once did.

He does.

This is a collection of relatively compact songs by a band that was already stretching waaaaay out on stage, but was looking for radio success with songs like Rob Derhak’s funky rocker “Stranger than Fiction” and Al Schnier’s plaintive “Letter Home.”

It didn’t work. And moe.’s more-adventurous side, represented here with such Frank Zappa-inspired tracks as “Spaz Medicine” and “Head,” with their tricky time signatures and, in the case of the former, freak-jazz horn charts, became the group’s go-to formula for better and for not better.

The chief moe.rons were young cats still finding their sound when they made Tin Cans and Car Tires and filled it with Allman-esque slide guitar and other homages. This youthful searching is evidenced by the gleeful too-fucking-high refrain in the otherwise-morbid “Plane Crash;” their nod to the Grateful Dead’s “The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion)” on Chuck Garvey’s angular “Hi & Lo;” and the unabashed nicking of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” on “It.”

There’s reggae in the form of “Happy Hour Hero” and twangy county in “Queen of the Rodeo.” And while the songwriting isn’t particularly original, it’s inspired and infused with the sound of hungry musicians looking for their bite at the mushroom.

In the years since Tin Cans, moe. became its own thing with its own sound and style. And while that is the point of every group - Dark Star Orchestra and that ilk excepted - Sound Bites enjoyed moe. most when it proudly wove its influences into its original music and wasn’t above playing an entire Furthur Festival-opening set dedicated to the Dead’s “That’s it for the Other One” suite.

Grade card: moe. - Tin Cans and Car Tires (1998) - B+

On moe.day, moe.street is a Pearl in Albany, N.Y.

- “We are humbled and deeply honored,” Al Schnier says

On this moe.day, moe. is playing the Palace Theatre on Albany’s moe.street.

The New York city declared Feb. 24 moe.day and temporarily renamed North Pearl Street, where the venue is located, for the band, NYS Music reports.

This is the city’s fifth moe.day and the holiday is “alive and well,” Mayor Kathy Sheehan said.

“We are overwhelmed with the love the city of Albany has given our band over the years,” guitarist Al Schnier said.

“From declaring Feb. 24 as ‘moe.day’ to this, the dedication of ‘moe.street’ … we are humbled and deeply honored.”

Album Review: moe. - Circle of Giants

For a band that typically has not excelled in the studio, moe. excelled big-time on Circle of Giants.

It’s album No. 14 for the veteran band and its first as a sextet with the arrival of Nate Wilson, who adds keyboards, flute, songwriting and a fourth lead voice to complement guitarists Chuck Garvey and Al Schnier; bassist Rob Derhak; drummer Vinnie Amico; and percussionist Jim Laughlin.

Wilson makes his presence known early as the LP opens with his sludgy rocker “Yellow Tigers;” he then adds flute to the Tullesque “Bat Country.” And that sets the tone for Circle of Giants, which features an evolving moe., a heavier and proggier moe., on its first LP since Garvey suffered a stroke and Derhak lost his son to suicide.

The moe. of 2025 is a more-serious, less-carefree band battered by life but still committed to making new music and improving its legacy of patchy studio efforts.

Though it is a tad long at nearly 70 minutes, Circle of Giants is not patchy and presents moe. not as a jamband - though some tracks run seven minutes - but as a rock ‘n’ roll outfit reaching a late-career peak and singing of taking what comes on “In Stride” and “Tomorrow is another Day;” accepting flaws on “Don’cha Know;” and feeling gratitude on “Beautiful Mess.”

Thirty-three years after Fatboy, it seems moe. is all grown up. It suits the band well.

Grade card: moe. - Circle of Giants - B+

Song Review: moe. - “Buster” (Live, Dec. 20, 2024)

Zappaesque, jazz-encrusted, jamband-fueled rock was moe.’s calling card in the early days, something the sextet returns to when rolling out such numbers as “Buster.”

Performing Dec. 20 under the holiday-inspired nom de musique mONKEYS oN eGGNOG in Vermont, moe. demonstrated that although decades melt away, lineups change and livestreams supersede bootleg cassette tapes, much remains the same.

In the case of this ’stream bait, moe., and “Buster” specifically, retains the adventurism of its youth, mixing tightly composed passages with freeform playing over jungle beats made more polyrhythmic by the percussion (Jim Laughlin) and keys (Nate Wilson) that were not around when the core quartet recorded the song lo those many years ago.

Unfortunately, moe. never learned to sing all that well and this “Buster” is, therefore, amateurish in spots.

Thankfully, the song was written, and remains, mostly as a vehicle for musical excursions and acrobatic execution.

Grade card: moe. - “Buster” (Live - 12/20/24) - B-

Song Review: moe. with Daniel Donato - “Mexico” (Live, Feb. 25, 2024)

The song proper isn’t much. And the sound quality is even less. But when guest guitarist Daniel Donato lights into a guitar solo inspired by his hosts Al Schnier and Chuck Garvey, “Mexico” picks up.

And when newest moe. man Nate Wilson digs into a Chuck Leavell-sounding piano solo and the band basically is playing “Jessica” instead of “Mexico,” the song picks up some more.

Recorded - poorly - Feb. 25 on board Jam Cruise 20 and just released, the video seems designed to promote moe. and Donato’s summer tour. It won’t get any newcomers on board. And folks who’ve been following the band for some time might also consider they’ve already experienced moe. at its best.

In any event, Donato and Wilson are “Mexico”’s MVPs.

Grade card: moe. with Daniel Donato - “Mexico” (Live - 2/25/24) - C

“Extenuating Family Circumstances” Force moe. out of Two Festivals

- “We appreciate everyone’s understanding and ongoing support,” band says

moe. dropped out of two upcoming festivals citing “extenuating family circumstances.”

The band canceled its May 24-26 appearances at Illinois’ Solshine Reverie and its June 14-15 slot at New Hampshire’s Northlands Music & Arts Festival.

“We appreciate everyone’s understanding and ongoing support at this time,” the band said without elaborating.

Said Solshine organizers: “Our hearts go out to all the members of the band and crew who have been a part of this special weekend we have collectively created over two decades.”

moe. is off the road until July 4 when it is scheduled to kick off a lengthy summer tour in New Jersey.