moe. roared out of the gate during their Jazz Fest run opener with deep cuts, loopy crowd banter, and, as always, massive jams at the Le Petit Theater in the heart of New Orleans. As per the band’s tradition for multi-night residencies, moe. booked one intimate venue date to go along with a pair of more traditionally sized halls to give diehard fans a special treat.
The Le Petit Theatre is nestled in the heart of the French Quarter, New Orleans most beloved tourist district. First constructed in 1789 the venue has seen everything from plays to political debates over the course of the last two plus centuries. Unfortunately, the location turned out to be more of a hindrance than anyone expected, as anyone who has ever attempted to park in the Quarter will attest.
moe. and their crew were well aware they would not be able to get their trucks full of gear to the venue, so they planned to use a staging area. Their idea was to use a second, smaller truck to ferry gear back and forth. Unfortunately, the never-ending cycle of street repair and construction played havoc with their best laid plans.
Thanks to the near heroic levels of determination and effort, the moe.’s road crew made it work by physically pushing the cases of gear through the broken, potholed roads of New Orleans. Their professionalism was noted by guitarist Al Schnier during his “Al.nouncement” segment and his earnest thanks did not go unnoticed by the dedicated fans in attendance. The cheers that went up for their efforts were boisterous and clearly appreciated by the crew.
Obviously moe. couldn’t let all that effort go to waste, especially with a crowd filled with fans who had to buy a three day pass to receive tickets to this special performance. Opening with the darkly swirling “Crab Eyes,” they careened through a six-song opening set that saw a musical sandwich and multiple jams that lasted in the 15-20 minute range. The second set featured a song bassist Rob Derhak claimed they had only played once, as well as “Don’t Wanna Be,” one of their newest tunes.
The big story of the second set was moe.’s closing, nearly forty-minute sandwich of “Rebubula” and “Four.” “Rebubula is arguably considered their most beloved song, while “Four” is hands down their most requested tunes. The first strains of “Rebubula” filtered in during the closing of “Rainshine” and astute fans welcomed the song with raucous cheers. When moe. slowed the proceedings to a near complete standstill before the familiar “Four” guitar intro by Chuck, Garvey kicked in. It was complete musical bliss.
The reaction was a thing of beauty, as was the wild way they closed out the “Rebubula” and took their well-deserved break before encoring with an incredible take on The Animals classic “House Of The Rising Sun.” While the cheers were long and heartfelt, they had faded by the time the beleaguered but triumphant road crew snapped back into gear and began their arduous task of packing it all back up and getting it to the far more accessible Civic Theatre for the next two nights.
Luckily our own Rex Thomson, the “mayor of moe.down” himself, was on hand to film the proceeding for posterity. Check out the second set-closing 40 minute jam below:
“Rebubula>Four>Rebubula”
Setlist: moe. | Le Petit Theatre | New Orleans, LA | 4/28/17
Set I: Crab Eyes > Threw It All Away > Crab Eyes, Queen Of Everything, Mar-DeMa > George > Time Ed
Set II: ATL, Annihilation Blues, Don’t Wanna Be, Rainshine > Rebubula > Four > Rebubula
Enc: Johnny Lineup, House Of The Rising Sun
The post moe. Delivers Monstrous 40-Minute “Rebubula>Four>Rebubula” Jam At Le Petit [Video] appeared first on L4LM.
