More than 5,000 people showed up to see moe. throw it down at moe.down 15, held at Snow Ridge Ski Resort in Turin, NY. Since 2000, moe. has been hosting this festival for fans, friends and family. This year, the three day festival was especially welcome to moe.rons, as moe. fans are known as, due to returning to the original Labor Day weekend date at Snow Ridge. Not having to go to work on Monday was a big factor for fans, as many did not want to miss the epic fireworks display after the band’s last song on Sunday.  

The music was not the only thing available for enjoyment. The rain held up for most of the weekend, keeping the grounds dry during the day. Snow Ridge operated one of their ski lifts, allowing fans to take in the stunning view as it slowly headed to the top. The entire festival area could be seen with blue skies overhead as many ventured up the lift and filled the mountainside on the way down. Children also had their own kids tent with various activities, as well as a kids parade, which ended on the stage during moe.s  “Billy Goat”. 

moe.down has headlined many big acts over the years, including Umphrey’s McGee, Tea Leaf Green, Bela Fleck, Donna the Buffalo, and Mike Gordon. A solid mix of funk, upstate New York sounds, bluegrass and jam brings people from all over the area as they enjoy the last long weekend of the summer. The location is simply beautiful and the setup makes it easy to move around from the parking lot to the camping area to the venue.  

Twiddle made their debut appearance at the festival this year, knocking out three performances over the weekend. This Vermont based quartet has been growing in leaps and bounds on the jam band scene and were well received by festival goers. Their energy caused a stir throughout the grounds, as fans quickly made their way to the stage once the first notes dropped. 

Wild Adriatic, a group from Saratoga Springs, NY, also made their first appearance at moe.down with two performances on Saturday. Their rock and soul vibe pleasantly surprised new listeners of their music, and created quite a stir of rumbles as to who they are, with a hope to see more of them on the scene in the coming months. American Babies, from Philadelphia, rocked out two banging sets on Saturday afternoon under a beautiful sky of blue. This band has been hitting up a huge part of the festival scene this year, and continued to thrill fans at moe.down.

Aqueous was another anticipated name, ripping out two performances on Sunday to the delight of many fans. The Werks, known for their policy of allowing fans to tape, trade and distribute their live shows, made it onto the stage twice on Friday. Other acts included performances by Floodwood, Everyone Orchestra, and Jerry Douglas Band.

Powerhouse performance sets jam-packed with high energy this weekend included Conehead Buddha, Lotus, Les Claypool’s Due De Twang, Soulive and O.A.R. Fans filled the mountain to catch these off the hook acts as camp sites were visibly thinned out during these heavy sets. The most surprising act of the festival was from Gogol Bordello, an intensely high energy band whose music was a combination of bordello, punk and theatrics all rolled into one.  

One of the best surprises of this year’s festival included The Conehead Buddha horns joining moe. on stage Saturday for most of the night. That kicked the energy of the audience into ridiculous high gear and fans went sick dancing on the slope in front of the stage. moe. also held up their part of the bargain by playing the voters choice song once their Facebook page hit 100k likes. Fans had a chance to vote for which song they should play and they did not disappoint. They included a rare appearance of “Canned Pastries”, an instrumental that has only been played five times and has not appeared on a set list since August of 1994.

Overall, moe. played six times at the festival, and with each set, the energy of the band and the audience grew with intensity as the days went on. Sunday’s last set started around 10 PM and continued until 2:30 in the morning. moe. was clearly having a blast ripping out long jams for their fans. They sounded tight and were obviously having the time of their lives. They wrapped up the last night with a fireworks display, after the encore, as moe. stood on stage with friends and family.  A warm, and well overdue, congratulations also goes out to Rex Thomson for finally winning the Mayor of moe.ville.

 

moe.s set list for all three days:

Friday – August 29:
Set One: meat > Dr. Graffenberg > Low, Same Old Story, Chromatic Nightmare, Don’t Fuck With Flo > Timmy Tucker, White Lightning Turpentine, Faker > meat
Encore: Spine Of A Dog > Seat Of My Pants

Saturday – August 30:
Daytime Set: Mar-DeMa > Captain America, Okayalright > Crab Eyes, This I Know, Billy Goat, Skrunk > Blue Jeans Pizza > Waiting For The Punchline Reprise# > Waiting For The Punchline, Downward Facing Dog

Set One: Yodelittle, Bullet, Nebraska*, Spaz Medicine*, Happy Hour Hero* > Mexico* > Akimbo*, 10th Avenue Freeze-out*
Set Two: Silver Sun, Threw It All Away*, Not Coming Down* > Brittle End* The Wizard* Spanish Moon* > Blond Hair And Blue Eyes*, Late In The Evening*, Plane Crash*
Encore: Jazz Wank > Havah Negilah > Long Island Girls Rule
* – with Conehead Buddha Horns

Sunday – August 31:
Set One: Paper Dragon, Annihilation Blues, Do Or Die, Water > Hector’s Pillow > Four > 32 Things, Canned Pastries (last appearance was 8/25/94)
Set Two: Big World > Ricky Marten > Time Ed > Moth, Puebla > Kyle’s Song
Encore: Rebubula

– Written by Sarah Bourque