On Saturday, February 24th, moe. returned to the Palace Theatre in Albany, New York, for the second of two sold-out shows. Following Friday night’s fiery performance, which saw the band collaborate with Aqueous guitarist Mike Gantzer, moe.’s second performance was particularly triumphant for the hometown crowd—while moe. originally formed in Buffalo, the group moved to Albany early in their career.

To start off the jubilant evening, the Mayor of Albany, Kathy Sheehan, took the stage to recognize moe. for being such a landmark cultural element in the upstate New York town. Eventually, to the cheers of the packed house, she announced, “I, mayor Kathy Sheehan of the City of Albany, New York do hereby declare today, Saturday, February 24th, 2018, moe. Day!” The proclamation elicited joking from the band, with bassist Rob Derhak and guitarist Al Schnier riffing on the idea of holding an annual parade in their honor before reminiscing about the group’s early performances in the city.

Riding the high of the newly declared moe. Day, the band launched into the opening instrumental section of “Rebubula” before quickly moving into an extended take on “Buster”, with the newly returned Rob Derhak leading the charge on vocals. The start of the band’s Saturday performance saw the group focusing on transitions and offering up well-stretched jams throughout, with the fifteen-minute “Buster” eventually moving through “Haze”, marking the song’s first performance since last April, the older tune “Y.O.Y.”, and the band’s second-ever rendition of “Who You Callin’ Scared”. To close out set one, the band accelerated to a close with a three-song combo of “Akimbo”, “Rise”, and The Allman Brothers’ classic fan favorite “In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed”.

For set two, moe. returned with “Stranger Than Fiction”, which was only performed twice last year, both early on in February. After this quick warmup, the group again showed off their impressive improvisational abilities with a non-stop, jammed-out segment that accounted for the majority of the second frame. “Faker” was used to sandwich “CalifornIA”, the increasingly rare “Farmer Ben”, and “Don’t Fuck With Flo”. After the old-school take on “Don’t Fuck With Flo” returned to the sandwich’s opening number of “Faker”, the band took a quick pause before launching into the final two songs of the set—an extended “McBain” that preceded the incomplete first set opener, “Rebubula”, which they finished off in full. Appropriately, given the moe. Day proclamation and the weight of their return to Albany following their impromptu hiatus last summer, moe. ended the night in full with “Letter Home”.

Setlist: moe. | Palace Theatre | Albany, NY | 2/24/18

Set One: Moe Day – Mayoral Proclamation, Rebubula > Buster > Haze >  YOY > Who You Callin’ Scared, Akimbo > Rise >  In Memory of Elizabeth Reed

Set Two: Stranger Than Fiction, Faker > CalifornIA > Farmer Ben > Don’t Fuck With Flo > Faker, McBain > Rebubula

Encore: Letter Home

You can listen to full audience audio from the performance below. You can also check out a gallery of awesome photos from the second night of moe.’s Palace Theatre run below, courtesy of Paul Citone.

[Audio: marcus]