moe. at the Riviera, Feb. 28

This Saturday I went to see moe., an old favorite of mine, and for the most part, they reminded me of why I enjoy the band. They're a talented group of musicians that write pretty darn good songs. They have three songwriters that change things up enough to keep the music from becoming stale, and they have a nice mix of seriousness and fun. Sure, they occasionally drift into long, pointless jams, but sometimes the jams build into something great. And when they get it right, it can make for a great time at a concert.

Saturday's show, however, was lacking in terms of its setlist. With only a couple shows scheduled for this winter (I think Friday night and Saturday night in Chicago were possibly the only shows of the winter tour), I was expecting them to go all-out. But moe. played a lot of, which I would consider, second- or third- tier songs. I kept waiting for them to break out some huge rockers to get the sold-out crowd going, but they only did so once or twice. (I should say, though, I probably missed the first one or two songs because I had to wait in a line to get in.)

The second set opener, "Recreational Chemistry," was a monster, and probably the highlight of the show. Other than that, for the most part, they played songs that I would much rather listen to on CD. From their album Wormwood, which is packed with songs that kick ass live, moe. only played "Shoot First," one of the weaker tunes, in my opinion. They did close with "Rebubula," a really good song, but one I've heard basically every time I've seen moe. So I'm kind of over that one.

Despite the sub-par setlist, I had a really good time. And that's probably the most important part about going to a concert, right?

As a side note, I sat in the balcony for the first time at the Riv. This provided a really great view and was much bigger than I expected. I think I'll head up there for all future shows at this venue.