moe.'s friday set, tortoise, built to spill & the brew from moe.down

It's been a while, but I'm still churning out all the recordings from Labor Day weekend. The master list is updated with all the links and is available HERE. Below a a few of the newest additions.

What better night to catch moe. than Friday night of moe.down? Nothing compares to the anticipation of how things will play out over the six sets of the weekend. The first one is usually a good indication. moe. continued the theme of the summer with some great concentrated jams and explorations of new material. The encore had a great segue with rob leading the charge. As a matter of fact all the segues hold up well on tape. Top notch moe.



Earlier on in the day, Tortoise opened the main stage with a solid set. These guys were one act I was most eager to catch since I haven't seen them since Bonnaroo 2003. The set didn't disappoint, but was on the sort side. The band retired with thirty minutes left in their allotted slot. I thought the last half of the show was great, especially Dot Eyes and Salt the Skies.



Built to Spill was another act I was pumped to see. I've listened to these guys for quite some time and always thought they'd be pretty good live. We got everything from Nowhere Nothing Fuckup off Ultimate Alternative Wavers to Carry the Zero from Keep It Like A Secret through Conventional Wisdom on You In Reverse. Surprisingly nothing was played from their newest album. The Shure windscreens were no match for the wind and it's noticeable on this recording.



The latest recording I uploaded is The Brew's two sets right before moe.'s performance Sunday and during setbreak. Their sets rocked pretty hard and won the award for best covers of the weekend. They nailed No Quarter and absolutely destroyed Jukebox Hero. I don't think it's possible to perform Foreigner's classic rock anthem any better. It was a great couple sets to close the Buzz Stage in style.

Photos by Rob Clarke and Mike Salvo (last 2 shots of BTS and Brew)

lotus - saturday on the main stage

Lotus always throws down at festivals. They have a knack for getting people to move and at moe.down they had an eager audience awaiting moe.'s first set. As it got dark and the temperature dropped everyone was looking to stay warm. Why not dance your ass off?

Unfortunately I missed some of the set because I needed to bundle up for the cold night ahead. Lotus is one of the few bands not only to play moe.down twice, but also graduate to the main stage. They won over a lot of fans that night at the beer tent in 2007. This set was a healthy mix of old and new with straight forward playing without too many segues. I thought they had some of the best lights and sound of the weekend.

Download Lotus from the main stage at the Live Music Archive






Photos by Rob Clarke

Turbine & Orgone - Saturday at the Buzz Stage

Two bands not as well known to the fan base of moe.down set up camp Saturday on the Buzz Stage. It was apparent after both Turbine and Orgone's performances totaling five sets that they came with something to prove. Turbine's second set saw some of the worst of the weather of the weekend, but it didn't stop them from ripping through a great set including diversity from song to song. I personally liked Blackout Song and War of 9161. I'll make the effort to see them next time they come through Philly.

Orgone was the true wildcard of the weekend. Who was this west coast band bestowed with three sets on the side stage? At one point during the second set they mentioned how this was the largest crowd they ever played to. How'd they do? You could tell from the reactions of everyone who stuck around that these guys (and gal) would be the most talked about band after moe.down. What a fun band! I feel the Orgone recording is one of my best of the weekend. Thanks to permission from the band and management I've been allowed to post the recording to etree. The setlist is incomplete so any help is greatly appreciated. Enjoy the funk and crank this shit up! I highly recommend listening from start to finish.

Download Turbine's Buzz Stage performance from the Live Music Archive

Download Orgone's Buzz Stage performance from etree.org or the mp3s from mediafire

Some pics for Orgone compliments of Rob Clarke:

For links to all moe.down XI recordings CLICK HERE

moe.down XI - sunday - main stage

As you can probably tell by the first recordings I've released, the highly anticipated Sunday lineup on the main stage lived up to the hype. The rain subsided overnight and the only inclimate weather we faced was gale winds during Grace Potter's set to start the day. After that it was smooth sailing. With the lineup Sunday boasted there was no reason to leave the stage area all day.

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals were a late addition replacing Jakob Dylan. The set included a lot of her more recent and in my opinion more poppy tunes. It was a very well played set but my standouts were some of the older songs like Joey and 2:22. Grace was definitely the loudest all weekend as Rob Clarke pointed out. Here are some of Rob's photographs:



Next up on the main stage was Mike Gordon and his band. It hasn't been too long since Mike was on the road with Phish and decided to do a one-off show in between tours. He won't perform solo again until November so this was a treat. We even got the debut of a new song off the album Moss to be released in October. It was called Idea and was a what I consider a great Mike Gordon Band tune. Not too many bass bombs, but it's still a very signature little tune for Cactus. Here's some more of Rob's shots:

The biggest act of the weekend, and arguably ever at moe.down, followed when The Black Keys took the stage.This was one of the more energetic sets I've seen from Pat and Dan despite the setlist rarely changing. The staples like thickfreakness, 10AM Automatic and I Got Mine all had a little more feeling in my opinion. Great set:



The festival closed Sunday night with two of moe.'s best sets of the weekend. The first had some incredible jamming right off the bat with the segue from Buster into Haze. Like the rest of the weekend, new songs debuted this year were the focal point. The entire first set is on point and some of the best moe. I've seen this year.

After a mayoral vote for the ages with Rage Lincoln winning for his Headysburg Address, moe. ended the weekend in style with a set book ended by Moth. Both Four and the obligatory Rebubula were thrown in for good measures. We got a little more than 20% effort as suggested by Rob. The Superman vs. Hulk debate between The Pit and Farmer Ben on the other hand... This weekend left me wanting moe.re as usual. Luckily the Beacon/Tower run is right around the corner. Hopefully I can find some shots of the new mayor, but until then here's some of moe. from Sunday:

CLICK HERE for links to download all these performances

moe.down XI

moe. celebrated their 20th anniversary this year. With the milestone came a change of venue for the band's annual end of the summer bash. Originally I thought, why fix what isn't broke? In the end this move really became a welcomed, fresh start to a career spanning two decades. Gelston Castle Estates was perfectly conducive to host moe.down in just about every way imaginable. Sure the trek to your campsite took about three hours and multiple trips carrying everything you'll need for the weekend (A wagon was essential this year).... and sure... we faced drastic weather changes almost every day. Besides these two minor formalities the new home was a dream.

For the third year straight I decided to capture every note played the entire weekend. This meant keeping two recorders running simultaneously at both stages from noon till 2 am. Luckily the distance between stages was reduced this year, which made for a little less running around. This post will be your one stop shop for every set played at moe.down. I'll keep the list below updated with links for everything as they're available, so check back often. A special thanks has to go to Jon Merin for generously donating some of his gear for the effort.

Friday September 3th 2010
Buzz Stage
Macpodz (3 sets)

Main Stage
Tortoise : [etree torrent] [mediafire mp3]
Nas and Damian Marley
moe. (1 set): [live music archive]


Saturday September 4th 2010
Buzz Stage
Turbine (2 Sets): [live music archive]
Monkey Wrench
Orgone (3 sets): [etree torrent] [mediafire mp3]

Main Stage
Punch Brothers
Built to Spill: [etree torrent] [mediafire mp3]
Lotus: [live music archive]
moe. (2 Sets)


Sunday September 5th 2010
Buzz Stage
Ryan Montbleau Band (2 Sets)
Sister Sparrow & the Dirty Birds
The Brew: [live music archive]

Main Stage
Grace Potter & the Nocturnals: [live music archive]
Mike Gordon Band: [etree torrent] [mp3 sendspace]
The Black Keys: [etree torrent] [mp3 sendspace]
moe. (2 sets): [live music archive]


**For any help with how to download please check out this post***