Friday at the Orpheum: a. moe. photo. gallery.
Our stellar photojournalist friend Nathan Ingraham craves the indie jam rock. So we sent him down to Boston’s Orpheum Theatre this past Friday, and he came back with these moe. better gems…
The venerable Boston Metro couldn’t make it two paragraphs without mentioning Phish in its preview of Friday’s moe. concert. So instead of fighting the urge to follow the paper’s questionable lead, I’ll get the comparison out of the way up front. As the Metro noted, moe. has not grown exponentially since the demise of the popular rock band Phish two and a half years ago. But I’d be willing to bet most fans at the Orpheum wouldn’t have it any other way.
The band as well seems content with its place in the musical hierarchy: moe. is big enough to throw large-scale events like the upcoming Snoe.down and yet intimate enough to still allow for band/fan interaction (such as the full band merchandise signing post-show) and 2005’s acoustic Coda shows in New York.
But let’s just talk about the music. Most in the crowd that night had a feeling they were in for a special show when the band opened with the raging jam-vehicle Recreational Chemistry. The song was just about to take off when who should wander onto the stage but bassist Rob Derhak’s son, Zach, wielding some sort of key-tar and screaming into a mic guitarist Al Schnier had provided. Sure it was adorable, but it also slammed the breaks on the jam, and the band sloppily segued into Blue Jeans Pizza. But things picked up there, and the song featured guitarist Chuck Garvey’s most ripping solo of the night. He didn’t get lots of other opportunities to really shine though — this evening was definitely an “Al” night.
Read on for 11 more amazing photos and the rest of Nate’s review…
