Off to Moe.Down this Weekend

FINAL LINEUP ANNOUNCED FOR MOE.DOWN 6:

moe.
Keller Williams
Medeski, Martin and Wood
The Violent Femmes
North Mississippi Allstars
Matisyahu
RAQ
Addison Groove Project
The Breakfast
Theresa Andersson Group
Big Frog
Tea Leaf Green
The Redwalls
Hackensaw Boys
Before Cowboys
Dread Clampitt
Joemama and the Funkdaddys

Wow, what a lineup!

Looking forward to seeing Matisyahu, the Hasidic rapper / raggae artist. This guy wails from deep down in his soul. Do yourself a favor- give "Live at Stubbs" a listen, or even purchase it blindly. I've never seen him live, so this will be my first time.

Keller Williams is an amazing performer- a one man show. Listening to one of his studio / live albums doesn't even compare to seeing how he arranges music live. Keller uses the Boomerang pedal to record, loop, and overlay bits of music. His right hand strumming technique is a blend of Michael Hedges meets Ani DiFranco, and vocally he reminds me of Jack Black. Seeing him live is always a treat.

MMW is groove oriented jazz that borders on the advant garde / noise art at times. No doubt that all three are very talented musicians that are able to push the boundaries of music. As much as I like MMW, I love it when John Scoffield or DJ Logic joins the set. In all the times I've seen MMW, they have never failed to please.

My first memory of Addison Groove Project was as small band that first gained notoriety playing parking lot shows at the large summer Phish festivals. It speaks to their tenacity that they were invited to play moe.down.

A few months ago there was a huge "You gotta listen to. . ." discussion on the Guitar Player forum where people were raving about the Redwalls. No doubt that they took their name from the Brian Jacques book of the same name. Since then, their name has popped up now and again, though I never managed to actually hear their music. I can't wait to actually hear The Redwalls for the first time.

Violent Femmes- that says it all. I'll be interested to see how they present their teenage-angst driven music now that they are well into their middle years. Should be another high energy performance.

I have seen moe. under the oddest of circumstances: when they played the Wetlands as Monkeys On Ecstacy, at a Rutgers frat party on a horse farm outside of New Brunswick, the time I sold my ID for beer and tix to Irving Plaza, at a rained out show in Long Island with Les Claypool and his Flying Frog Brigade, with Trey Anastasio for a tsunami benefit show, among some other wacky concert experiences. Moe. has never disapointed, but never managed to inspire. They have played very consistently well over the years. Maybe they will be set on fire by the atmosphere of the weekend, and make musical magic happen up on that stage.