moe., 6/16/08, highline ballroom, ny, ny

by the time i got out of my car the skies had turned black over manhattan and nature's wrath was about to have it's way with garbage littered all over the city. i just needed shelter. fortunately i parked right near the park nyc, so i walked right in, ordered a moe.jito (AHHAHAHA get it? groan.)- but seriously, it was fucking good, and called babitz (aka d.mighty, d.mouthy, darth mighty) to tell him walking 2 avenues over given the current situation was a pipe dream. he ran into hern and lisa on the sidewalk and they sought shelter at diner (which they said sucked).

i also got a margherita brick oven pizza and chilled at the bar until erika and jake made it over. once the monsoon passed, i was kept entertained by a firetruck that parked right in front of the restaurant. what is it about those overalls? so, erika and jake showed up and got some beer, shortly afterwards we were joined by dan and the hernsottos- lisa was happy to imbibe in a girly drink- she got a 'sexy bitch', which is peach stoli, pineapple juice, mango puree, and grenadine. damn. that does sound good. i might have to try one of those. we migrated over to the corner which had some built-in bookcases full of really old national geographics to page through. we convinced erika to go to moe.down and then headed out the door nicely riled up.



once again, i LOVE the highline ballroom. it's possibly the best music venue in the city nowadays. the staff are chill, the sound is great, the bathrooms are rockin', and you can see the stage from pretty much anywhere in the room. ran into salvo on the way in- totally didn't recognize him, he's like half the size he was last year! crazy! good jorb, guy!

we settled in a few people back on al.side- last year it was a nice location, so we stuck with it. they opened up with 'water' which i'm guessing was either dedicated to governor's island or the aforementioned stormfront. right into 'bearsong' which i'm not used to hearing so early in a set, but i was good and drunk early thanks to the moe.jitos (this might be a new tradition) so oddly enough, it fit. queen of everything. i LOVE this song. i've said it before but this is moe.'s 'whipping post'. it's a southern rock masterpiece and rob belts the shit out of it. AWESOME. 'jazzwank'? no fucking way!!! yes way! wtf??? babitz (sporting his '96 "looking for answers?" rock the vote tour shirt) was especially pleased with this. dan loved it so much he wanted to poop in al's f-hole! -> 'runaway overlude' -> 'mexico' (nice touch). last year's highline 'mexico' was a refreshing good time, and the same can be said for this year's. setbreak and d. mouthy said he had to leave, i guess he had answers to look for or something, but i really think it was because al wouldn't let him poop in his f-hole. maybe he thought he could find a better f-hole to poop in, but i'm telling you right now- dan, if you're reading this: you'll never find another f-hole like al's. you better get used to pooping in a toilet.



when the band took the stage for the 2nd set they brought up a few cakes that someone had made for them at a bakery in the chelsea market around the corner. one of the cakes had the 'sticks and stones' album cover and i didn't get a look at the other one, but for some reason i think it had the DEVIL TOAD on it. lick the toad, devil toad! the venue sliced and passed around the cake to all of us and it was REALLY FUCKING GOOD. vanilla/lemony with- was that some toasted coconut i tasted? yummy yummy moe. cake! i gotta find out the name of the bakery and go stuff myself silly. you think i'm joking. at some point we were joined by matt, who had given up his spot in the first row because he didn't like being compressed against the stage anymore. people are ANIMALS.



'nebraska' started and some drunk asshole behind us was singing the words louder than the band, which would have been problematic (for him) if he didn't eventually stop. -> 'blue jeans pizza'. i kind of enjoyed it this time around. i like the jam, i think the song takes some interesting turns, but i am unsure if i like the good parts enough to make up for the meh parts i'm still not in love with yet. or maybe i do like it but i don't cream myself when i hear it the way most of the people i see react when it starts. whatever. 'crab eyes', great. i totally dig 'the pit' (i didn't even do that on purpose). that song is just layer upon layer of constantly building evil. great jam. 'big world'- i love this song- on the album. the live versions have never quite met my expectations, some have bordered on sloppy even for such a precisely toned song. this one was really good in the realm of 'big world's. then, 'moth'- a song i had heard teased a number of times at governor's island. it was good fun and al handed the mic over to an audience member to turn it into an interactive version. end of second set.



the band got back onstage and al approached the microphone with a handful of papers. i screamed and begged, "NOOOOOOOOOO!!!! NO MORE!!!! DON'T DO IT AL!!!!! NOOO MOOOOORE!!! NOOOOO MOOOOORE!!!!!" the band laughed, rob told me to settle down, but then he joined me in begging al, "NOOO MOOORE! NOO MOOOORE!" but al did it anyways- he read the horribly annoying announcements... he's such a nice guy. and someone joked that everyone should pick up one piece of garbage on their way out. HA! fuck these things!!!

encore... 'THREW IT ALL AWAY'. holy fuck. i haven't heard this song in forever! it just snuck right up and startled the crap out of me! what a choice! GOOD SHOW!!! i had almost forgotten what a rocker jimmy page was!!! when the encore ended all i could say was "wow... threw it all away!!!! WOW!" but matt was the only one left in the running crew to say it to! everyone else took off- they were all, "ohh wahhh, it's a monday night... i have job." well, i don't, but even if i DID- i STILL would have stayed 'til the end. that's just how i roll.

moe., 6/16/08, highline ballroom, nyc, ny: 9 HUZZAHS! i was surprised i didn't hear 'timmy tucker' or 'rec chem' or 'rebubula' between the two nights, but i don't mind- it seems like they always play those in nyc so it's nice to see/hear them mix it up a bit.

i think i should have shifted some settings around more on my camera, but practice makes perfect... gotta get it right by moe.down. in the meantime- slideshow:


and here's the gallery if you'd like to view at full size or DL the hi-res pics:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lynnguppy/Moe61608HighlineBallroomNycNy

Set I:
Water> Bearsong, Queen Of Everything, Jazzwank > Runaway Overlude > Mexico

Set II:
Nebraska > Blue Jeans Pizza > Nebraska, Crab Eyes, The Pit > Big World > Moth

Encore: Threw It All Away

here's a link to the archive search results for the show. there should be a few more copies up soon:
http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=moe%20highline%202008