That's "theatre" with an "re", you fucking animal. This Westbury shit's classy. And nothing screams "class" like a rotating stage, I tell you whut.
I drove into the parking lot at Westbury TheatRE and headed over to the shaded area because the sun frightens me. As I opened the car door (before turning off the ignition), I heard, "sssssssssssssss......". To which my immediate reaction was to shut my door, lock my door, and go park in the sunny opposite end of the lot (where within 5 minutes I was offered "chawww-clates."). Ahh, Long Island. Here we go.
A large security guy named Brutus in a screen-printed polo got agitated when I tried to bring in cookies to give the band. Of course by "give" I mean "throw at al while he's playing". What's the problem?
Let's ignore the "rotating stage" for now. The show started out strong with Second Cousins -> Happy Hour Hero, which I know Brandon Devito really really wanted to hear at the Waterhole, so I tried to enjoy it for him. Bearsong, always a highlight, but as Chris 4dice recently pointed out, I could do without all the "woos" during the song verses.
SET II. Awesome set. Nonstop. Water -> Shoot First -> a freakin' stellar Punchline (cathartic-- I needed that!). Brittle End, Sensory Deprivation -> SOMP. HOT DAMN. And then a Timmy & Farmer Ben encore--- what??? Left-Right-Left, BODY BLOW.
The killer setlist almost made up for that annoying rotating stage. What bothered me the most was that except for a portion of 1, I had to watch chuck's back during every single fucking one of his solos-- because that motherfucking stage never stops spinning and always seemed to be opposite where it should have been for my optimum enjoyment during important points in each song. Billy Joel Medley inside of Farmer Ben (yes!!!)? The view for 1/2 of it was the band's asses. I almost forgot which blog I was taking pictures for. And there were freakishly tall, stinky LI Frat Wooks, singing loudly, off-key in at least 3 of the sections we tried to get comfy in.
I just cannot get behind (no pun intended) this venue's novelty appeal. Giving any old band access to a rotating stage is just plain irresponsible. I've seen the Masters do it and I'm talking about Def Leppard. They invented "in-the-round" (after the Romans). So, I can say from experience that moe. definitely pulled it off. But imagine how much shittier a band like Nickelback (it's hard to imagine them any shittier, isn't it?) would be when you just add a simple element like a rotating stage. Carnage. Melted souls. Elephantiasis. Fucking terrible.
This was another show where the band's performance made up for the bummer of a venue. I would still go back to see them there-- cuz it's moe., but I might wear rollerskates to chase chuck's solos around the room. DANGER DANGER! moe. kickass!
moe., 7/3/10, theatRE at westbury, westbury, ny: 8 HUZZAHS!
SET I
Second Cousins ->
Happy Hour Hero
Bearsong
One Life
New York City ->
Plane Crash
SET II
Water ->
Shoot First ->
Waiting For The Punchline
Brittle End
Sensory Deprivation Bank ->
Seat Of My Pants
ENCORE
Timmy Tucker
Farmer Ben *
* = w/ Billy Joel Medley: Captain Jack, My Life, and Piano Man
DOWNLOAD THE SHOW! Scott Berstein taped-- thanks, Scott!
http://www.archive.org/details/moe2010-07-03
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