After nearly a decade since forming in Utica, New York, jam band stalwarts .moe finally returned to the their home theater, The Stanley on Halloween in 1998 to throw a monster of a party in front of their hometown crowd, while collecting food for the local food shelf, a partnering with a local radio station for a costume contest. The disguised Upstate New Yorkers hit the ground running, dropping a show opening the night with Blue Oyster Cult’s “Don’t Fear The Reaper,” before roaring through a set of originals, capped off with a fiery and funky “32 Things.” 

The homecoming party is brought to another level during the second set, when the evening’s hosts bring up fellow Utica native, ‘Smokin’ Joe’ Bonamassa to add searing guitar to a nearly 12-minute “Sensory Deprivation Bank.” While Bonamassa’s playing (and look) doesn’t quite resemble the more polished and blues driven stylings that 2020 listeners are used to hearing, the then up-and-coming guitar hero stands tall and fits in effortlessly with his hometown brethren.

Setlist:
Set 1
[Total Time 1:03:08]
01 Don’t Fear the Reaper [Blue Oyster Cult]
02 Akimbo
03 [banter – hell night]
04 Jazz Wank
05 Spaz Medicine
06 Buster
07 [banter – Utica]
08 Blue Eyed Son
09 [banter – canned food]
10 32 Things

Set 2
[Total Time 2:00:07]
11 Bring It Back Home
12 [banter – Joe intro]
13 Sensory Deprivation Bank*
14 Timmy Tucker
15 Brent Black
16 Moth
17 [encore break]
18 Plane Crash
19 Freebird [Lynyrd Skynyrd]

*with Joe Bonamassa on guitar

Listen to Bonamassa throw down on the .moe original through the tape of Eric Vandercar on Archive.org.

The Jam Buzz guest author for this week is Ross Mickel. Ross, aka ‘The Bootlegger’ is the producer and host of Bootleggers Beware, a weekly live music radio show airing from 10AM-1PM EST on The Radiator, 105.9FM in Burlington, VT, and a live music enthusiast, curating a collection of over 2500 recordings. Check out his website and on Facebook.