A Jamband With a Love for Good Hooks and the Studio

In the six months that Chuck Garvey has been married to his wife, they have only seen each other for about one of them. As a guitarist for the band moe., Chuck spends an average of six months on the road each year, playing marathon shows that last long hours into the early morning. And that's just the start of it. Garvey estimates that he spends up to 300 days a year recording, planning out special band-centric festivals, and constantly looking for new ways to get the word out about their live performance-focused improvisational "jam" sound. So much for a honeymoon.

"At first, it was kind of like missionary work to drive out to Colorado and see if people liked our work out there," Garvey says. "We said 'ok, if we can find ten other cities where fifty people will come watch us play, then we can keep doing this. Pretty soon, it just became an ongoing thing."

From their origins as a struggling bar band in Buffalo, NY to playing for 90,000 fans at the 2004 Bonnaroo music festival, moe., (consisting of Garvey, Al Schnier on guitar, vocals and keyboard, Rob Derhak on bass and vocals, Vinnie Amico on drums and Jim Loughlin on percussion), have used their touring prominence to become one of the premiere acts in the much-misunderstood jamband scene.

At the start, it was just about finding a way to draw together their common musical interests in a wide variety of styles, from John Coltrane's funked-out jazz to the Allman Brothers' bluesy southern rock to the stadium ballads of Rush.

"Bands like Pavement have been really influential on an lot of the current pop bands and it seems really odd to me that you take only a few influences and stop right there," Garvey says. "We just didn't want to do that, but I think that along the way we've come up with our own pretty cool mix of stuff to draw from."

At different stages of their career, the band members have struggled to come to terms with the jamband label, refusing to believe that their more hard-rocking grooves could be lumped together with very different sounding hip hop, bluegrass and experimental artists. But the one thing that ties many jambands together is a devoted following that thrives on sharing the excitement that arises when everyone inside a venue realizes that they are experiencing something that has never been played before. With all of their experience, moe. have become masters at creating this unique vibe.

"We haven't discussed it, it's just a spontaneous invention where it just seems like we all have ESP at the same time," Garvey says. "Just that energy going back and forth and making something new. That's something that we're all really in it for-those really cool, indescribable moments. I don't know if that's about communication or community in general, but when you say 'I was there and I think it was pretty damn special,' that's something that you live for and always look forward to."

Unlike many jambands, one thing that moe. has been able to excel at is creating strong pop hooks that can carry three-and-a-half-minute studio track. The musicians' improvisational talents enable them to link these catchy bits seamlessly into long-running jams live, but finding the middleground between powerhouse live performances and polished studio editing has been a struggle since the heyday of the Grateful Dead.

"With us it's always like we kind of have to make things fit with our personality," Garvey says. "One of the things with us was-some call it the jamband curse-that you can't go into the studio and make an album that expresses your live performances ... it just sucks some of the life out of it."

To get around this roadblock, moe. recorded it's last studio album, Wormwood (released in 2003), through an unprecedented mixture of live tracks and studio sessions. With Derhak as their mastermind (complete with extensive flowchart and grandiose marketing ideas), the band created a whole new feel in a studio record by first taking rhythm tracks from shows on their Summer 2002 tour and using the core transitions as the groundwork for later in-studio instrumental, solo and vocal additions. For their next release, which is expected sometime early next spring, the band plans to do the same, but has expanded its road recording capabilities to include computer technology, so that now they can create their own studio in practically any venue.

For the time being, moe. have taken a break from touring (and by a break, I mean about two months ... with scattered shows thrown in every once in a while), but will come to New York for their annual Thanksgiving stint at Roseland Ballroom on Nov. 25 and 26. Dating back from their early days in the 1990s touring around the Empire State, moe. have been embraced by New York City more than probably any other jam-oriented group. Though the days of the Wetlands Preserve (once a celebrated safehaven for smaller jam acts such as Robert Randolph and the Family Band, the Zen Tricksters, and so many more) are long gone, moe. have moved up through the ranks of Big Apple venues, landing now at one of the best places to twirl around in with its general seating and large converted-ballroom atmosphere. As with many of their annual shows (including their Labor Day festival, moe.down, winter jam cruise, and upcoming ski retreat, snow.down), the group usually plans something special for the fans. Past spectacles have included a complete set-long cover of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, with The Wizard of Oz playing on a giant screen behind them, dressing up as characters from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to play songs from the movie, and blaring hard rock takes on classic heavy metal acts like Metallica.

"We all lived [in New York City] for a while and it's very much a home base for us," Garvey says. "It's kind of corny but it is like going home for the holidays. Us playing that weekend and the holiday of Thanksgiving are just like the same for me right now. ... We try to do things a little different because New York has done a lot for us as far as the fans who have come to see us there."