I went to see the band moe this weekend. Les Claypool's Flying Frog's Brigade opened up for them. I was there more
to see Les than moe (as I am a huge Primus fan). The nice part of the show was that Les and crew ended up playing
for over an hour and a half, so I got my money's worth before moe even came on. The bad part is I am still unsure
of how I feel about the Frog's Brigade. I definitely like Les and having him come out with moe for a bit proved
to me that he can handle the "jam band" situation well. I just am iffy on the rest of his band. Actually, its more
just the sax player I am iffy on. I think the percussionist and drummer (HERB!!!) were excellent, the guitar
player didn't thrill me, but at the same time, he didn't seem to be there too, but the sax player, man, I just can't
seem to be very happy about. I basically don't like all the distortion and effects he puts on his sax. Why can't
he just play sax and enjoy it instead of making all this wierd noise with it? I also think some of the stuff that
they put out is not in the normal "jam band" genre and that takes away from it somewhat for me.
Having never seen moe before, I went in with no opinions whatsoever of them. I came out with a very good
opinion of them. Someone had said to me they felt like the bass player was trying to do too much, but I
thought it worked well in the context of the music. When Les came out for the last song of the first set,
I really felt the double bass solo really shined. I definitely dug their music and will go to see them again in
the near future if possible. Another nice thing was that they teased The Who alot of the night including doing
a verse of Pinball Wizard near the end of the set.
The best part of the night was that it was GORGEOUS out. My buddy and I were up near the front for Les,
as it was general admission (with seats) and then just hung out at the tables in the back during the moe sets.
Definitely an enjoyable night, but I am still iffy on how I feel about the Flying Frog's Brigade.
