3/18/15 moe. @ Barrymore Theatre - Madison, WI

On Wednesday I worked until 3:30 and then hit the road for Wisconsin.  The drive up was uneventful.  Lately on road trips I tend to surf the dial looking for songs on the radio rather than listen to jambands or albums.  For whatever reason I like how this tends to bring out songs that I might not ordinarily listen to.  I always am impressed when you are driving on John Nolen just past the Coliseum and you see the capital building and the lake.  It brings back a lot of memories of UW soccer camps.  Madison has always been a special place for me and the Barrymore is my favorite venue in town.  moe.'s return to this venue after several outings at the Orpheum perhaps built up expectations for me.  I saw some familiar faces.  Angelo and Sconnie were in the house.


I parked in the neighbhorhood surrounding  the venue and stopped into see some old friends, Sam and Jesse who live behind the Barrymore.  We had just walked in when they started up Caliphornya.  BIBH is a song I always enjoy seeing.  White Lightning Turpentine was next.  Silver Sun is a tune that I like but it tends to start to drag on a bit.  Yod > CIA > Laz was solid work.  For a first set I felt this wasn't a bad effort.  They played Caliphornya and CalifornIA.  Clever. 


Time Again is a little too much hoedown for me.  That along with STF are better suited for the first set. However, I did appreciate the Las Vegas, NV reference.  That's where I had most recently seen moe. over Halloween last year.  This wasn't a bad segue into The Pit but Chuck jumped the gun a little bit.  None of these songs are ones I went in hoping to hear in the second set.  I guess that's on me.  As corny as Wicked Awesome is I really do enjoy it.  As I mentioned earlier listening to the radio and the songs the DJ plays is a part of my road trips.  I'd heard the song FM on the way.  No static at all.  Thank you for Steely Dan is my favorite lyric in the song.  On this journey I heard Big Balls.  With Phish announcing Magnaball earlier in the day that was fitting.  Thank you for AC/DC.  I wasn't wild about the placement of Four in this show.  They hadn't really made "it" happen yet and they were slowing things down.  Cpt USA > Rec Chem was a decent segue in comparison though not in the same league as that same pairing at the Riv a few years ago.  I was ready to hit the road so a brief All Roads and Blister in the Sun encore was fine with me.  Later I learned The Violent Femmes are from Madison.  This was my 77th time seeing moe. and I had not heard that cover since my very first show.  On the way home I made a run for the border at Taco Bell in Beloit.  Overall, I had fun.  I always dig Madison and the Barrymore but this show was rather forgettable.