moe.

moe. without question brought “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away” to the brand new Fillmore in Philadelphia, PA this past weekend as one of the biggest Halloween shows they have ever hosted and they’ve done some big ones! The venue was “in costume” as well with props all over the stage, lasers, and also saw both almost real sized Tie and X-Wing fighters with lasers of their own hanging from the ceiling that were made by moe. SBD engineer Steve Young.

The band then came out on stage with al. as Obi-Wan, rob. as Han, chuck. as C-3PO, jim. as Luke from Episode VI, and vin. as Yoda. Then the real fun started as the “ragers of improvisational rock” came out in full rocking force! The crowd was treated to 3 varieties of songs that encapsulated the theme perfectly, with moe.’s take on John Williams’ directing the London Symphony Orchestra in his written masterpieces that are some of the most recognizable composed pieces of music in the world with the Star Wars Overture to start the night and later saw the Cantina Band song as well as The Imperial March to open the second set. The rest of the show was comprised of altered Star Wars themed lyrics and puns on moe. originals and new, never before played cover songs.

The guys reached deep and brought out the Byrd’s Mr. Spaceman, Frank Zappa’s Cosmik Debris, Daivd Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust, Weird Al Yankovic’s Yoda (which in itself is a take on The Kinks’ Lola) and Meco’s 1977 Disco Wars which was their take on a disco version of the Overture and included some Cantina Band sections in the middle. In true moe. fashion they took something and made it their own, even further with changing names and thusly lyrics of many of their own songs, to add to a stellar Silver Sun and instrumental Jazz Wank that were left intact.

From St. Augustin to Senator Palpatine, Shoot First to Han Shot First, followed by the rare yet always present treat in Pink Floyd’s Interstellar Overdrive, before closing the set with the altered Moth that was Hoth. They kept this going throughout the second set and encore with altered lyrics to Buster, Yodelittle, and Plane Crash that were re-worked as Luke Can Fly, Yoda.Little.Leia, and CGI Crash.

moe. said it best themselves, but anyone that was at this show will agree if you call moe.’s Halloween Star Wars rock fest was the force, “force is light, light is good, force is good”!