Photo by Chris Paul
Moe. is celebrating its 35th anniversary in 2025 and began its summer tour in May performing at Dark Star Jubilee in Thornville, OH. Moe. will return to the east in June for a run of festivals including Northlands Music & Arts Festival in Swanzey, NH, All Good Now in Columbia, MD, Mountain Jam Music Festival in Woodstock, NY, and the multiple venue two weeklong North to Shore Festival throughout NJ. As part of North to Shore, Moe. will perform at the Hackensack Meridian Health Theatre at the Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank on Saturday, June 21, 2025. I was able to catch up with Vinnie Amico (drummer) from moe. in anticipation of this show in Red Bank.
Hi, Vinnie, it’s great to talk with you today! How would you describe moe. and its music?
Moe. is in the jamband genre, but we don’t necessarily sound like a lot of them… We are more of a rock band that tends to jam. We play a lot of rock ‘n roll, classic rock sounding. We get into a little bit of proggy and there is a lot of improvisation, there is a lot of segue-waying between songs. It’s almost like what Led Zepplin used to do. Kind of like how the Grateful Dead plays, but we don’t sound exactly like both of them.
What are some musical influences for the band and for you?
Moe. is all over the map, Rob Derhak (bass) who does a lot of the songwriting, is a big Steely Dan fan, big into Little Feat, Frank Zappa, he also likes a lot of different bands once he got into the music of the 80’s. Al Schnier (guitar) is into the Grateful Dead but is also into punk music. Jim Loughlin (percussion) is into metal and I’m a big classic rock guy, jazz, and I’m really into the Grateful Dead. Also, I am a big fan of Bob Marley and reggae. The influences are diverse and when we bring it all together this forms our sound.
Separate of music, I know that cooking is a big interest of yours, do you have any favorite recipes?
I cook a lot of Italian food. My father was a musician, but he was also in the restaurant business, so he had a lot of influence on my cooking chops (laughs). My mom was a great cook too, but I used to sit there and watch my dad cook. There is a regional dish that is very well known to the Utica, NY region called chicken riggies, that recipe was handed down to me by father. That was the original recipe because my dad was living with the guy at the time he came up with it. That is one that is a favorite of mine, what a lot of people know me by because I cook it for everybody all the time (laughs). Anyone comes over the visit, I’m cooking chicken riggies.
Besides your parents are there any other sources of inspiration as a chef for you?
Well now, my whole social media feed is just cooks. There are some Italian chefs I watch for influence, I don’t even know who they are, they just come across my feed. There are also some homemaker women I watch because they simplify stuff, and their Italian recipes are pretty spot on. The Sicilian recipes I got from them are close to what would come from Italy. Melissa Jo Real Recipes, she is one of them. There is another Italian woman from Staten Island I watch. Her marinara sauce and mine are almost exactly the same so I know she is for real (laughs).
Sounds delicious! In 2023 Nate Wilson (keys) joined moe., please talk about his addition to the band. How did it come about?
It dates back to 2017, when we started talking about Nate joining the band. We had a band meeting conference call, and we were about to vote on this decision when Rob clicked over to talk to his doctor and then said we would have to put that on hold since he just got diagnosed with cancer… That went on hold (laughs) and when Chuck Garvey (guitar) had his stroke, we went out on the road when he was in the hospital with Nate along with Suke Cerulo to sub for Chuck while he was recovering from the stroke. Suke was playing guitar, Nate was playing keys and doing a lot of the singing, a great portion of what Chuck would have been singing. When Chuck did come back, we decided that Nate fit so well, and he had already forged a part in some of these songs that he should be an addition and that we should keep him on. The rest is history!
For the past 3 decades moe. has been a 5 piece. Can you talk about the process of incorporating Nate into the band’s sound?
He is such a good player that he just fits in… It was very easy for him to fit into the band, to find his space and everything. We did a bunch of rehearsing with him, he is a real moxie person so he would just start doing little parts, little flourishes, then it was like, well Nate, I think you should put a solo here… We guided him along on certain things and other things he just went with, and he put a solo in. He would ask, is that too much? And we were like no, that’s great! He’s got a bunch of songs that he’s written that are now part of our repertoire. He has also forged his own voice in the band.
How has his introduction influenced the rhythm section, specifically the dynamic between you and Jim?
He and Jim are in a very similar sonic spectrum as far as Jim’s mallet instruments so those two have had to learn how to stay out of each other’s way (laughs). But both of them are such great players that I think it has added a bunch because now they can play off of each other and do different things. We can all simplify a little bit to get a greater sound. We have a bigger, better sound with a little bit of simplification.
I feel a highlight of Nate’s addition is the layering of notes, notes that were always there, but have never been played before… Has that process, that feeling revealed itself to you?
For me what I end up hearing is the same thing I think, especially when we are doing our improvisation and a lot of the jamming stuff. Nate is so good at padding and layering things underneath and he is more musically educated than the rest of us, so he can put a third or a fifth, a ninth, or a certain cord into what we are playing that will guide… It just brings everything together. In the past were something might feel a little empty or is just like a weird cord change or something, Nate can smooth the whole thing over, creating the bridge that makes the whole thing better.
Does his approach affect your style?
He inspires me quite a bit. He does such cool stuff it just makes me play better.
Photo by Chris Paul
How does performing live compare to recording in the studio?
In the studio we have to be a lot more focused, we don’t want to be screwing up because time is money. You want to get the right take; you don’t want to make any mistakes. You also can’t overplay. The songs must be more precise, they don’t jam as long, they are more focused on how they get put down. Playing live gives us a lot more freedom. We are improvising so we are taking things out to places we wouldn’t in the studio. The studio is nice snapshot of the song, the “best” version of it and then live you stretch it out making go in different places.
What is the difference in preparation for studio compared to performing live?
We don’t really rehearse a lot for the shows. Sound check is basically rehearsal for the show where we’ll put together how the setlist is going to go and we’ll make sure the changes are good. When we are in the studio, we will run a song a few times until we know it is ready to go and then we try to nail it. Live it’s not about nailing it, we are trying to do as little as possible before so it’s fresh and we can do as much jamming as possible (so it’s not rehearsed).
How are setlists written?
We rotate, currently we have four of us writing setlists. It’s alphabetical by last name. I do it one night, Rob will do it the next night, then Al, then Nate. We all have different setlist writing styles. I write mine based on a flow thing where I want the grooves to feel good and move in a certain direction. I don’t consider key changes so mine can be squirrely if the movement requires key changes (laughs). Whereas some of the other guys are more considerate of keys, so if we are going from this song to that song it needs to be more match, so the changes are very hard.
Is that the difference between drums compared to other instruments?
Yeah, I’m not really schooled on keys, I don’t know if an A is relevant to an E… these songs sound great if they go together, this jam can go like this then… how the hell are we going to get from this to that?! Luckily, we have Nate, he’s like you just go to the relative minor then jump from this to that (laughs), he can get us almost anywhere, it’s kind of nice.
Moe. recently released “Circle of Giants”, besides playing on it, did you have any other roles recording that album?
First off, I play the drums differently than the person who writes the songs. If I get a demo of the song, what they have down isn’t what I would play. My influence in the song is the style I play the drums. I also tend to have some say in how we arrange stuff. If a song feels funny or there are too many beats in one place or it just isn’t natural, I will change it saying we should do this or that because it doesn’t feel good, it doesn't move naturally.
Are you considered a song writer for moe.?
Not really, I mean I do have a song, but I don’t play guitar or piano so I don’t really have songs… I have things flowing through my brain like this is a beat I’d like to put into a song or I could probably arrange an original of my own, but then I would be like okay you guys have to write the music and the lyrics.
How collaborative is the song writing process?
It depends, earlier on in the band it was more collaborative, everyone would come in with an idea and we would just sit there and work it work it work it… Through the years, as technology has gotten better people are able to come in with fully realized songs on demo they put together through Logic with fake drums etc. and now, we just put our voices into that composition. They are still collaborative because some may not like this part or someone wants to try it in a different way. We ask, is this a good idea? But the songs come to us now more realized.
How does moe. stay fresh for each live performance?
All the improv which is a good portion of each show keeps us fresh each night. I write a setlist, I put this flow together and that’s how we get from point a to point b etc., that’s the freshness. We are on our toes every night because we are making up each show other than the fact that the songs are the songs. We are making up the production of the show each night and then the next night Rob’s setlist writing style is completely different so the flow of the show, the improv, everything about it is completely different from the night before.
What is your individual process like getting prepared for each show?
Drink two beers, a couple of shots of tequila and I’m ready to go (laughs). There usually is a lot of time during the day so I’ll usually… I have a drum tech, but I’ll go to the stage to set up my kit because it gives me something to do plus then it’s right, I don’t have to tweak or change anything. Then I will warm up on a pad, then we have a two-hour sound check. Then eat dinner and then chill out for a little bit, have a beer or two, then go play the show.
Photo by Chris Paul
How does the light show add to the experience of moe.?
I don’t see it because I’m facing the other way (laughs), I tend to see what is projected on the back wall or the last light set up we had there were laser lights, so I could see the beams when he put them across the crowd, but I never really see the whole effect. But I know it’s awesome and our lighting guy, Cy Lagrassa, is a musician, and he is really good at what he does. He was also a fan so he knows our songs really well so he nails the changes, which is awesome, and I can see that because when there is a change in the music and the lighting matches what we are doing it’s really cool. For the fan experience it definitely is an interictal part of the show because the lights go with the music and with jambands like Phish, the light show is part of the show, part of the music.
How does fan experience influence what moe. is doing on stage?
It is very interactive. We are playing, someone finishes a solo and the crowd erupts, that’s awesome! That inspires us to play big and better and harder. The crowd is very responsive to what we do, and we respond back.
What are some of the early highlights of summer tour and what are you looking forward to this summer?
We just played a festival in Ohio (Dark Star Jubilee) this past weekend and what I am looking forward to the most is all the festivals. We get to see all our old friends touring all these years. It gives you a little spark of competition, you want to play as good if not better than the band that went on before or after you. We are going to see a lot of cool places this summer, we are going back to some venues we really enjoyed playing at before, Pine Creek Lodge in Montana, Cain Park outside of Cleveland, OH is a really cool place. We are going to be playing with Eggy in August who is a great band and a great bunch of guys. We got some shows with Umphrey’s McGee coming up so it will be great to hang out with our old friends in UM. We are doing a bunch of festivals which we really look forward to doing.
What does the upcoming east coast swing of tour mean to you?
It’s the east coast, we are from the east coast, we are northeasterners so always love playing in the northeast because it’s hometown, home territory where we got out start. The energy on the east coast is very high (laughs). Everyone is pretty amped up on the east coast. We love to play on the east coast because the shows are always raging!
Is there any particular significance for you and moe. performing again at Mountain Jam Music Festival?
We have played a few Mountain Jams and the original Mountain Jam was pretty much a Gov’t Mule based festival. We have been friends with Warren (Haynes) and Gov’t Mule for years. Plus, it is in Catskills, which is beautiful. Usually when we are playing outside at a festival vibes are high and we tend to play really well.
What would you like to see moe. accomplish in the future? What is your bucket list left to do with moe.?
I want to be able to continue doing this, which is what the plan is. My bucket list would be for us to be the biggest band in the world (laughs). To just go out there and keep playing and making fans happy, keep writing music, and keep having fun doing what we do. To be able to fade away into the sunset on top, at least on top of our game if nothing else.
Moe. has just released a commemorative live recorded limited edition 4-LP release from Brooklyn Bowl in Williamsburg (Brooklyn) New York in 2023 titled “The Relix Session” in honor of their 35th anniversary celebration! More information about this release, the band, their latest album, “Circle of Giants”, and summer tour ’25 ticket information is available on moe.org. Ticket information for the upcoming 6/21/25 in Red Bank, NJ is also available at The Basie website.
or region of New Jersey
click here for our advanced search.
