Jam band titans moe. have been a creative force in the scene for over 35 years, and in 2025, they show no signs of slowing down. With their 13th studio album Circle of Giants released in January, the band is now hitting the road for summer tour, kicking things off this Friday in Syracuse with Umphrey’s McGee.
Next week, they’ll bring something extra special to Charleston, SC: two intimate, themed shows at the beloved Charleston Pour House on June 18th and 19th. According to guitarist Al Schnier, fans should prepare for a full-on 90s throwback. They’re calling it the “Time moe.chine.”
“I want to get the word out, let people know this is going to be a 90s themed jam band show and we’re going for it,” Al says.
Expect cargo shorts, Tevas, a setlist full of 90s era songs, and the hairpin improvisation that defined early moe.
The idea was born out of love for the venue, which moe. has played at many times over the years, and it feels like a throwback for them to play there.
“Rob [Derhak] came up with this idea, he was like, What if the whole thing was a throwback? What if we made the whole thing a 90s era moe. show?”
Of course, the whole band was down, and the Charleston Pour House is the perfect place to do it. The crowd there is going to love this, which Al knows personally from being a regular at the PoHo.
“I spend a lot of time in Charleston,” he shares. “So I’ve gotten to do a lot of different gigs there. I love that spot. I use that venue and the whole spirit of that place as an example, when I’m talking to other venue owners or promoters and different stuff. They’re doing something right. It’s seven days a week, there’s this great community spirit there. They have cultivated this great scene. There’s a really great culture there that I love.”
He continues, explaining that he goes to the Charleston Pour House for more than just music.
“I’ve gone to the farmers market there. I haven’t gone to yoga, but you know, I just love they do all of that stuff and it’s very community oriented,” he says.
Al is also very familiar with the weekly Dead on the Deck series, featuring The Reckoning every Wednesday night.
“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone to Dead on the Deck. Seeing the regulars who come out for that thing. It’s so awesome that you have this crowd of dedicated people that will come out and that’s their spot.”
As for the 90s theme of next week’s show, and the band’s improvisational roots, Al reflects on the early days of moe., and how they thrived on having no guardrails, musically.
“When we were young and just getting started, the thing that we loved about what we were doing, and thrived on, was that we didn’t have any guardrails,” he reflects. “There were no parameters or no rules. In fact, the only rule is that there were no rules and we could do whatever we wanted.”
He explains that within a single song, they would change genres, time signatures, or anything they wanted.
“Just for the sake of the ride, you know, to make the song that much more interesting,” Al says. “So much of what we did when we first got started was informed by doing that.”
As the band grew, they became more cohesive. They haven’t exactly scaled back their level of improvisation, but they are more patient with it now.
“You can even hear it on the new record,” he continues. “There’s so many different voices and elements that come in. There’s stuff that’s really heavy and there’s stuff that’s pretty poppy or really sweet and really pretty. We want to have all of those elements in our music scale. But we don’t feel compelled to put it all in the course of 30 seconds in a song.”
The new record, Circle of Giants, is the band’s 13th studio album, and it rocks, showcasing the band’s signature mix of weirdness and sophistication. moe. still keeps creativity at the forefront, and as Al mentioned, it has tons of variety to keep things interesting.
For the band, the album is tied to tragic and painful circumstances in their personal lives. These circumstances significantly changed the direction of the project after it was already almost completed.
“We were working on the record in Vermont at the time and had gotten a good deal of it finished,” Al recalls. “We had about a week of work left to do on the record. And that’s when we lost Rob’s son, Eddie to suicide. It was a devastating blow and immediately stopped the project altogether. We weren’t even sure what to do next. The record was the furthest thing from my mind at that point.”
Ultimately, they finished what they had already started little by little, and thought it was done. But, the difficult experience brought to the surface more music, and they ended up putting a lot more time into the album.
“That’s where the whole thing about the Circle of Giants came to light and became part of this thing,” Al says. “We recorded more songs to put on the record and it informed the rest of the project. It became like the final arc of the story somehow. We wound up doing more work on the record at Rob’s house, in his barn, and added some more to it.”
This makes Circle of Giants a deeply emotional piece of work for moe., shaped in part by that loss and the healing that followed. Al explains how since then, Rob and his wife have taken the stance of opening up about mental health, with hopes that they can help others with the issues that Eddie struggled with.
Musically, the album reflects a band that has truly been through hell and back together, over a long period of time. Al explains that since they first started, they’ve all become much better songwriters, better players, and overall a much better and more mature band.
“Putting in all of that time together goes such a long way,” he says.
Still, just like in the early days, moe. lives for the excitement of a jam band show. The sense of not knowing what is going to happen next, which keeps you on the edge of your seat. Both the band and the audience are on two sides of that same experience.
“We’re there for the same thing,” Al says. “When we write our set lists, we build in all of those opportunities so that we can take those chances and also be surprised by it.”
moe. is full of surprises, and these two shows at the Charleston Pour House are set to be legendary nights of music, with both the band and the audience getting in on the fun. Get your tickets here.