Stalwarts of the jam band universe for three and a half decades, the half-dozen guys named Moe stir rock, blues, jazz and psychedelia, plus other styles that defy label or easy categorization, into a thick, improvisation-based gumbo.

The upstate New York band’s name is stylized as moe., with a lowercase m and a period at the end.

A nationwide festival favorite, Moe (aka moe.) stops in at Jannus Live in St. Petersburg Friday, March 27. Find tickets for the 7 p.m. show at this link.

The Catalyst spoke with founding guitarist Chuck Garvey, who reports he’s on the mend following a devastating stroke at the end of 2021 (bassist Rob Derhak underwentr treatment for cancer a few years before that).

The news is all good for this ever-innovative band of brothers. Could a couple of measly health scare actually slow these dedicated guys down, when there’s music to be made?

The answer, of course, is No (aka no.).

 

St. Pete Catalyst: Let’s start here, my friend. How’s everything going?

Chuck Garvey: Things are going well. After my stroke, it was a very slow process of getting back, getting speech and playing guitar again. And still I have to work on it. I actually warm up before I do something like this (interview), I have to think about getting my brain in a good space where I can actually find words and talk.

It’s a weird thing, but I feel like I’m doing really well. I feel good.

 

One of the things I like about jam bands, and about Moe in particular, is that there aren’t any boundaries, or restrictions on the styles of music you play. No ‘That’s not what we do.’ Has not pigeonholing yourselves been the rule from Day One?

Yeah! Everything was up for grabs. Even within a song, we wanted to have a couple different kind of feels, or genres, included. And even if it was weird, or ill-advised, it was kind of funny and fun for us to do that.

And we still feel that way. Why limit yourself? So we still want to use every new song as a new starting point.

 

After 35 years together, how do you continue to pull new things out of each other?

One thing that we do is: Every show is a mix of all of these songs that we’ve written over 35 years. It’s a different show, and hopefully we will present them in a different way. Or we’ll have segues, or bridges between, song-to-song. And that stuff … sometimes we come up with something new. Completely new that we never tried before.

Even though we’re the same people … it’s like your family. Sometimes you know what your sister or brother would say. But there might be a new spin on it; and also, everyone has grown in a different way throughout their whole lives.

I don’t think any of us want to be like a rote player. And also, one of the things that we really want is improvisation.

 

Does the existing fan base sustain you? Is that all you need? Or is there something higher to reach for, like ‘This next album will be the one to take us over the top’?

 At this point, odds are not in favor of that happening! But at the same time, if we don’t see or listen to music that we bond with enough, hopefully we will actually make our own version of that.

And one of these days, maybe people will find our music, and maybe it’ll blow up in a different way. But we’re not really thinking that we’re going to blow up.

 

But is it enough?

I have heard so many bands who have played five years, 10 years, even 20, but they fall apart or they don’t want to deal with each other. Or whatever! And we are very lucky that we have our fan base and our friendship. Everything is intact.

We’re really lucky that we can hold on to all of this right now, in our lives. There’s no other way to say it.

 

Is playing live still an adventure? Do you still get off on that?

Oh, yeah. If you been in a band for any time, and you’ve been on the road, either playing the same show every night or doing something like we do where you have to try to improvise … a lot of people don’t like being on the road. It’s not the best way to live. But being onstage and being able to have a job like this where you can create, that’s the buzz for everything. Like, this is the reason you’re on the road, trying to make something new on the spot.

And that feeling is always a lure to keep going. And keep playing with your friends.