[pharewellphish]

my vote goes to moe.

i basically have 2 moods for music... its either stuff like cheese, the dead and the lighter stuff... or other times i really wanna hear the other side of jam bands like moe. and phish... its pretty much equal listening of moe. and phish... but when it comes to the lighter stuff (that i listen to a lot more then moe.) i;d just much rather listen to the dead and i dont ever really get tired of them, so i dont really listen to cheese on cd's and stuff

but as far as concerts go i;d definitely see cheese if they came to town again

[jackaroe1276]

Here's what I think-Moe. really has absolutely no structure to their jams. They continually repeat the same hammer on/pull off techniques to the point of exhaustion. Neither guitarist is that great, tastefully speaking. They tend to fly up and down the fretboard without regard to what they actually just played. I can sit through a long solo of their and think "wow that's incredibly fast", yet in 10 minutes I'll completely forget what it even sounded like.

SCI has changed quite a bit, although I can't say I've witnessed it firsthand since I haven't been to a show of theirs in about 3-4 years. Their songs tend to have alot more memorable moments and lend themselves to a nice groove. Their one negative downfall was the lack of direction in their jams. they tended to go on with a really great groove for a bit too long and then suddenly change key or go right into another song without a smooth transition. This was the one thing that always annoyed me about them.

Personally i give the nod to SCI. Unfortunately the best non-Phish/Dead jamband I have ever heard was God Street Wine. They were onto something before they unfortunately broke up due to "creative differences" ewith their record label. I really hope they get back together once their contract runs out. I can't imagine how good they would be today had they continued to grow over the past 7-10 years.

[phreaker]

Moe. the level of intensity they cane achieve brings out my wild side. plus their kind of goofy

haha. they are hella goofy.

[wisedyes]

My two cents goes to SCI, although I have to admit neither one really does much for me. I will own up to not being really familiar with either one, though, and I do tend to stick with the older jam-bands, my fave being Little Feat. I've only seen moe. a couple of times, never seen SCI, only heard them on tapes, etc, so I'm not the best judge.But what moe. does just generally isn't my cup of tea.

[shakedown_04092]

Mos def has to be the Cheese. They CAN rip it up, and can be far from bright and puppies at times. Give a recent "Sirens" or "Howard" a listen to...you'll see what I mean. Deep, scary stuff. And their jams are getting so much better.

I couldn't disagree more with the fact that I think Moe. is WAY to inconsistent. Seen them live 5 times, 3 of which have been horrid...I actually walked out of 1 show - the only time in my life I've left a show early - and I did it on purpose. They are either rockin' the house or can't get it together, IMHO. Then again, the other 2 times I've seen them, they were off the charts. I still see them when they come to Maine, and sometimes NH, but I won't travel further than that to catch a show of theirs, whereas compared to SCI, I'd drive twice as far to see them.

But nobody does it like the Phish used to back in the day. Their still #2 in my mind, slightly behind the GD. SCI comes in at #3, Panic at #4, and Umphree's and the Disco Biscuits are tied for #5. Also worth mentioning is Ween, Moe., Keller, STS9, Railroad Earth, and a few others I'm probably forgetting. (I count Phil & Friends & Ratdog as part of the GD & Trey as part of Phish)

[LazyLightnin]

i gotta go with moe. simply becuz of the fact that they rarely sing. what ive heard of sci wasnt that bad...untill they started singing all cartoony an stuff...keeps me away from phish and all that.

[ssrythm]

I don't know about Moe, but I saw SCI Saturday night in Asheville, and all I could say when I left was
"Is that it?" Yea, they are very tight, but as soon as they even began to take a jam somewhere, they would come slamming back to some tight little cute hey look what we can do timing thing. I kept thinking, ok you've proven that you are ultra tight and are on the same page, now loosen up and play a meaningful, soulful, out-of-body type jam. Never happened. I left there during a truly uninspired I know U rider trying to decide if all the people who were freaking out were lucky or unlucky that they had no Idea what they were missing. I miss JG and MH something fierce.

[LazyLightnin]

definetly lacks a certain soul or energy that i crave in music. i LOVE Frank Zappa for the musical genius he was, but the only thing i enjoy about his music are his extended guitar jams.