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Vinnie Amico
(July 2005 Issue)
moe.'s Rhythm Method America's favorite
hippie jam band, moe., has been busy touring - and procreating. Explains
drummer
Vinnie Amico, "I went on my first tour in the spring of '97,
then went out with the Further Festival. Then I had a baby.
Then
another guy in the band had a baby in the summer of '98, and then
another guy in the fall of '98. We'd
love to be on the road and play,
but being away from the family is hard." As of June, the ranks of
Vinnie's family
increased again.
The band has similarly swelled with the addition of Jim
Loughlin, moe.'s original drummer, who
returns as percussionist. Says
Vinnie, "It's a bigger groove. Because Jim knew a lot of the songs, we
have similar ideas
about the fills, so we do tend to step on each other
once in a while. But we're getting pretty good at listening to
each
other." Accordingly, Vinnie tunes his toms with minimal sustain: "I
have them sort of dead so they don't get in the
way of the timbales and
percussion."
Moe.'s epic-length jams require super endurance. Amico says,
"I get
fired up and then I think, Oh, man, I've got to chill out! It
doesn't mean chill out my playing, but to just loosen up,
because if I
stay that tight for the whole hour, I'll be dead." Explains Vinnie,
"We're not your basic hippie jam band.
We play harder: a lot less like
The Grateful Dead, a lot more like The Ramones."
T. Bruce
Wittet
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