Moon Hooch
12/2/17
Octave, 611 Madison Ave, Covington, KY
8pm, Buy Tickets
Moon Hooch will headline the East Coast this November. The run stops in Covington, KY at Octave Room on Saturday, December 2. The trio is touring in support of their most recent live album and concert film, Live At the Cathedral, released this past June.
In just a few short years, the explosive horn-and-percussion trio Moon Hooch—Mike Wilbur (horns), Wenzl McGowen (horns), and James Muschler (drums)—have taken their exhilarating blend of virtuosic jazz, experimental funk, and pulse-pounding electronic dance music from the New York City subway system to stages around the world, touring with the likes of Beats Antique, Lotus and Galactic among others, as well as earning status as festival favorites and selling out headline shows in major venues. The trio initially turned heads in the music industry with their self-titled 2013 debut, which introduced their charismatic, unconventional sound to the world, but by then they were already well-known to straphangers in New York, who would react with such joy and fervor to their impromptu subway platform sets that the NYPD had to ban them from locations that couldn’t handle the crowds. Since then they’ve released a series of acclaimed studio recordings that have all reached the top 10 of the Billboard Heatseekers and Jazz Charts, as well as a 2017 concert recording, Live At The Cathedral, documenting their historic performance at NYC’s Cathedral of St. John the Divine.
Onstage, the band now plays through a “Reverse DJ” setup, in which the live sound from their horns runs through laptops to process recorded effects. In addition, they utilize Moog synthesizers, as well as an EWI (an electronic wind instrument that responds to breath in addition to touch) and other more traditional instruments like clarinets. Wilbur added vocals to his repertoire, and Muschler, meanwhile, immersed himself in tabla studies in India in order to expand his percussion skills. Tahoe Onstage boasts, “Moon Hooch uniquely delivers a creative, energetic, and unyielding assault on your auditory senses.”
The band members all speak reverently of meditation and consciousness and the role it plays in their music, but equally close to their hearts are the environmental causes they champion. Moon Hooch tries to live up to their green ideals while traveling, playing benefit shows, supporting local farmers and co-ops, participating in river cleanups, and filming informative videos for their fans. The band runs a food blog, Cooking In The Cave, in which they highlight the healthy, sustainable, organic recipes they utilize with their mobile kitchen setup on tour and have teamed up with We Are Neutral to officially go carbon neutral on tour. For the members of Moon Hooch, commitments to consciousness, environmentalism, veganism, philosophy and peace aren’t separate from their commitment to music, but actually integral parts of it. It’s all tied into that same core approach that led to their discovery on the subway platform: try, even if it’s just a little bit every day, to make the world less like it is and more like you wish it could be.
Tour Dates:
Oct 12 – Rose Music Hall – Columbia, MO+
Oct 13 – Old Rock House – St. Louis, MO+
Oct 14 – High Watt – Nashville, TN+
Oct 18 & 19 – The Bowery Ballroom – New York, NY*
Oct 20 – Underground Arts – Philadelphia, PA*
Oct 21 – 9:30 Club – Washington, DC*
Oct 22 – Broadberry – Richmond, VA*
Oct 24 – Jefferson Theatre – Charlottesville, VA*
Oct 25 – Asheville Music Hall – Asheville, NC*
Oct 26 – Terminal West – Atlanta, GA+
Oct 27 – 1904 Music Hall – Jacksonville, FL+
Oct 28 – The Pour House – Charleston, SC*
Nov 9 – Le Pediluve – Chatenay Malabry, FR
Nov 10 – La Maladrerie Saint Lazare – Beauvais, FR
Nov 11 – Salles Des Fetes – Les Deux-Fays, FR
Nov 12 – Le Jokers – Angers, FR
Nov 14 – Band on the Wall – Manchester, UK
Nov 15 – FRüIT – Hull, UK
Nov 16 – Under the Bridge – London, UK
Nov 17 – Le Silex – Auxerre, FR
Nov 18 – LaClef Stgermain – St-Germain-En Laye, FR
Nov 29 – The Haunt – Ithaca, NY^
Nov 30 – Beachland Ballroom – Cleveland, OH^
Dec 1 – Oddbody’s – Dayton, OH^
Dec 2 – Octave – Covington, KY^
Dec 6 – De Helling – Utrecht, NL
Dec 8 & 9 – Trans Musicales Festival – Rennes, FR
Dec 27 – The Sinclair – Boston, MA^
Dec 28 – Port City Music Hall – Portland, ME^
Dec 29 – Higher Ground – Burlington, VT^
Dec 30 – Pearl Street Nightclub – Northampton, MA**
Dec 31 – Buffalo Iron Works – Buffalo, NY**
+w. Jackson Whalan
*w. Marco Benevento
^w. Gnomedad
**w. Gnomedad & Honeycomb
