horseshoethrowinfreaks

[horseshoethrowinfreaks]

Hey there!

Welcome to Horseshoe Throwin’ Freaks, the internet’s best collection of incredible old-school moe. jams.

Clearly we don’t have every hot moe. jam on here. But if it’s on here, you can be damn well certain that it’s a hot moe. jam!

Everything is listed chronologically, so you can have a scroll around, or use these tags to jump to specific years.

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

[horseshoethrowinfreaks]

9/29/2007 - > Understand

An innocent-looking segue -- It > Understand -- turns into an absolute rager of a jam.

It ends at about 5:00. Over the next three minutes, twangy guitar licks and a bedtime tempo are patiently replaced by a sort of euphoric space raunch. Really excellent stuff.

#2007

[horseshoethrowinfreaks]

7/18/2007 - Four > Not Coming Down > Yodelittle

Four > Not Coming Down > Yodelittle is 49 minutes of incredible moe. This is not an incredible show – this jam I’m fawning over was followed by Down Boy and Okayalright, yikes – but this salvo to open the second set is unbelievably tight despite being, you know, 49 minutes of jamming.

#2007

[horseshoethrowinfreaks]

4/17/2007 - Yodelittle

Slap bass in the middle of Yodelittle? Sure!

Basically standard through 11:30, but then Rob smells an opening goes for it. It feels like the rest of the band doesn’t totally know what to do, and the whimsy that ensues makes for a fun little jam.

#2007

[horseshoethrowinfreaks]

3/1/2007 - Rebubula > Wind It Up

This is pretty standard Rebubula through about 9:30. When things unwind after Al’s part, however, they never build back up. Instead, there’s an unusual segue into Wind It Up. There’s a bit of a Letter Home vibe, then a slightly euphoric buzz before the telltale 2/4 Wind It Up snare drum starts ticking away. 

The boys would get back to Rebubula on the heels of a 30-minute Yodelittle later in the show. Suffice it to say they brought it for this one.

#2007

[horseshoethrowinfreaks]

2/2/2007 - 32 Things

At about 9:00 of this 32 Things track, astute .rons in attendance would have started to suspect that something was up. And indeed their suspicions would have been spot-on.

Distorted bass sweeps start at 10:00 or so, and at 12:40 some tweaker moog gives the proceedings a bit of a Particle feel. 

At 13:30 Vinnie seems to say, "Okay guys, you want a Type II jam? Let's do a Type II jam." Thus kicks off a disco-ish drum beat that you just don’t find in 32 Things jams. The song winds up in its normal spot, but only after an awesome detour.

#2007

[horseshoethrowinfreaks]

1/26/2007 - Meat (CalifornIA jam)

One night after a bizarre acoustic Gil's Theme, a notably awesome CalifornIA jam.

Starting at about 13:00, the guys morph into a quasi-CalifornIA that never really turns into CalifornIA despite riffing around with the tune for several minutes.

Jim goes absolutely nuts, which is fun, and Al and Vinnie do very Al and Vinnie things, which is also fun.

The key markers are 13:00 (when the CIA foundation is laid); 18:20 (when one could be forgiven for thinking a full-blown CIA was imminent); and 23:30 (when, mid-climax, Al returns to the CalifornIA riff).

-D

#2007

[horseshoethrowinfreaks]

1/25/2007 - Shoot First (acoustic Gil's Theme)

I won't claim to be a total Gil's Theme connoisseur. Still, I know enough to know that (a) most Gil's Themes don't come out of Shoot First, and (b) most Gil's Themes aren't acoustic.

Yet at this early 2007 Boulder, Colo., show, one that I was lucky enough to attend, Al did the unlikely and dropped a big, fat, acoustic Gil -- thus far undocumented at the show's archive.org page -- as moe. worked from Shoot First to The Pit.

5:15: Shoot First ends.

8:50: The first inklings of Gil's Theme.

10:40: Full-blown Gil.

- D

#2007 #GilsTheme

[horseshoethrowinfreaks]

12/31/2006 - > Lazarus

A very, very cool first set, which isn’t always the case on NYE (ahem, 2002). This > Laz is the cream of a very good first set crop.

Things get great at about 10:45 of the “Spine of a Dog” track.

#2006

[horseshoethrowinfreaks]

10/7/2006 - Recreational Chemistry

The build-up part of this Recreational Chemistry – which is always the best part of the song – was particularly 🤯 on this evening. From about 4:15 to 15:00... it’s like they squeezed a half-dozen different jams in there. Eventually the cacophony takes over, but not until 10-plus minutes of awesome have had time to spawn. 

#2006

[horseshoethrowinfreaks]

9/23/2006 - > Plane Crash

Al throws down wicked delay chords at :38 of track 6, -> Plane Crash. He follows those up with some distorted noodling. Instead of pushing the jam up in intensity, though, things stay in very patient and calm for the next minute or two.

Jim gets on his timbales and cymbals at 2:17. Despite his hard work, things are still pretty relaxed even after he finishes his solo at around 3:10.

My favorite part of this jam begins at 3:36 when Al gets his loopy, delay-heavy riffing going. This is a real nice segue into the standard Plane Crash jam that begins at around 4:25.

- M

#2006

[horseshoethrowinfreaks]

7/27/2006 - Gone

Gone, Track 14, is bookended with a highly unusual prologue and equally unusual epilogue that you just don’t normally see attached to this pop tune.

Now to be honest, this post is a bit of a nod to the entire four-night run, which featured really hot setlists the whole time, including a particularly noteworthy second set that consisted of just a 47-minute Meat and a 54-minute Rec Chem. 

Improbably, though, Gone (of all songs) might feature the coolest moe.ment of the entire run. Wind It Up takes a few minutes to, well, wind up, which lets a fun segue into Gone unfold before Gone proper actually kicks off. 

#2006

[horseshoethrowinfreaks]

7/4/2006 - > Water

This is a wild show in general, exactly the sort of setlist you’d hope to see on a holiday.

The segue back into Water, which starts on Track 12, is probably tops. Finishing up a Water that started in Set I, it’s a smooth, chill trip back into the Water jam. 

#2006

[horseshoethrowinfreaks]

6/30/2006 - Conviction Song >

I really don’t understand Conviction Song or its place within the moe. arsenal. But you don’t need to get Conviction Song (Track 14) to dig the hell out of this dirty, dirty segue.

Jim switches from malletkat to cymbals and other whatnot at about 8:00 of Conviction Song, and the Neil Young vibes of Conviction Song are replaced by something that is borderline scary. There’s a friction between Al’s acoustic work and the emerging tension that accompanies all segues into Meat. Just moe. being relentlessly moe.

#2006

[horseshoethrowinfreaks]

6/13/2006 - Spine of a Dog >

Standard Spine until about the 9:15 mark, at which point...whoa.

Excellent work by Vinnie leading the charge here. Some of most best segues unfold when Vinnie facilitates whatever it is the guys standing in front of him are dreaming up. Not this time. He issues the call to arms, and everyone else falls into line.

#2006

[horseshoethrowinfreaks]

6/9/2006 - Plane Crash

The Plane Crash jam from this show, track 14, is incredibly chill both for this song and for a second set closer.

- Things are different almost immediately as this jam begins at 5:09. Rob lays down great "Walking on the Moon"-ish sort of riffs for the next couple minutes while Al and Chuck play space.

- Al turns on his delay pedal at 8:48 and then auto-wah at 9:48. Things are still relatively placid up until a guitar breakdown at 12:37.

- The breakdown ends at 13:41 with the vintage percussion and drums of Plane Crash.

- This becomes a more normal Plane Crash at 15:36.

This jam, along with a Brent Black highlighted a few days ago, is a great example of patient and minimalist moe.

- M

#2006

[horseshoethrowinfreaks]

6/2/2006 - Rise > BIBH

Weird for me to pen a post about Bring It Back Home, a song whose primary function, as far as I'm concerned, is serving as a guilt-free bathroom break. But hear me out! Between Rise and BIBH, there is a great little jam, one that totally belies just how meh Bring It Back Home is.

All these times are for Rise, which is Track 4.

9:37: It becomes apparent that a segue is coming.

10:20: Jim, who had just been on the bongos, hops over to the MalletKAT. This move is accompanied by some nice noodling by Al.

11:17: With the aid of hindsight, you can tell Vinnie drops the first hint that BIBH is pending. But the guys mercifully delay that to facilitate this jam.

11:33: Jim gets really nasty and turns the jam creepy. Al's work between 12:05 and 12:25 is great, as well. This section seems much more befitting of a segue into Meat than Bring It Back Home.

13:25: Jim is still throwing down; Vinnie has yet to drop that telltale BIBH beat; Al is indulging in big riffs. In other words, the jam is still tight, especially Jim's work from 13:57 to 14:20.

14:42: Time to hit the bathroom.

- D

#2006