{"id":38808,"date":"2022-08-20T02:42:06","date_gmt":"2022-08-20T08:42:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/the-moetones-escape-pandemic-blues-with-comeback-show-in-rico\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:46:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:46:27","slug":"the-moetones-escape-pandemic-blues-with-comeback-show-in-rico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/the-moetones-escape-pandemic-blues-with-comeback-show-in-rico\/","title":{"rendered":"The Moetones escape pandemic blues with comeback show in Rico"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The
The Moetones of Montezuma County celebrate their 13th year with a comeback concert at the Enterprise Bar and Grill in Rico on Aug. 27. (Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Local favorite The Moetones are emerging from the shadows of the pandemic to rekindle their musical mojo with a comeback show at the Enterprise Bar in Rico Aug. 27 at 2 p.m.<\/p>\n

After an over two-year hiatus, the local rock-and-country group is amped up to reconnect with audiences, plus they have new material, said frontman Moe Cooley.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are getting back into the swing of things, it\u2019s our first gig back into the real world,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to play our hearts out and test the waters with some new songs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter Moe Cooley is the frontman for The Moetones. (Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The band turned 13 years this year, and is made up of Cooley singing and on guitar, Tomoe Natori on bass, Dale X Allen on lead guitar, and Peter Ortego on drums.<\/p>\n

Frequent special guests are guitarist and drummer Justin Richert, mandolin player Bobby Wintringham, and keyboardist Michael Bolotin.<\/p>\n

The Moetones plays original tunes written by Cooley who is influenced by blues, rock, country and rockabilly.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to pin us down, we go from ballads to hard-driving Americana and punk,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Rico show will be two hours of The Moetones then an acoustic set by Cooley.<\/p>\n

The band\u2019s return is attuned to \u201cthe monsoons scrubbing off the dust of the megadrought,\u201d Natori says.<\/p>\n

The group has three albums out now, and are working on a fourth. \u201cLowbrow\u201d was released in 2011, then came \u201cHeartbreaker Ball\u201d in 2015 and \u201cBeautiful Day\u201d in 2018.<\/p>\n

The band\u2019s diverse sound and high energy is a reflection of its members, with Cooley and Allen from Austin, Ortego from Louisiana, and Natori from Tokyo and New York City.<\/p>\n

Cooley has five new songs ready to record, halfway to a new album. They have a bluesy edge, he said, and explore the metaphors of life, power of love, and the recent marijuana craze.<\/p>\n

Cooley moved to Cortez in 2009, a refugee of Austin, where he performed for 30 years then watched as it slowly transformed from a tight-knit community of innovative musicians, to a mega city discovered by the masses.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt became overrun,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A fresh start in the Four Corners was an inspiration with room to breathe and the fortune to connect with local musicians for a new band.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re putting our irons back in the fire, there are lot of good bands in this area right now,\u201d Cooley said.<\/p>\n

The Moetone shows have an edgy, high-energy vibe that buzzes through the audience. Between originals, the band busts out its favorite covers by Hank Williams, Tom Petty and The Ramones.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a lot of fun, we\u2019re bringing our A game,\u201d Cooley said. \u201cWe\u2019ll get the nerves, I\u2019m sure, because we haven\u2019t played live for more than two years, but that adrenaline brings out the energy and improv that bands love.\u201d<\/p>\n

jmimiaga@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

favorite band gets back on stage with new songs, fresh energy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38809,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,559,29,497],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-38808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-music","tag-newsletter","tag-rico"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38808"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84136,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38808\/revisions\/84136"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38808"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=38808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}