Photos by Halina Wilusz
Last Friday, April 4th AMG packed up and headed to Charleston, South Carolina, to check out one of the bands that will be appearing at this year’s Counterpoint Music Festival, Moon Taxi. I first had a chance to check them out at The String Cheese Incident’s Hulaween festival down in Suwannee, Florida last year and was refreshingly blown away at how great their live show sounded. There’s nothing worse than falling in love with an album and then being disappointed with the live show, but in this case it may have even sounded better in person. Something about their sound just makes you breath, slow down, breath deeper, and appreciate the moment.
The North Charleston Performing Arts Center was relatively quiet when we arrived, with most of the ruckus coming from a pre-party for The Cooper River Bridge 10K Run being held next door. As openers for Umphrey’s McGee, Moon Taxi had the challenge of drawing in the crowd before the main event, and as we all know Umphreaks are not the tamest of fans to please. But please they did. The guys rocked their hits like Morocco, All The Rage, and Mercury. Even with the shorter set time, they melted the audience. It will be wonderful to see them back outdoors in a festival atmosphere at Counterpoint on Friday, April 25th! Even though Moon Taxi doesn’t bring as much bass as their fellow EDM Counterpoint artists, they create a sound that is universally loved, and a set you must work into your schedule.
Before the festival be sure to pick up Moon Taxi’s third and latest album, Mountains, Cities, Beaches. The album creates a story and imagery based on each of the titular landscapes, leading us on a meaningful adventure into the insights from the band’s touring experiences and an exploration into the narrative behind the Moon Taxi musicians. I’m hoping to someday pick MT’s brain as to the specific stories behind the album, but for now listening to the vinyl copy on repeat until my needle breaks will suffice.
