I got my new Moog Matriarch out of the house last week! Typically, it’s the Minimoog or maybe the Sub 37 models that you’d see at a gig. The Matriarch being semi-modular is more designed for the studio. But Jesse Mower, frontman of the funk band Greenfield III (who opened my album release show last fall), doesn’t give a shit about convention! He insisted I bring it to a gig and figure it out “on the job.” And when last week’s invite coincided with his birthday, I couldn’t say no.

I have to say, the Matriarch’s use in a live setting is probably the industry’s best kept secret. This thing kicks ass live! It took me no time at all to find sounds in the moment, all of them awesome, and to get wacky when I wanted to. The gain staging in this thing is so flawless that, in some ways, it was even easier to use in a live setting than my Prophet or my Crumar Mojo.

We got the whole thing on video. Here’s one of the (9 minute!) songs we played:

I played Keys 2 for a run of Little Shop of Horrors here in Scranton the last couple weekends. Threw a camera up for the last show and put together a quick little edit of it.

I was using my Nord keyboard as a MIDI controller into Mainstage on my computer that had all the sounds. You’ll see my right foot pressing a pedal to advance to the next sound and my left foot (obscured) is operating a volume pedal.

It was fun getting to play music with a couple local legends I hadn’t gotten to play with yet. Esther, the music director, was excellent.