Bob Dylan’s catalog has accumulated tribute acts the way a touring van accumulates parking tickets — inevitably and in volume. Most of them get the chords right and call it reverence. When Al Schnier and Vinnie Amico bring their project bob. An Interpretation of Dylan to Putnam Place on October 1, the operative word is “interpretation.” These are musicians who’ve spent decades inside moe., a band Schnier once described as playing “a head and a turnaround and a bunch of improvisation in between.” For them, interpretation is not a polite gesture. It is the method.
About the Show
Schnier and Amico have anchored moe. since the band formed in Buffalo in 1991, building their reputation through relentless touring — the band often logged over 200 shows annually — and a sound that critics have compared to the Allman Brothers, the Grateful Dead, and Frank Zappa. The band blends classic rock, progressive rock, blues-rock, bluegrass, country-rock, and funk, with improvisation as the connective tissue. That vocabulary is a reasonable fit for Dylan’s catalog, music that has survived being rearranged, deconstructed, and reimagined by virtually everyone who has ever picked up a guitar.
The five-piece for this show includes Charley Orlando (vocals and guitar, Dexter Grove/Ruha/Pearly Baker’s Best), Brian Lauri (keyboards, Ruha/Root Shock/Pearly Baker’s Best), and Zach Fleitz (bass, Floodwood). The project’s own framing positions it as honoring Dylan’s legacy “while adding a fresh, innovative twist,” which, given the collective’s background in improvisation-heavy music, tracks. The project debuted in November 2024 as a four-date Northeast run before expanding to venues across New York, Vermont, and Pennsylvania, with a stop at the Adirondack Independence Music Festival. This October stop marks a return visit; Putnam Place hosted the group in May 2025. Documented repertoire includes “Highway 61 Revisited” and “Girl From the North Country.”
Venue & Logistics
Putnam Place, on Putnam Street in Saratoga Springs, is the right kind of room for this: a working-band club rather than a seated theater, well suited to a project built around improvisation. The Capital Region has been moe. country for decades; this side project lands in familiar territory. Doors at 7:00 p.m. Show runs 8:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. Admission is 18 and older.
Tickets
Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 day of show, available through Tixco. Buy tickets